Circle Eyes $600M IPO at $5.4B Valuation After Snubbing $5B Buyout Talks

The stablecoin giant Circle has turned its back on reported offers from Ripple and Coinbase to proceed with its initial public offering (IPO). The move will cement Circle as one of the very few crypto companies to go public, following in the footsteps of Coinbase (COIN), which rocketed into the S&P 500 earlier this month. 

The IPO will offer 24 million shares, which is expected to rake in approximately $600 million USD ($930 million AUD) at $24-26 USD per share.

Major financial institutions are heading the public offering, with JPMorgan, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs acting as the primary underwriters.

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Circle Hoping to Eclipse Buyout Offers Amid Issuance of 24 Million Shares

For those new to the game, an IPO – or ‘going public’ – essentially means a company is selling a tiny stake of its ownership to investors.

This may allow Circle to build capital flow to put money toward innovative new projects, help existing investors cash out, and add an undercurrent of visibility and excitement to the company. It’s worth noting that there are already more than 180 million shares either issued or ready to be converted upon Circle’s IPO. All up, Circle expects there to be 217.3 million shares when fully diluted. 

Assuming the new shares are issued at approximately $25 USD ($38.80 AUD) this would value Circle at around USD $5.43 billion ($8.43 billion AUD). This means the company is targeting a return of close to $600 million USD ($931 million AUD) from their offering.

Interestingly, $5 billion is about the same purchase price reportedly put forth by Coinbase and Ripple, which Circle rebuffed.

Another Crypto Giant Prepares to Go Public

Upon initially filing for the IPO, Circle’s CEO, Jeremy Allaire, claimed their move to becoming a public company was largely in the interests of transparency.

For Circle, becoming a publicly traded corporation on the New York Stock Exchange is a continuation of our desire to operate with the greatest transparency and accountability possible.

Jeremy Allaire, Circle CEO

Although the SEC has not yet approved the filing, Circle appears poised to make its public market debut, joining the ranks of crypto-native companies like Coinbase in leaping onto major stock exchanges.