US cryptocurrency company Circle has filed for an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), according to documents on the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) website. JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup are the lead underwriters of the offering, and Circle’s shares will trade under the ticker “CRCL.”
According to unofficial reports cited by CNBC, the company expects a valuation of up to $5 billion.
This is its second attempt to go public. In late 2022, amid regulatory concerns, it declined to go public through a merger with SPAC (Specialized Mergers and Acquisitions Company) investor Bob Diamond’s Concord Acquisition Corp. At the time, the terms of the deal implied a $9 billion valuation for Circle, the Financial Times noted.
Circle’s revenue rose to $1.68 billion in 2024 from $1.45 billion the year before and $772 million two years earlier. Net income fell to about $156 million last year from $268 million the year before.
Circle was founded in 2013. The company initially focused on products to facilitate cryptocurrency payments. In 2018, it partnered with cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase to launch the Center Consortium project to create a stablecoin (stablecoin is a generic name for cryptocurrencies that are backed by national currencies and assets) USD Coin (USDC) and build infrastructure for related services.
USDC is pegged to the U.S. dollar at a 1:1 exchange rate and is backed by cash and short-term obligations of the U.S. Treasury. It is the second most capitalized steiblcoin in the world ($60 billion, or 26% of all steiblcoin capitalization) after Tether (67%). At the same time, its capitalization jumped by 36% this year against the growth of 5% for Tether.
If the IPO is successful, Circle will become one of the leading U.S.-listed issuers with businesses centered on cryptocurrencies, CNBC writes. Coinbase went public in 2021 and has a market value of about $44 billion.
Circle, Cryptocurrency company, New York Stock Exchange
