Stablecoins are entering the financial mainstream. Major acquisitions (Stripe–Bridge, Visa–Bridge partnership, Fidelity’s tokenization push), accelerating regulatory clarity, and a stablecoin supply exceeding $250 billion have laid the groundwork for institutional adoption. Over the past year, M&A activity in the stablecoin and crypto payments space has topped $6.5 billion, driven by a scramble for compliant infrastructure and regulated distribution rails. Reflecting the strong momentum and interest in stablecoins, Circle Internet Financial (Circle), the issuer of USDC, the leading regulated stablecoin, recently went public in the US via an IPO—cementing its position as the first public benchmark for the economics of stablecoins.

On June 5th, 2025, Circle went public on the NYSE in one of the most anticipated IPOs in fintech history. CRCL shares opened at $31 and rocketed to a peak of $298 within just 16 days—an 860% surge, making it the best-performing IPO since 1980. At its peak, Circle touched a market cap of $75 billion, before stabilizing around $44 billion as of June 30. The IPO attracted blue-chip anchor investors including BlackRock, Fidelity, ARK Invest, signaling deep institutional confidence. Leading underwriters—JPMorgan, Citi, and Goldman Sachs—backed the offering. This public debut came after a failed $9B SPAC deal in 2022, with the company now capitalizing on a pro-crypto regulatory climate under the Trump administration. Originally slated to sell 24 million shares, Circle upsized its issuance amid soaring demand.

Having raised over $1.5 billion since its 2013 founding, including a $440 million round in 2021 that valued it at $4.5 billion, Circle’s IPO marks a watershed moment for the sector—offering investors direct exposure to the rapidly growing stablecoin vertical and setting a precedent for how tokenized financial infrastructure can be valued in public markets. Founded in 2013 by Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville, Circle initially supported Bitcoin payments, later pivoting into infrastructure and fiat-backed stablecoins. It received the first BitLicense in New York (2015) and UK approval for virtual currencies (2016). Circle Pay—its fiat payment app—was discontinued in 2019 as the company turned toward institutional products.

In 2018, Circle co-launched Centre (with Coinbase) and issued USDC, aiming to build transparent and compliant dollar-backed tokens. Coinbase exited Centre in 2023, handing full governance to Circle. In 2023, the sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank put Circle to the test as Circle had custodied about $3.3 billion or 8.25% of its USD reserves with the bank. As a result of that exposure, USDC temporarily de-pegged from the USD and fell to $0.965 two days after Silicon Valley Bank collapsed. That proved to be a defining moment for Circle the company announced that they will honor all USDC redemptions on a 1-1 basis using the company’s balance sheet. That immediately restored investor’s confidence and restored the USDC peg.

2024 was a watershed year for Circle as the company achieved a number of major milestones:

• USDC circulation grew 78% year-over-year, outpacing the growth rate of all other large, global stablecoins

• USDC’s total all-time transaction volume has surpassed $20 trillion, with a monthly transaction volume of $1 trillion in November 2024

• In 2024, Circle became the first major global stablecoin issuer to comply with the European Union’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation and the first issuer to meet Canada’s new listing rules

• Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP), which provides seamless interoperability across supported blockchain networks, has now facilitated more than $20 billion in USDC transfers

• In early October 2024, EURC, USDC’s euro equivalent, became the largest euro-backed stablecoin by total circulation and surpassed $1 billion in weekly transfer volume

USDC transaction volume has accelerated in the past few years

Source: Visa Analytics

Circle has always positioned itself as a public, compliant and transparent alternative to competitors, especially USDT. Allaire stated Circle’s mission as building “always-on, transparent, regulated digital infrastructure for the internet financial system.” Circle is regulated in the U.S. and other global jurisdictions The company maintains know-your-customer (KYC), anti-money laundering (AML), sanctions, privacy, regulatory reporting, and other risk management programs, while conducting blockchain monitoring and screening for child exploitation, sanctioned addresses, terrorist financing, and other illicit activity.

USDC is fully reserved at all times by cash and equivalents kept within the regulated financial system. The USDC reserve is approximately 90% in short-duration U.S. Treasuries and overnight repurchase agreement (repos) largely held with Global Systemically Important Banks (G-SIBs). The treasuries are managed by BlackRock via the SEC-regulated Circle Reserve Fund, which discloses holdings daily. The remainder of the USDC reserve (10%) is in cash to facilitate immediate liquidity, with approximately 90% of this cash held with G-SIBs.

Source: Circle

Consistent with its guiding principles, Circle has generally avoided expanding into jurisdictions with unclear or weak regulations. Instead, it pays premium fees to compliant partners. This “compliance-first” strategy limits market share but shields Circle from enforcement risk—a stark contrast to Tether, whose “growth-at-all-costs” approach mirrors Binance, often at the expense of transparency and legal exposure. Just as Coinbase grew slowly but legally in the U.S., Circle’s bet is that regulatory alignment will yield resilience and scale over time. This strategy has proven to be successful. Today, Circle works with many financial institutions and enterprise technology companies to pioneering payments firms, including the likes of Coinbase, Ant financial, Mastercard, Standard Chartered Bank, Worldpay etc.

Global businesses that work with Circle

Source: Circle

Despite Circle’s growing institutional traction, several risk factors cloud its long-term profitability outlook. The company is heavily dependent on Coinbase for distribution, paying out $908 million in 2024 alone—over 50% of its $1.01 billion in distribution costs—which reflects an overreliance on a single partner. If current trends persist, distribution expenses could exceed 70% of revenue by 2029, putting increasing pressure on margins. Meanwhile, Circle market share is still smaller than Tether’s: USDT’s supply is more than 2.5 times larger, and new competitors—including Ripple, PayPal, and bank-issued stablecoins—are entering the fray. Its income is also highly sensitive to interest rates, with $1.66 billion in 2024 revenue generated primarily from short-dated U.S. Treasuries; any downward movement in Fed rates could materially compress earnings. Most notably, Circle’s net profit stands at just 0.35% of USDC’s supply, a stark contrast to Tether’s self-reported 4.85% of USDT supply highlighting the profitability gap between the two stablecoin giants.

Nonetheless, Circle’s IPO is a landmark moment—not just for stablecoins, but for crypto markets at large. It signals that public-market investors are willing to back transparent, regulated digital asset infrastructure. The IPO also puts a spotlight on crypto’s evolving business models: interest income from T-bills, API infrastructure fees, and fiat-token intermediation. With Circle’s debut, a new door has opened. As the U.S. regulatory climate turns favorable, expect more crypto companies to follow Circle’s lead into public markets—bringing with them fresh capital, transparency, and legitimacy.