Lei Jianping on January 11
Circle Internet Financial, the company behind the stablecoin USDC, said a few days ago that it has secretly applied for an initial public offering in the United States.
Circle did not disclose the number of shares it plans to sell or the proposed price range for the new IPO application.
Circle was valued at $9 billion in a deal that went public in 2022 through a special purpose acquisition company. The transaction closed in December 2022.
Circle chief executive officer Jeremy Allaire said at the time that he was disappointed that the proposed deal had "timed out" but that the company still intended to go public.
According to cryptocurrency market tracker CoinGecko, USDC is the second-largest stablecoin after Tether and the seventh-largest cryptocurrency. These tokens are backed by cash and cash equivalents, including short-term Treasury bonds.
According to CoinGecko, USDC tokens in circulation are worth about $25 billion, down from a peak of $56 billion in mid-2022.
After a period of rapid growth, the crypto industry fell into a downturn in 2022, with token prices falling as investors became more cautious and various well-known crypto companies, including crypto exchange FTX, collapsed.
Circle announced layoffs in July 2023 and said it had ended its investments in non-core business areas.
Founded in Boston in 2013, Circle has a fiat currency transfer service, Circle Pay, also known as "Alipay in the United States".
In June 2016, Circle announced a $60 million Series D funding round, which was continued to be led by Series C investor IDG Capital. Breyer Capital and General Catalyst Partners also continued to participate in the investment.
Circle's Series D funding round also attracted the support of several strategic Chinese investors, including Baidu, CICC Jiazi, China Everbright Limited, Wanxiang and CreditEase, as well as two key individual investors: Sam Palmisano, former chairman and CEO of IBM, and Glenn Hutchins, co-founding partner of SilverLake.
In May 2018, Circle announced the completion of a $110 million Series E funding round led by Bitmain. IDG Capital, as a co-investor in the two companies, and Circle's C and D rounds of lead investors continued to follow up in this round, along with existing shareholders such as Breyer Capital and Accel, as well as new Blockchain Capital and Tusk Ventures.
On May 31, 2021, Circle announced a $440 million funding round involving digital currency groups, Fidelity Management and Research, and cryptocurrency exchange FTX. The funds raised will be used to expand into new markets, continue to drive fundamental technology innovation, and grow the Circle team.
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