Circle Executives and Venture Capitalists Misjudge the Market, Missing Out on $2 Billion in Profits

In the early stages of the stock listing of a stablecoin issuance company, the company's executives and some investors chose to sell their shares, resulting in them missing out on a huge profit opportunity.

As of June 6, 2025, those who sold early missed out on potential gains of up to $1.9 billion. They cashed out at $29.30 per share, totaling about $270 million. However, if they had been able to hold on for a few more weeks, the value of the stocks they held would have reached billions of dollars.

An executive of the company sold 300,000 shares of Class A common stock at a price of $29.30 per share during the IPO. If he had not sold these shares, the value per share would have risen to $240.28 by last Friday's close. This means that just this decision cost him approximately $63 million in potential gains.

The company's Chief Financial Officer also sold 200,000 shares at the same price during the IPO, missing out on gains of approximately $42 million.

Even the founder of the company could not escape this fate. He sold 1.58 million shares at the time of the listing, each priced at $29.30. If he had chosen to hold on to them, he would now have a paper gain of up to $333 million.

In the company's initial public offering (IPO), investment institutions, executives, and other insiders sold at least 9.22 million shares of common stock at a price of $29.30 per share. Although these transactions brought them $270 million in profits, just two weeks later, the "opportunity cost" of this deal had become staggering.

If they had chosen to continue holding those stocks at that time, they could have made an additional $1.9 billion today.

It is worth noting that some investors only reduced a portion of their holdings during the IPO. For example, a well-known investment institution only sold about 10% of its shares. According to the latest documents submitted to regulatory authorities, the institution still holds more than 20 million shares.

The situation of the company's founder is similar; he currently still holds over 17 million shares and has options and restricted stocks. Many other investment institutions and company executives also retain a considerable proportion of their initial investments.

Nevertheless, the decision to sell at $29.30 now seems quite awkward in the context of the stock price having soared to $240.28. While no one can accurately predict the future, a prediction deviation of 88% is undoubtedly a significant misjudgment, which will leave a mark in financial history.