Circle IPO soars, giving hope to more startups waiting to go public

Circle, one of the world’s largest issuers of USDC, a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar, ended its first trading day as a public company at $83.23 per share, 168% above its IPO price of $31 set the previous day.

The IPO pop demonstrates public market investors’ interest in cryptocurrencies and stablecoins in particular amid the Trump administration’s supportive stance on crypto assets.

The significant surge in Circle’s first-day trading could prompt institutional investors to set higher IPO prices for upcoming listings. Imminent IPOs include Omada Health, which is pricing on Thursday, and Chime, a challenger bank that’s set to list next week.  

The company’s IPO share price set its initial market value at $6.9 billion, a figure that fell short of Circle’s last private market valuation of $7.7 billion from 2021 when the company raised a $400 million Series F, according to PitchBook data.

But the big pop cleaned that up, and then some. Circle’s market capitalization (excluding employee options) stood at $16.7 billion by the close of trading. And the company raised about $1.1 billion in the offering.

Circle joins a growing list of companies whose IPOs are priced below their private market highs, including recent “down-round” offerings from health tech Hinge, contractor platform ServiceTitan, and social network Reddit. So that’s not likely to dissuade startups looking for signs that now is the right time to go public.

Circle’s successful IPO comes three years after Circle’s previous attempt at going public. The stablecoin issuer had plans to combine with a SPAC in 2022 at a $9 billion valuation.

The company’s largest outside shareholders are General Catalyst, which held approximately 8.9% of all stock before the offering, and IDG Capital, which owned 8.8% of all shares. Other significant venture investors include Accel, Breyer Capital, and Oak Investment Partners, according to the S-1.