Circle's stock rose 168 percent on its first day of trading. Three years earlier, its plan to go public through a SPAC had collapsed. Circle issued USDC, a digital token that anyone could redeem for one U.S. dollar. More than $61 billion of it was in circulation by May 2025. Circle held the matching reserves in cash and cash equivalents, and the interest on them brought in most of its money.

Boston, Then the Stablecoin

Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville founded Circle in Boston in October 2013. In 2018 Circle and Coinbase formed the Centre consortium and launched USDC. The bet was that a fully backed dollar on a blockchain could move money around the world at any hour. By March 2025, USDC had carried more than $25 trillion in transactions. Circle's revenue and reserve income rose from $15.4 million in 2020 to $1.7 billion in 2024.

SPAC Failed, IPO Soared

Circle agreed in July 2021 to merge with Concord Acquisition Corp, a SPAC. The deal ended in December 2022. Circle then priced a regular IPO at $31 a share on June 4, 2025, above a range it had already raised. The stock began trading on the NYSE under the ticker CRCL. The Senate passed the GENIUS Act, a stablecoin law, that same month. In July 2026 Circle won final approval to form a national trust bank.

Cover: Full Moon and Autumn Flowers by the Stream, Ogata Gekko. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a full moon (a perfect circle).