Circle Drops 39% After IPO Peak — What Comes Next?

📉 Circle tumbles 39% after IPO high, is the hype wearing off?

Circle’s market debut turned heads. But its momentum may be cooling off.

The crypto payments firm, known for issuing the USDC stablecoin, has seen its stock price plunge from a peak of $299 to $181, a 39.5% drop in just seven days. Despite the sharp decline, Circle remains up over 480% from its $31 IPO price earlier this month.

The company’s public listing was one of crypto’s biggest Wall Street moments this year. Circle opened at $69 on the New York Stock Exchange and briefly became the best-performing newly listed tech stock, riding optimism around its stablecoin dominance and regulatory positioning.

But with valuations soaring past traditional fintech peers, traders are now recalibrating. The stock’s rapid rise and equally fast fall is forcing analysts to take sides.

Wall Street: Divided but leaning bullish

Most major firms still believe in Circle’s long-term upside.

• Needham and Canaccord issued buy ratings with price targets of $250 and $247, respectively.

• Bernstein called it a must-own for exposure to tokenized finance, targeting $230.

• Barclays set a $215 target, calling Circle one of the few public plays on blockchain-based payments.

Others, however, urged caution.

• Deutsche Bank placed fair value at $155 and advised waiting for better entry points.

• Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan were more skeptical, both setting targets near $80 — implying more downside ahead.

📚 Read Also: Circle’s USDC ramping to knock off USDT as top liquidity provider for BTC trading pairs

Circle’s USDC stablecoin is changing the balance of the BTC market. The token is more widely used in liquidity pairs, supporting 25% of the available 1% liquidity depth. The fully regulated stablecoin by Circle is becoming more important for the BTC market. The stablecoin is displacing fiat pairs in terms of activity, while securing a growing part of the 1% market depth.

📊 Market Watch:

Solana’s ETF-fueled rally meets regulatory reality

First staking-enabled crypto ETF gets regulatory green light, almost. Solana (SOL) exploded past $160 this week before cooling to around $149, as news broke of a potential game-changer: the first-ever Solana ETF with staking support is nearing approval in the U.S.

The Rex Shares and Osprey Funds proposal, filed under the Investment Company Act of 1940, was initially returned by the U.S. SEC for revisions. Why? Because this ETF would do what no other has: offer exposure to a yield-bearing staked asset through a C-corp structure.

After back-and-forth amendments, the SEC issued “no further comments” this week, effectively clearing the path for the Rex Solana ETF to launch on July 2.

This could become the first U.S. crypto ETF offering staking rewards directly to shareholders,  a milestone with implications for future ETH-based funds too.

On Polymarket, the odds of approval by the end of July surged above 91%, and even 98% for 2025.

Robinhood restakes its claim with SOL

Adding fuel to the fire, Robinhood reinstated SOL staking for U.S. users, offering up to 7.42% APY, alongside ETH. This marks a reversal of its 2023 delisting following regulatory scrutiny and comes on the heels of its new perpetual futures rollout and Bitstamp acquisition.

Robinhood’s crypto arm has become a Solana on-ramp again — just in time for the ETF hype.

 Liquidations spiked, open interest surged

• $11M in short positions were wiped in four hours after the ETF news dropped.

• 33% of SOL’s $3.9B open interest remains short, leaving room for further squeezes.

• Despite the dip from $160+, SOL is still up 25.9% in Q2 outperforming most layer-1s.

 Risks remain

While the SEC’s "no further comments" indicates effective clearance and the ETF's launch is confirmed, the market is now assessing the long-term implications. The ETF's C-corp structure and staking mechanism, though approved for this launch, are novel and will be closely watched for their performance and any potential future compliance questions.

📚 Read Also: Robinhood brings tokenized U.S. stocks to Europe, 24/5 trading goes live

Robinhood has launched tokenized US stock trading in Europe, allowing users to trade equities round the clock from Monday through Friday. The move brings 150,000 customers across 30 countries direct blockchain access to tokenized shares that reflect the value of top American companies.

⚖️ Regulation Watch

Trump calls out “Debanking,” teases executive action

President Donald Trump has reignited the crypto-banking debate, calling out what he terms a dangerous and politically motivated practice of “debanking” — denying crypto firms access to traditional banking services. In an Oval Office interview on Friday, Trump directly blamed the Biden administration for instigating the trend.

“Those people are very bad and very dangerous, and they shouldn’t be doing it,” Trump said, adding that he’s been a victim himself due to political bias.

What’s debanking?

Debanking refers to financial institutions denying or restricting services based on industry affiliation or political beliefs. Crypto companies say they’ve faced silent blocks under Biden-era regulators. Conservative figures, including Trump, claim the same.

Trump emphasized that it’s not the banks themselves, but federal regulators who are behind the pressure. “The regulators control the banks,” he said. “They can put a bank out of business overnight.”

Executive order incoming?

While the Trump administration initially planned to address debanking via executive order earlier this year, that plan was shelved — temporarily. Now, reports suggest the executive action may be back on the table.

• The order would reportedly instruct regulators like the Federal Reserve and FDIC not to discriminate against crypto-related clients or politically affiliated individuals.

• Trump didn’t confirm the new order but acknowledged ongoing internal discussions and reaffirmed that the issue “still persists” under his second term.
  

Leaked docs confirm past resistance

Documents released by federal agencies since Trump’s inauguration appear to confirm that banks faced internal and external pressure against servicing crypto firms.

• A letter from the FDIC referenced an incident where a bank shuttered all accounts tied to a crypto-linked entity.

• It also revealed regulators questioned the bank’s plans to onboard three more crypto clients, a pattern that echoed wider fears across the industry of “Operation Chokepoint 2.0.”

The timing of these disclosures is notable, arriving just ahead of a Senate hearing on debanking. Industry leaders are expected to testify on the long-term damage caused by informal financial exclusion.

📚 Read Also: Wall Street sees economic upside in Trump’s massive spending bill

Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) scraped through the US Senate in a tense 51–49 vote late Saturday, pushing the sweeping tax and spending legislation one step closer to his desk.

Market-moving headlines 🔥

Did you know? 🧠

On this day, the Winklevoss twins sprinted ahead—filing a Bitcoin ETF in 2013, years before BTC struck serious roots on Wall Street. An early shot at legitimacy that still echoes today

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