Shares of Circle closed up 168% in their first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange, minting the stablecoin issuer with a market cap of around $16.7 billion and renewing hopes for an IPO market rebound. The blockbuster debut comes after New York-based Circle raised $1.1 billion in its upsized IPO.
The company priced its IPO at $31 per share — above the expected range of $27 to $28 — and reportedly sold 34 million shares — well above the 24 million shares at $24 to $26 apiece it had originally planned to sell for $624 million. Underwriters JPMorgan, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs have a 30-day option to sell another 5.1 million shares.
Shares started trading at $69.50 and immediately soared, closing at $83.29. Trading was briefly halted due to volatility.
Since its founding in 2013, Circle has raised about $1.1 billion from investors including Coinbase, General Catalyst, Accel, BlackRock and Alumni Ventures, per Crunchbase data. As a private company, it was last valued at $9 billion. It issues the digital currency USD Coin, and is estimated to hold 27% of the world’s stabelcoin market, making it the second-largest issuer behind Tether and its USDT stablecoin.
IPO pipeline fills up
Circle, now trading under the ticker symbol CRCL, is the first in a string of potential and highly anticipated fintech IPOs that could thaw the market for new VC-backed offerings and boost funding by unlocking liquidity for investors. Chime Financial, a mobile banking startup, is expected to debut on the Nasdaq on June 12, and Slide Insurance, an insurance startup focused on the coastal Florida residential market, has also filed plans to go public.
Other fintechs potentially in the pipeline this year include buy now, pay later giant Klarna, which filed IPO paperwork in March but hit pause on those plans amid tariff-induced stock market volatility. Payments behemoth Stripe is also closely watched for potential IPO moves, though may have enough funding to carry it through on the private markets for some time.
Several nonfintech startups are also in the queue to go public, following a prolonged lull for the IPO market. Omada Health, a virtual chronic care provider that has raised more than $528 million from private investors, is slated to price its IPO today and debut tomorrow on the Nasdaq. Voyager Technologies, a spacetech startup that has raised about $378 million, is expected to debut June 11 on the NYSE.
Unicorn valuation reset
Notably, even following the larger-than-expected offering, Circle’s initial valuation before shares started trading fell below its last private valuation of $9 billion, highlighting the extent to which many well-funded unicorns have seen their valuations reset in recent years.
Chime is reportedly facing a 50% haircut to its last private valuation, and Omada is aiming for a valuation of $1.1 billion in its IPO, just a smidge above its last private valuation of $1 billion. Two other recent IPOs — Hinge Health and eToro — both went public below their last private valuations.
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Illustration: Dom Guzman
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