BlackRock Inc. is considering acquiring roughly 10% of the shares offered in Circle’s upcoming initial public offering (IPO), Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The IPO filing, made public on Tuesday, lays out plans to offer 24 million Class A shares — 9.6 million from Circle and 14.4 million from existing stakeholders.
According to the filing, Cathie Wood’s ARK Investment Management has expressed interest in buying up to $150 million worth of the IPO shares. The shares are expected to be priced between $24 and $26, and will be trading under the ticker ‘CRCL’.
BlackRock’s potential involvement, though significant, is still up in the air. Bloomberg reported that it remains unclear whether BlackRock would invest directly or via an affiliated vehicle, and that it could ultimately walk away from the deal.
BlackRock didn’t immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.
The asset management giant already maintains a close relationship with Circle. It manages the Circle Reserve Fund, a government money market fund that holds 90% of the reserves backing Circle’s USDC stablecoin. USDC is one of the largest dollar-pegged cryptocurrencies, used widely across crypto trading and DeFi protocols.
If BlackRock follows through, the move would mark another major entry point for traditional finance into the digital asset space, further entrenching stablecoins like USDC in the broader financial system.
The IPO would make Circle one of the few large crypto-native firms to go public in the U.S. after a long lull in public market debuts from the sector. Circle previously attempted to go public via a SPAC merger in 202, which was subsequently scrapped.
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