In brief
- Shares of Circle are up more than 10% today as its stablecoin expands natively to World Chain.
- The company is now valued around $28.34 billion, up nearly 4x from its IPO price.
- USDC is now natively supported on 21 different blockchains.
Shares of stablecoin giant Circle are up more than 10% today as the firm’s USDC stablecoin and cross-chain transfer protocol expand to World Chain, the blockchain co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman that's focused on human verification.
As part of the integration, all bridged USDC tokens on World Chain were automatically upgraded to the newly launched native USDC.
“We’re excited to announce that native USDC and CCTP V2 are now live on World Chain,” the firm wrote in a blog about the announcement. “This upgrade enhances liquidity, security, and capital efficiency for developers and users across the World Chain ecosystem.”
The expansion now puts USDC, the second largest stablecoin, on 21 different blockchains, the announcement says.
Circle stock (CRCL) is currently trading above $116, up more than 10% on the day and sitting at a price nearly four times its $31 IPO price. Listed on the Nasdaq, CRCL pumped as high as $138.57 on Monday.
After hitting the public market last week, the stock was initially halted multiple times on its first day of trading, jumping to more than three times its IPO price in a matter of minutes.
That debut exceeded the initial performance of major publicly traded tech companies like Meta, Robinhood, and Airbnb upon their respective listings.
Circle IPO Outperforms Public Debuts From Meta, Robinhood and Airbnb
Circle’s dynamite IPO this week wasn’t just impressive by crypto standards—it outperformed expectations to a degree unrivaled even by America’s most prominent tech companies. The evening before its Thursday trading debut on the New York Stock Exchange, Circle priced its stock, CRCL, at $31 a share. That represented a mark-up from the lower share prices the firm floated earlier in the week: $26, and then $28. Such last-minute moves are generally indicative of increased investor interest in a comp...
The IPO, which raised $1.1 billion for the firm and early shareholders, accelerates a trend of crypto companies going public. In May, trading platform eToro made its debut on public markets. Prior to that, Bitcoin rewards company Fold went public as well.
Neither, though, saw as much success upon debut as shares of CRCL, which scored a major victory when compared to the initial listings of other crypto-focused companies, in terms of share price surge after offering.
Crypto Exchange Gemini Files to Go Public Following Circle's Smash IPO
Crypto exchange Gemini announced that it's planning to go public. The New York-based company said in a press release Friday that it confidentially filed a draft registration statement on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed initial public offering. Gemini did not immediately respond to Decrypt's request for comment. The exchange is run by billionaire twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. The two are famous in the crypto world because of their early bet on Bitcoi...
However, another prominent crypto firm may join the race soon, with New York-based exchange Gemini recently filing for its own IPO.
Circle, now valued around $28.34 billion, sought to go public as early as 2022. But plans to go public via a merger with a SPAC fell through at the time.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
