Stablecoin firm Circle seeks IPO following earlier SPAC setback
BLOCKCHAIN Stablecoin firm Circle seeks IPO following earlier SPAC setback Circle Internet Group Inc., the company behind the popular USDC stablecoin, announced today that it has filed an S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering. The company had confidentially filed for an IPO in January 2024 after having failed to go public via a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company in 2022. Suffice it to say, Circle’s public listing has been quite some time in coming to fruition. The SEC filing revealed today does not detail how many shares will be offered in the IPO or the price range. But it did provide other details about the company. Circle approaches its IPO having booked $1.68 billion in revenue and reserve income in 2024, up from $1.45 billion in 2023 and $772 million in 2022. The company also reported net income last year of about $156 million, down from $268 million a year earlier. Founded in 2013, Circle specializes in digital currency services. Its flagship product, USD Coin (USDC), is a stablecoin — one pegged to the U.S. dollar and designed to facilitate secure and efficient digital transactions. By market capitalization, USDC is currently the second most popular stablecoin behind Tether, also known as USDT and the seventh most popular cryptocurrency, according to CoinMarketCap. Beyond issuing USDC, Circle offers a suite of services to support businesses and developers in integrating digital currencies into their operations. The services include application programming interfaces for payments that support the acceptance and processing of USDC transactions and infrastructure solutions for managing digital assets. Circle also provides a programmable Web3 wallet platform that allows users to store, send and receive cryptocurrencies securely. The platform seeks to enhance the adoption of decentralized finance by simplifying user interactions with blockchain-based assets. The company is setting off on its IPO journey at a time of high market volatility and ongoing low IPO rates. Among the few IPO exceptions this year was CoreWeave Inc., which floated on the Nasdaq last week to mixed results, though the company is trading ahead of its IPO price after a massive price rise today. CoreWeave started its life as a cryptocurrency mining firm before shifting into cloud computing infrastructure. Circle’s IPO does come at a time of improving regulatory support for cryptocurrency and stablecoins. The U.S. House Financial Services Committee kicked off hearings to regulate stablecoins in March, with The Block reporting that the committee is set to vote on a regulation bill as soon as tomorrow. A Senate committee also reportedly passed its own version, dubbed GENIUS, in March. Image: SiliconANGLE/Reve A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE: Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE. One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content. Join our community on YouTube Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts. “TheCUBE is an important partner to the industry. You guys really are a part of our events and we really appreciate you coming and I know people appreciate the content you create as well” – Andy Jassy THANK YOU