Last Thursday evening, Circle, the issuer of USDC (with approximately 25% market share), the world's second-largest stablecoin, was officially listed on the New York Stock Exchange with an initial price of $31 per share. Circle triggered circuit breakers multiple times during trading, closing its first day of listing with a 168.48% surge, at $83.23, with a market value exceeding $18.5 billion, and continued to rise nearly 30% the next day.
Currently, the total market value of global stablecoins has exceeded $250 billion, with USDT and USDC collectively accounting for 86% of the market share, which is why Circle repeatedly adjusted its opening pricing before the IPO, as the market was far more heated than expected.
Circle's listing on the New York Stock Exchange has dominated financial headlines for several days, allowing more traditional financial professionals to recognize the value of stablecoins to some extent.
Almost on the same day, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region officially announced the implementation date of the "Stablecoin Regulations" as August 1, 2025, further boosting the market's enthusiasm for stablecoins. Similarly, the U.S. GENIUS Stablecoin Act is also in the works, and everything seems to be falling into place.
After experiencing explosive growth in recent years, denying the significance of stablecoins would be similar to saying "BTC is useless" and requires a reevaluation of understanding.
Rewinding to almost the same period 4 years ago, during the previous bull market cycle, the largest U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase successfully went public on NASDAQ, with its stock price briefly reaching $429 and a market value exceeding $112 billion, bringing hundreds of times returns to early investors.
However, it then entered a 2-year adjustment period, with its post-listing performance being criticized and even labeled a "garbage company". Yet, Coinbase's successful listing allowed the traditional financial market to see an emerging new financial market, leading to the current BTC ETF and various reserve assets.
Similarly, for Circle's listing, its significance lies in bringing stablecoins, previously recognized by only a small group, to the "grand stage" and gaining some favor from old money. After all, staying within a small group's perspective makes it difficult to enter the mainstream world, especially by demonstrating financial capabilities and corporate transparency through listing, which is crucial for stablecoin development.
As Circle co-founder Jeremy Allaire stated in a Bloomberg interview: "The IPO will bring more trust, compliance, and transparency to Circle's regulated stablecoin network and help establish relationships with other financial institutions."
In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto proposed a "de-trusted currency" form and created BTC, with the ideal of challenging financial institutions' excessive currency issuance. However, BTC can no longer effectively serve as a payment method due to various restrictions, which is why stablecoins have developed rapidly.
In a sense, stablecoins partially replace Nakamoto's ideals, though only "in form", as stablecoins have returned to institutional logic while borrowing its technical form. Nevertheless, this does not diminish their value.
a16z crypto noted in their latest report that stablecoin transaction volume reached $33 trillion in the past 12 months, continuously setting historical records, nearly 20 times PayPal's transaction volume and close to 3 times Visa's transaction volume.
Some might think the current stablecoin market size is not small, but compared to the traditional payment market of tens of trillions of dollars, it still seems somewhat "naive". However, if stablecoins could become a market with over $1 trillion in the next 3-5 years, we might just be at the beginning.
Therefore, Circle's listing is more like a small celebration of "legitimization" for stablecoins, with the real drama just beginning. As the most mature application in the Crypto industry besides trading, stablecoins might be the true key to bringing Web3/Crypto applications into every household, rather than the early NFT craze.
For investors and entrepreneurs, this period also harbors numerous opportunities. Making money will always be a good business, and if one cannot be a money creator, at least they can be a service provider in this field. Everything is just beginning, with risks and opportunities coexisting.
So, what will Circle's market value be in 4 years?
