Circle opens at $69 on NYSE, with higher than expected premium over IPO price

Circle started its first trading day with a price of $69, surpassing previous predictions of price discovery. The company held its IPO at $31, expecting to open at $44 for a much smaller premium. 

Circle’s stocks rallied during their debut on the NYSE, rising to $69 in early trading. The newly public company with the ticker $CRCL even briefly climbed to $84.92, over 174% above its IPO price of $31. Soon after the trading started, excessive volatility led to a trading halt after triggering a limit up circuit breaker. Early traders reported an inability to buy shares as the price rallied in minutes.

Circle opened at $69.50, despite lower expectations of trading at around $44 in its NYSE debut. | Source: Yahoo Finance

Circle Internet Group is trading 34M listed shares, for a valuation above $2.34B. The current valuation remains slightly lower than the recent proposals from Ripple, Inc., attempting to acquire the company for $5B, later increased to as much as $20B. Despite the offers, Circle aimed to fulfill its goal of becoming a publicly traded company. 

The CRCL shares were volatile on the first day, trading between $64 and a brief outlier of $103.75. The shares are still discovering their fair price, at a time when crypto and fintech companies are having a revival on the stock market. 

Jeremy Allaire, founder and CEO of Circle, stated the listing today was one of the most exciting moments of his life. 

Circle aims to go beyond a stablecoin issuer and build the payment layer for the Internet, spanning both crypto native uses and fintech for everyday payments. 

‘At Circle, our mission is to raise global economic prosperity through the frictionless exchange of value has never wavered, and today I am proud to share that Circle is now a public company,’ said Dante Disparte, Chief Strategy Officer at Circle.

The public trading for now avoids an acquisition, leaving Circle to develop as one of the widely accepted crypto companies, aiming for wide adoption.

USDC boosted Circle’s position with full compliance

Circle started its trading after 12 years of development, where the company focused more on compliance, while growing its supply of stablecoins more slowly. 

Circle’s assets expanded in the past year, after securing wide acceptance in the Euro Area for both USDC and EURC tokens. The asset is adapted to multiple crypto-native uses, including DeFi and the Solana ecosystem, where USDC was integrated into meme trading. 

USDC still carries over $64.47B in value across multiple chains, doubling its supply in the past year. All USDC tokens are backed by real-world assets, compliant with EU-based MiCA regulations. The token managed to avoid delistings, taking up some of the niches of USDT, while also integrating with fintech apps. USDC returned to Stripe and remains active in other leading payment apps. 

Circle was also among the first stablecoin issuers to add centralized controls of its tokens. Initially, the feature was taken with a dose of skepticism, but Circle proved instrumental in clawing back funds from hacks and scams. Currently, there are 292 reported frozen addresses at the request of authorities. Circle was also called to freeze $57M from the wallets of LIBRA issuers, aiming to compensate those who lost from the meme token crash.

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