From $31 to $299: Circle Just Made IPO History

The USDC issuer hits a $72B valuation in 17 days. PLUS: Solana ETF signals and crypto for mortgages.

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Cryptopolitan News
June 24, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes

📬 Today’s Byte

• Circle’s IPO just went parabolic

• Solana ETF buzz grows louder

• Crypto for a Mortgage? The US is finally considering it

• Market-moving headlines

Circle’s IPO just went parabolic

Circle, the company behind the USDC stablecoin, just pulled off one of the wildest IPO runs in recent memory.

It launched on the New York Stock Exchange at $31 per share. Within hours, it closed at $83 — a 168% gain on day one. And it didn’t stop there. Two weeks later, the stock peaked at $299, pushing Circle’s market cap to over $72 billion.

To put that in perspective:

  • It took Coinbase years to hit a $70B valuation.

  • Circle did it in just 17 days.

  • The IPO was 25x oversubscribed.

Even Jim Cramer jumped in to say the stock was “too hot” when it was worth $25 billion. That warning didn’t age well.

So what’s driving this crazy run?

Circle didn’t go the SPAC route like it tried in 2022. It came to market properly. That helped it regain trust and signaled to Wall Street that the company’s growth was real, not hype-driven.

Sure, it’s not Alibaba or Aramco in terms of market cap. But in terms of speed and heat? Circle is in a class of its own. And it's doing this in an industry still recovering from scandals, bankruptcies, and regulatory fog.

But now the real question: Can it hold?

Some critics say the IPO was mispriced. Circle may have left billions on the table. Others are waiting for the inevitable cooldown. But for now, Circle just gave crypto its first true Wall Street moment of 2025.

Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest on June 23 dumped another 415,844 Circle shares worth approximately $109.6M at $263.45 per share. The company held more than $500M worth of Circle (CRCL) stock in its main ARKK ETF as of June 20th, the company’s third-largest holdings.

📊 Market Watch:

Solana’s price may have taken a hit recently, dipping below $130, but the market signals around it are anything but quiet. Behind the scenes, both institutional and retail players are positioning for what could be the next big crypto ETF and all signs point to Solana.

The clearest signal? Activity on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) just hit a new peak.

Key data points:

  • 106,000+ contracts traded since March

  • Over $3 billion in notional volume

  • 10% of May’s CME block trades came from institutional desks

  • Peak open interest recorded on July 17

At the same time, VanEck’s “VSOL” ticker was officially listed on DTCC, the final stop before the ETF launches. That doesn’t mean the ETF is live yet, but in the case of VanEck’s Ethereum ETF, launch followed just six weeks after DTCC listing.

Market watchers are optimistic:

  • Bloomberg’s ETF tracker shows Solana as the most likely next approval

  • Polymarket gives it a 91% chance of approval, with a 50% shot by end of July

  • Search interest for “Solana ETF” surged in June

While prices remain under pressure, the buzz around a possible ETF, especially one that may include staking rewards is giving traders and institutions a reason to front-run approval.

If greenlit, analysts suggest we could see a 50%+ repricing, pushing SOL back into the $180–$200 range. For now, Grayscale’s GSOL remains the closest proxy for SOL ETF exposure, but if a true spot product arrives, it could shift the game entirely.

Abu Dhabi government represented by the Department of Municipalities and Transport, Tawasul Transport, will be accepting AED stablecoin payments using the AE Coin for taxi services.

⚖️ Regulation Watch:

The US housing regulator is finally asking a question many crypto holders have been wondering for years: Can your crypto help you qualify for a mortgage?

According to new FHFA director Bill Pulte, the agency is launching a formal review to explore just that. In a simple post on X, Pulte wrote:

“We will study the usage of cryptocurrency holdings as it relates to qualifying for mortgages.”

This isn’t just talk, the FHFA oversees mortgage giants like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Federal Home Loan Banks. If they make a change, the entire mortgage industry could follow.

Right now, crypto doesn’t really count. You can’t walk into a bank with Bitcoin and ask for a home loan. But if you sell your crypto, send the money to your bank account, and let it sit there for 60+ days, some lenders might let you use it for a down payment — as long as you show a full paper trail.

That means:

  • Selling through a regulated exchange like Coinbase or Kraken

  • Showing bank deposit receipts

  • Proving the crypto wasn’t borrowed or on margin

If it sounds tedious, it is. One mortgage advisor put it simply:

“If you can’t prove it, in the lender’s eyes you don’t own it.”

Pulte’s involvement makes things even more interesting. He’s not your typical regulator, he holds over $500K each in Bitcoin and Solana, plus stocks in MARA, Tesla, MrBeast-linked ventures, and even GameStop. He also backed Trump’s 2024 campaign, and seems serious about shaking things up.

If his review leads anywhere, banks might be forced to rethink how they treat crypto, not as a risk, but as a real asset class.

Bottom line: This could be the first real step toward crypto-backed home loans becoming a thing in the US. It’s early, but it’s a start and it’s coming straight from the top.

US President Donald Trump has asked oil producers and markets to maintain or lower prices against the backdrop of renewed disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, a global oil transit route. “Everyone should keep oil prices down. I’m watching.

Market-moving headlines 🔥

Turkey is tightening controls on cryptocurrency to stop criminals from laundering money from illegal betting and fraud.

Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek shared an article on X by state-owned Anadolu news agency, saying Turkey plans to set limits on transfers and introduce waiting periods for crypto withdrawals.

Ledger will roll out a new key recovery feature for new wallets, allowing offline access to the private key. The move caused a mix of security concerns, as Ledger’s devices were offered as a way to make private keys inaccessible. 

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is proposing to designate Google with “strategic market status” (SMS) under the new Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, in an attempt to curb its dominance in online search and search advertising.

U.S. national debt has surpassed $37 trillion for the first time in history. The debt has surged as policymakers increased government spending and implemented stimulus measures.

💾 The $800 Million Mistake

On June 24, 2013, James Howells, an IT engineer from Wales, accidentally threw away a hard drive containing the private keys to 8,000 BTC, now worth over $800 million.

He had mined the Bitcoin in 2009, but during a desk cleanup, the drive landed in a landfill. Realizing the mistake months later, James began a years-long mission to recover it, proposing robotic digs and environmental safeguards, all denied by the city council.

A legendary tale of lost keys, unwavering hope, and the most expensive trash toss in crypto history.

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