Original title: Circle execs and VCs misread the market—it cost them $2B
Original author: Protos
Original translation: Ismay, BlockBeats
Editors note: Circles stock price has continued to soar since its listing. CRCL has soared from the issue price of US$29.30 to US$300, becoming one of the biggest winners at the intersection of Wall Street and the crypto circle. However, in this equity feast of the leading stablecoin, the earliest executives and venture capitalists have become losers who missed the main uptrend. Many of them chose to reduce their holdings on the day of the IPO, missing out on potential gains of billions of dollars in just two weeks. This not only reveals a serious misjudgment of market expectations, but also reflects the cognitive gap between the primary and secondary markets in the new era of crypto finance. When even the founders cannot predict the true value of their own stocks, we may have to rethink: Who is the real smart money in this era full of narrative drive and emotional leverage?
The following is the original content:
Executives and venture capitalists who chose to sell shares in Circles (ticker: CRCL) IPO missed out on a rocket-like stock price surge.
As of June 6, 2025, these early sellers have missed out on potential profits of up to $1.9 billion. Rather than selling, it is better to say that they lost because they didnt buy - their choice is tragic.
The executives and VCs cashed out at $29.30 per share, earning a combined $270 million. But if they had held on for a few more weeks, their shares could have been worth billions.
Take Circles chief product and technology officer, for example. He sold 300,000 Class A common shares in the IPO at $29.30 per share. If he had not sold these shares, their value per share would have reached $240.28 as of the close of last Friday. In other words, he personally lost about $63 million in potential gains.
Circles chief financial officer also sold 200,000 shares at the same price in the IPO, missing out on about $42 million in proceeds.
Even the founder Jeremy Allaire was not spared. He sold 1.58 million shares in the IPO, also at $29.30 per share. If he had chosen to hold on at the time, he would now have an additional paper profit of up to $333 million.
Circle VC Misses Out on Billion-Dollar Gains
In Circles initial public offering (IPO), venture capitalists, executives and other insiders sold a total of at least 9,226,727 shares of common stock at a price of $29.30 per share.
Although these stocks brought them a considerable cash profit of US$270 million, the opportunity cost of this transaction was staggering just two weeks later.
If they had chosen to continue holding these shares, they would have made an additional $1.9 billion today.
Objectively speaking, some venture capital firms only sold part of their holdings in the IPO. For example, General Catalyst, a well-known venture capital firm, only sold about 10% of its CRCL shares. According to its latest Form 4 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the firm currently still holds more than 20 million shares.
The situation is similar for founder Jeremy Allaire, who still holds more than 17 million shares and has options and restricted shares. Many other venture capital firms and company executives also retained a significant portion of their initial investments.
But even so, the decision to sell at $29.30 is still quite embarrassing when CRCLs stock price has soared to $240.28. Although no one can predict the future, the prediction error of 88% is undoubtedly a shocking misjudgment and has already left its place in financial history.
