Circle's CEO is thrilled over SEC oversight
In today's CEO Daily: Diane Brady on Circle's IPO pop.
The big story: Elon Musk and Donald Trump are fighting.
The markets: Up in U.S. before jobs report.
Analyst notes from UBS, BofA, and Goldman Sachs.
Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.
Good morning. Yesterday was a very good day for Jeremy Allaire, as shares in his crypto firm Circle (CRCL) began trading on the New York Stock Exchange, closing at 168% above its $31 IPO price (the company upsized the IPO the night before its debut). 'As we went through our IPO Road Show and ultimately priced the deal, we saw an incredible amount of interest and enthusiasm from an incredibly broad and deep array of investors,' Allaire told me in a phone conversation on Thursday.
It's been a long journey for Allaire, who tried to take the stablecoin issuer public through a SPAC merger in 2021 but didn't get approval from the SEC, which had then questioned how to classify its USD Coin, a form of cryptocurrency backed by the U.S. dollar, and the company itself.
Fast forward and it's a new day. The GENIUS Act just passed the Senate with bipartisan support and looks likely to become law, providing a federal framework for regulating stablecoins. (The House introduced its own stablecoin bill.) Said Allaire: 'No matter what your political affiliation is, sound regulation makes sense, especially when a technology like this is on the cusp of such widespread adoption.'
For Allaire, though, nothing matches the thrill of being under the watch of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 'As a financial platform and financial infrastructure company that people are going to build on, where we're actually issuing a new kind of money, being public really matters,' he said. 'Becoming an SEC-regulated and supervised company just strengthens those attributes at a time where stable coin is becoming a global mainstream phenomenon.'
At the end of a long day, Allaire told me he's grateful to his family, his team, developers that build applications on this technology, and the broad and deep array of investors that helped give Circle a successful debut. But, he says, he doesn't want to get too caught up in the stock price. 'What's important is that we're building a great company. We've got investors that want to be with us. We've got a lot to do.'
More news below.Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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