Circle, the company that issues the stablecoin USDC, is expanding the scale of its initial public offering (IPO) by increasing the offering price and the number of shares. Circle is set to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) through this IPO.
According to Reuters and other sources on the 2nd (local time), Circle plans to offer 32 million shares in the IPO, a 33% increase from the previous plan of 24 million shares. The offering price was also raised from $24 to $26 per share to $27 to $28. Accordingly, the estimated amount raised is expected to increase by over 40%, from $624 million to $896 million. Circle stated it expects a corporate value of up to $7.2 billion (approximately 9 trillion won).
A stablecoin is a virtual asset that minimizes volatility by tying its value to physical currencies like the U.S. dollar. Until now, it has been used for transactions or decentralized finance (DeFi), but recently it has attracted attention as a means to quickly and cheaply move dollars across borders.
USDC has a market capitalization of $61 billion (8.784 trillion won), accounting for about 27% of the entire stablecoin market. It ranks seventh in the global virtual asset market. Most dollar-based stablecoins like USDC are backed by Government Bonds.