Source: Jinse Finance
Original Title: The First Stock of $53.5 Billion Stablecoin, Circle: Which Chinese Investment Institutions Got a Piece
On June 5, 2025, Circle, the first stablecoin stock/second cryptocurrency stock, officially went public on the US stock market, with an initial stock price of $31. By June 20, 2025, the stock price had risen to $240.28 per share, an increase of 675%, with a market value of $53.5 billion.
Circle is a pure American company founded and listed in the United States by Americans. According to typical development conventions, it would have little chance of intersecting with Chinese VCs. However, due to various reasons, some Chinese VC institutions participated in its financing and enjoyed a feast in this IPO.
Circle is a company focused on issuing the US dollar stablecoin USDC. Its business model is simple yet profitable: the company issues USDC stablecoins pegged 1:1 to the US dollar and primarily invests users' deposited funds in short-term US Treasury bonds, earning almost risk-free returns.
One of the founders is Jeremy Allaire, 53 years old, who studied political science, philosophy, and economics in college. He is a believer in internet minimalism and a serial entrepreneur who created two listed companies in 1995 and 2012, namely the software company Allaire and online video platform Brightcove. In 2013, he founded Circle with Adobe's chief scientist Sean Neville, proposing the vision of "letting value flow as freely as information" and advocating blockchain technology to reshape financial infrastructure.
Circle's main business was not initially stablecoins, and its development went through many twists and turns, which can be summarized as follows:
2013–2017: Payment Exploration and Early Financing
October 2013:
Allaire and Neville founded Circle in Boston, USA, initially focusing on blockchain cross-border payments, launching Circle Pay (dubbed the "American Alipay")
2015–2016:
Raised over $130 million, with investors including Goldman Sachs, IDG Capital, Baidu, etc. The business focus was consumer payments, but market acceptance was limited
2018: Strategic Transformation and USDC Birth
Key Financing:
Huaxing New Economy Fund (led by Lei Ming), Bitmain, IDG, and other institutions invested
Business Milestones:
Jointly established the Centre Consortium with Coinbase, launched the US dollar stablecoin USDC, focusing on compliance and transparency, targeting USDT
Strategic Adjustment:
Closed consumer payment business, fully committed to stablecoins
2021–2022: Listing Attempt and Crisis
July 2021:
Announced SPAC merger listing, valued at $4.5 billion, later raised to $9 billion (February 2022)
December 2022:
SPAC listing terminated due to SEC not approving the prospectus, losing $44 million
March 2023:
Silicon Valley Bank Crisis: $3.3 billion reserves frozen, USDC de-pegged. After the crisis, established the core strategy of "license + listing + transparency"
2023–2024: Restructuring and Expansion
2023:
Acquired Coinbase's shares in Centre, becoming the sole USDC issuer
Moved headquarters to World Trade Center in New York, strengthening financial compliance image
2024:
Financial Performance: Revenue of $1.68 billion (99% from stablecoins), net profit of $160 million, but 54% of revenue shared with Coinbase
Market Share: USDC circulation reached $60.1 billion, occupying 29% of the stablecoin market
2025: Acquisition, IPO, and Listing
January 2025:
Acquired Hashnote, a RWA issuer, for $99.8 million (managing $1.3 billion in tokenized Treasury bonds), strengthening asset tokenization layout
April–June 2025:
April: Submitted NYSE IPO application, ticker CRCL
May: Raised IPO scale: IPO price from $24–26 to $27–28, fundraising from $600 million to $880 million; received $150 million anchor subscription from ARK Invest (Cathie Wood)
June: Official listing: Issue price $31, raised $1.1 billion, first-day rise of 168%, market value $18.36 billion; market value reached $24 billion two days later
Significance: Became the world's first stablecoin issuer to go public.
According to venture capital databases and public media information, domestic institutions participating in Circle include:
IDG (D-E rounds), Distributed Capital (Wanxiang, D round), Bitmain (E round), Baidu (D round), China Everbright Holdings (D round), CreditEase (D round), CICC (D round), Huaxing New Economy Fund (E round).
Among these institutions, IDG is the most important, being the only one explicitly confirmed in Circle's IPO documents as a significant shareholder, holding 12.8%. Li Tong from IDG previously served as Circle's China business CEO and director of the Chinese entity-Tianjin Shike Technology. Zhou Quan, an IDG partner, was also a former director of the company.
Additionally, Distributed Capital can be confirmed as its founder Xiao Feng appeared as a director in Circle's former domestic operating entity-Tianjin Shike Technology Co., Ltd. China Everbright Holdings is also confirmed through its listed company's announcement, though it's unclear whether it's direct or indirect investment. In 2016, China Everbright Holdings collaborated with IDG to establish a 10.1 billion fund-iQiyi Everbright Equity Investment Fund (Shanghai) Partnership Enterprise (Limited Partnership). Lastly, Huaxing New Economy Fund is confirmed through an interview with its lead investor Lei Ming (currently a partner at Zhui Chuang Venture under Zhui Mi).
According to Circle's IPO documents, investment prices and corresponding company valuations for different investment rounds are as follows:
D-round investors have an investment return multiple of 87x at the current stock price, while E-round investors have a return multiple of 14.8x.
IDG held 23,275,040 shares before the IPO, held by two entities: Chuang Xi Capital Limited and Wide Palace Limited.
Among them, IDG-Accel China Capital GP II Associates Ltd is a fund collaborated by IDG and Accel, with Accel being IDG's US partner. The fund's size is reportedly $750 million and holds 8,598,710 Circle shares. The other fund, IDG China Capital Fund GP III Associates Ltd, holds 14,676,330 Circle shares, but its specific details are less certain.
Accel was Circle's angel investor, and its partner Jim Breyer is also an IDG investment partner in the US, which laid the groundwork for Circle's attempt to expand in China in 2016 and IDG's investment.
IDG chose to sell 2,327,504 shares at the IPO, worth $72.15 million at the $31/share issue price. The remaining shares are valued at $5.033 billion, which is certainly a home run for the two invested funds.
Assuming other D-E round domestic investors haven't sold shares and didn't sell during IPO, their current shareholding values are estimated.
A total of 60,594,000 shares were issued in D-E rounds, with IDG holding 23,275,040 shares and other investment institutions holding 37,318,960 shares. If domestic institutions hold 50%, corresponding to 18,659,480 shares, this would be worth $3.8 billion at the current stock price.
