Circle Said to Be Trading Around $5B Valuation Ahead of Planned IPO: Sources

Circle Internet Financial’s privately held stock is trading in the secondary market at a price implying a $5 billion to $5.25 billion valuation for the stablecoin issuer ahead of a planned initial public offering, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.
The issuer of USDC, the second-largest stablecoin by market cap, is allowing some trading of its shares in the secondary market ahead of the planned IPO, two of the people said, but on a case-by-case basis and only in specific situations.
The sellers are said to be early-stage investors who are divesting for liquidity reasons or Circle employees, one of the people said. Employees are often given the chance to monetize stock options they hold before a company goes public. The company is not allowing trades below a $5 billion valuation, two of the people said.
Circle didn’t respond to numerous requests for comment before publication time. The Coinbase-backed firm’s valuation reached about $9 billion in 2022, when it tried to go public through a deal with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) called Concord Acquisition Corp.
The companies announced the mutual termination of the proposed combination in December 2022 after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) didn’t grant approval for the tie-up in time, and following the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX a month earlier and the onslaught of the crypto winter.
Investors need not fret about the difference between the 2022 valuation and the figure that’s implied by the secondary-market trades, one of the people said.
The secondary market is very depressed because there are many investors who need to raise cash and so will sell at any price, they added. A secondary market is where investors buy and sell securities, such as stocks and bonds, that have already been issued.
In a January report entitled “State of the USDC Economy,” Circle said the number of USDC wallets with at least $10 had jumped 59% in the previous year to about 2.7 million. The number of transactions in 2023 had reached 595 million through the end of November.
Circle filed to sell shares to the public for the first time in January of this year. The company filed a confidential draft S-1 document with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the planned offering had not been determined, the filing said. The exact timing of the planned IPO is also not known.
Circle intends to make the U.S. its new legal home ahead of the planned IPO, Bloomberg reported in May. The company filed paperwork to move from its current domicile in Ireland.
Read more: Stablecoin Issuer Circle Files to Shift Legal Home to U.S. From Ireland Ahead of Planned IPO: Bloomberg
Edited by Sheldon Reback.
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Will Canny is CoinDesk’s finance reporter.