Source: Cailian Press
Circle was founded in October 2013 by Jeremy Allaire (CEO) and Sean Neville (co-founder), focusing on blockchain technology and stablecoins. In 2018, Circle co-founded the Centre Consortium with Coinbase to launch USD Coin (USDC), a stablecoin backed 1:1 by the US dollar, which initially targeted Tether's USDT, claiming to be more compliant and transparent.
In 2023, the Centre Consortium was dissolved, and Circle became the sole issuer and manager of USDC. As of April 2025, USDC has become the world's second-largest US dollar-pegged stablecoin, with a market value of approximately $60.9 billion, second only to Tether's USDT.
The Silicon Valley Bank crisis in 2023 prompted Circle to consider going public. At the time, Circle had $3.3 billion frozen in the bank, causing USDC to de-peg. Circle's executives realized that to truly establish themselves in the global stablecoin competition, they needed to leverage "licenses + listing + transparency" rather than relying solely on support from the crypto community.
On April 1, 2025, Circle submitted an S-1 form to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, applying to list on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker: CRCL), and hired top investment banks like JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup as underwriters for this IPO.
Circle reported that as of the end of 2024, its stablecoin-related business generated $1.7 billion, accounting for 99.1% of total revenue. On May 27, Circle disclosed IPO terms, planning to issue 24 million shares (60% from the secondary market), with 9.6 million new shares issued by the company and 14.4 million shares from existing shareholders. The price range is $24 to $26, raising $600 million. Based on the midpoint of the proposed range, Circle's fully diluted market value will reach $6.2 billion.
This IPO has attracted institutional investors, including Cathie Wood's ARK Investment Management, which expressed interest in subscribing up to $150 million in shares.
Guosheng Securities stated that if Circle successfully goes public, it will further promote the development of the US stablecoin market and accelerate the acceptance of stablecoins by traditional financial users, especially institutional users. The stablecoin market has grown rapidly in recent years, with USDT and USDC being the main products. Since their inception, stablecoins have become an important tool for cryptocurrency market participants—providing value reserves and pricing tools, and serving as margin for various cryptocurrency spot and futures trading. Circle's successful listing would be a significant positive for the market.
Stablecoins Connect Traditional Finance and Crypto Ecosystem, Multiple RWA Projects Accelerating
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies pegged to fiat currencies or assets, featuring price stability and blockchain compatibility, widely used for trading, settlement, and value storage. Essentially, they tokenize real-world fiat currencies or assets on-chain and are considered a "bridge between traditional finance and the crypto ecosystem".
Initially designed for the crypto asset realm, stablecoins have rapidly entered traditional financial fields like payments in recent years. Due to their peer-to-peer payment, high payment efficiency, low cost, relative price stability, and close ties to the crypto asset industry, stablecoins are increasingly used in cross-border payments, foreign exchange savings, and other conventional financial activities. They have become an ideal choice for international payments and asset reserves, with significant applications in new financial activities like decentralized finance (DeFi).
Globally, the strategic position and market size of stablecoins continue to rise. According to Oriental Securities, as of May 31, 2025, the global stablecoin market value exceeded $250 billion, increasing by over $40 billion from the end of 2024.
From 2024 to 2025, Real-World Assets (RWA) tokenization has been accelerating domestically and internationally. The two major US dollar-pegged stablecoins, USDT and USDC, had market values of over $153 billion and $61 billion respectively as of May 31, accounting for more than 85% of the global stablecoin market value.
Internationally, the US and EU are actively promoting their respective stablecoin bills, attempting to seize the global stablecoin market opportunity. The US stablecoin bill focuses on maintaining the US dollar's leadership in the digital economy, transforming US dollar stablecoins into a global digital payment tool to continue dollar hegemony. Meanwhile, institutions like Robinhood and BlackRock are driving unified regulation and high-performance chain technology applications, with Solana emerging as the preferred RWA infrastructure.
China's RWA market began accelerating with multiple projects in 2024, including examples like Lanxin Group and Ant Digital's new energy RWA; GCL Energy and Ant Digital's photovoltaic green asset RWA; Dalian Xiaoping Island digital island project; Shanghai Left Bank Xinhui's "Malu Grape RWA" project; Xunying Group's battery swap asset RWA; and Yuanlong Yatu exploring IP cultural asset digitization and promoting cultural asset RWA overseas.
In terms of policy, the "Digital Finance High-Quality Development Action Plan" proposed supporting RWA innovation, emphasizing compliance and data rights confirmation. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government published the "Stablecoin Ordinance" in the Gazette on May 30, officially making it law.
CICC's research report suggests that recent stablecoin-related legislative processes in Hong Kong and the US will provide a stable-value trading method for RWA token assets, enhance market liquidity, and help promote RWA issuance projects for mainland Chinese companies in Hong Kong. The stablecoin bill may indirectly boost Hong Kong's financial industry's digital currency-related payment and settlement interface construction, benefiting financial IT companies with experience in digital currency/digital RMB cross-border settlement and supply chain finance projects.
Huaxi Securities stated that RWA will become the core hub linking the real economy and digital finance. In the future, RWA tokens will expand to more niche scenarios like carbon assets, supply chain, and intellectual property, combined with AI and on-chain large models to achieve automated valuation and intelligent clearing, activating the digital liquidity of trillions of physical assets.
