Asset management giant BlackRock is set to deepen its involvement in the crypto space by acquiring a 10% stake in stablecoin issuer Circle as part of the company’s initial public offering (IPO), according to a report by Bloomberg.
BlackRock was an early backer in Circle’s $400 million Series F round and is now participating again as the firm prepares to go public.
Circle’s updated IPO filing reveals that the company will offer 9.6 million new shares, while current shareholders plan to offload 14.4 million shares — a rare scenario in tech IPOs, where insiders are selling more shares than the company itself.
Co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire will sell around 8% of his stake, while former co-founder Sean Neville and CFO Jeremy Fox-Geen will each sell roughly 11%. Several venture capital firms, including Accel, Breyer Capital, General Catalyst, IDG Capital, and Oak Investment Partners, are also expected to trim their holdings by about 10%.
The move builds on BlackRock’s existing relationship with Circle. In 2022, the two firms entered a strategic partnership, with BlackRock joining a $401 million funding round that valued Circle at $8.05 billion. That same year, BlackRock was chosen to manage a portion of Circle’s USDC reserve fund.
The collaboration extended into tokenised finance, with Circle providing the smart contract for the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) — the largest tokenised Treasury fund. Investors in BUIDL can redeem shares for USDC directly through Circle.
Circle, the issuer of USDC — the second-largest stablecoin by market cap — reported $1.68 billion in revenue and $155.7 million in net income in 2024. While revenue grew from the prior year’s $1.45 billion, net income declined from $267.5 million.
Despite past acquisition interest from Coinbase and Ripple, Circle remains committed to a public listing. The company has filed to go public on the NYSE under the ticker symbol CRCL, targeting $624 million in capital from the IPO.
