Last Thursday night, Circle, the issuer of the world's second largest stablecoin USDC (about 25% market share), was officially listed on the New York Stock Exchange with an issue price of US$31 per share. Circle triggered circuit breakers several times during the trading session and closed the first day of listing with a 168.48% increase at US$83.23. At the close of the day, the market value exceeded US$18.5 billion and continued to rise by nearly 30% the next day.
Currently, the total market value of global stablecoins has exceeded 250 billion US dollars, of which USDT and USDC together account for 86% of the market share. This is why Circle repeatedly adjusted its opening price on the eve of its IPO because the market is much hotter than expected.
Because of Circle's listing on the New York Stock Exchange, the concept of "stablecoin" occupied the financial headlines for several days. To some extent, it also made more traditional financial professionals re-recognize the value of stablecoins.
In addition, almost on the same day, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region officially issued a document clarifying that August 1, 2025 is the implementation date of the "Stablecoin Ordinance", which further boosted the popularity of stablecoins in the financial market. Similarly, the American GENIUS Stablecoin Act is also on the way. It seems that everything is just right.
We will not talk too much about the value of stablecoins here. After experiencing explosive growth in recent years, if we are still denying the significance of their existence, it is probably like saying "BTC is useless" now, and we need to rethink and adjust our cognition.
Going back to almost the same period four years ago, that is, in the last bull market cycle, Coinbase, the largest Crypto exchange in the United States, successfully landed on the Nasdaq. On the first day of listing, the stock price once soared to US$429, and the market value exceeded US$112 billion, bringing hundreds of times returns to many early investment institutions.
But then it entered an adjustment period of more than two years, and its performance in the months after its listing was criticized, and it was even called a "junk company." However, it was precisely because of Coinbase's successful listing that the traditional financial market saw another emerging financial market that was rising, and the current BTC ETF and various reserve assets came into being.
Similarly, for Circle's listing, its significance lies in that it allows stablecoins, which were originally only recognized by a certain group of people, to truly enter the "mainstream" and also gain the favor of some old money. After all, if it only stays in the vision of a small group of people, it is difficult to enter the mainstream world, especially through listing to demonstrate one's financial capabilities and corporate transparency, which is crucial to the development of stablecoins.
As Circle co-founder Jeremy Allaire said in an interview with Bloomberg: "The IPO will bring more trust, compliance and transparency to Circle's regulated stablecoin network and help it build partnerships with other financial institutions."
In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto proposed the form of "trustless currency" and created BTC. The ideal at the time was to use a new form of currency like BTC to fight against financial institutions that abused currency. However, BTC is no longer an effective means of payment due to various restrictions. This is why stablecoins can develop rapidly.
In a sense, stablecoins have replaced some of Satoshi Nakamoto's ideals, of course only in "form". After all, stablecoins have returned to institutional logic and have only borrowed its technical form. However, based on this point, we cannot deny its value.
a16z Crypto pointed out in its latest report that in the past 12 months, stablecoin transaction volume has reached 33 trillion US dollars, continuing to set new historical highs, close to 20 times PayPal's transaction volume and close to 3 times Visa's transaction volume.
Some people may think that the current market size of stablecoins is not small, but compared with the traditional payment market size of tens of trillions of dollars, it still seems a bit "naive". However, if stablecoins are expected to become a single trillion-dollar market in the next 3-5 years, perhaps it has just passed the initial stage.
Therefore, Circle's listing is more like a small carnival to "rectify the name" of stablecoins, and the big drama after the carnival has just begun. As the most mature application in the Crypto industry besides trading, stablecoins may be the real stepping stone for Web3/Crypto applications to enter thousands of households, rather than the NFT craze in the early years.
For investors and entrepreneurs, this period also contains many opportunities. After all, making money with money is always a good business, but if you cannot be a creator of money, at least you can be a service provider in this field. Everything has just begun, and risks and opportunities coexist.
So, what will be Circle’s market value in 4 years?
