Circle Internet Financial to go public despite delays

Circle Internet Financial Ltd is still holding on to its ambitions of going public despite facing headwinds that weighed on the plans.

Chief executive officer Jeremy Allaire told Bloomberg that the second largest stablecoin issuer’s plans to go public were still alive, although he refuted any interest in tapping into private markets for capital.

“We are very committed to the path (of going public)” said Allaire in an interview with Bloomberg in Washington.

“We think we can be a really interesting company in public markets,” added Allaire.

Circle Internet Financial is financially stable, according to CEO

The company has made attempts to go public but failed. For instance, in 2022, the company attempted to join forces with blank-check firm Concord Acquisition Corp but failed.

The crypto firm opted for a more traditional way earlier this year as it filed a draft registration for an initial public offering (IPO) with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in January.

Year to date, there has been a widespread crackdown on companies in the crypto industry by the US government. Allaire, however, refused to comment on any engagements Circle Internet Financial Ltd has had with the SEC and other regulators during the period they filed the draft IPO.

Although the process of getting approvals for the IPO has dragged on for months, Allaire revealed the company does not need to raise more capital.

“We’re in a financially strong position and have been able to build a very solid business, and we’re currently not seeking any funding.”

Allaire.

According to Bloomberg, investors in the crypto firm include some heavyweights in Wall Street like General Catalyst Partners, Fidelity Management, BlackRock, Research LLC, Marshall Wace LLP, and peers in the crypto industry Coinbase Global Inc.

Circle Internet Financial boosted staff complement in anticipation of going public

According to earlier reports, Circle Internet Financial has been boosting its staff complement this year as it contemplated going public.

With the hiring spree, the company was upbeat that Washington lawmakers would finally give the industry some regulatory framework it clamored for in the form of a stablecoin bill.

According to Bloomberg, several other crypto-related bills are under consideration on Capitol Hill. Commenting on this, Allaire said there is strong optimism that the stablecoin legislation may even be passed during the lame-duck session after the November presidential elections.

Allaire revealed that new regulatory guardrails will be welcome and will give comfort to the more traditional financial players ranging from banks to asset managers to payment companies to enter the digital asset ecosystem.

“They’re only going to work with regulated infrastructure,” he said. “We’ve already positioned ourselves toward that end.”

Stablecoins, collectively worth $170.5 billion, are cryptocurrencies that aim to track the value of another asset, particularly the US dollar. Stablecoins are popular among traders as a way of moving digital assets between exchanges or sheltering crypto wealth during periods of market volatility.

Companies have also adopted stablecoins as a means of facilitating cross-border payments. Circle Internet Financial’s dollar-trades stablecoin, known as USDC has a total market capitalization of $34.4 billion, which makes it the sixth biggest cryptocurrency and the second largest stablecoin after Tether’s USDT, according to statistics from CoinMarketCap.