BlackRock plans to purchase approximately 10% of Circle's IPO shares: Bloomberg

BlackRock is reportedly looking to purchase 10% of the shares that stablecoin giant Circle plans to issue during its initial public offering, according to Bloomberg .

Circle updated its IPO prospectus on Tuesday, showing that the USDC issuer plans to raise as much as $624 million for the company and its backers by selling shares for upwards of $24. The company intends to list on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker symbol CRCL.

Circle is the issuer of the second-largest stablecoin, USDC, which is backed by dollar-denominated assets, including a heavy allocation of yield-bearing U.S. Treasury bonds. According to its regulatory filings, Circle brought in net income of $155.7 million on $1.68 billion of revenue in 2024, down from $267.5 million on revenue of $1.45 billion the previous year.

The company, which canceled a previously announced SPAC merger during the pandemic-era market downturn, is entering a volatile IPO market — largely due to macroeconomic uncertainties stemming from President Trump’s wavering trade and tariff policies.

Both Coinbase and Ripple have reportedly made bids to acquire the stablecoin issuer. However, the firm previously told The Block it is not considering those proposals, and fully intends to go public.

Circle is targeting a valuation of approximately $5.43 billion at the time of its IPO.

According to the updated prospectus, Circle plans to sell 9.6 million shares while its existing shareholders would sell 14.4 million shares. CNBC noted it’s rare for tech firms to structure a listing where more shares are sold by investors than the company.

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, who co-founded the company in 2013, is offloading about 8% of his stake, while former co-CEO Sean Neville and CFO Jeremy Fox-Geenis are slated to sell 11%, each, according to the prospectus. CNBC reported that the firm’s venture capital backers, including Accel, Breyer Capital, General Catalyst, IDG Capital, and Oak Investment Partners, are scheduled to sell about 10% of their holdings.

BlackRock is an existing backer of Circle. The firm, which has become increasingly active in the crypto industry, participated in Circle’s $401 million Series F funding round in 2022 at a $8.05 billion post-money valuation. That same year, the firm tapped BlackRock to manage its Circle Reserve Fund, which backs a portion of the USDC reserves.

Circle also built a smart contract offramp for the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), the largest tokenized treasury fund, enabling holders to transfer their shares to Circle for USDC.

USDC, with a $62.1 billion market cap, according to The Block's data dashboard . However, Tether's USDT remains dominant with a $238.3 billion supply.