A review of Circle's major shareholders' cashing out: IDG, the largest external shareholder, cashed out only $68 million, and several executives reduced their holdings and missed out on hundreds of mi

Author: Nancy, PANews

Since the stablecoin issuer Circle successfully went public in early June, its stock price has continued to soar, attracting the attention of global investors and even becoming the fourth most purchased overseas stock in South Korea so far this year. As the stock price surged, Circle's investors and major shareholders reaped rich returns, and their holdings became the focus of the market.

In this article, PANews sorts out the reduction of holdings and the size of holdings of 11 major shareholders of Circle before and after the listing. From the perspective of shareholding ratio, IDG Capital, which is currently rooted in China, has become one of the largest known non-founder shareholders of Circle with multiple rounds of early investment. Early investors such as Accel, General Catalyst, Breyer Capital and Oak locked in profits by reducing their holdings before the listing, but missed a lot of profits because they got out early, with the highest loss reaching hundreds of millions of dollars. Most of them still maintain considerable holdings and will continue to benefit from the rise in stock prices. Of course, latecomers such as ARK Invest chose to make bold bets in the early days of Circle's listing, and then cashed out at high levels to get rich returns.

 Circle’s investment price in each round of financing. Image source: Axios Visuals

IDG Capital: Cashed out more than $68 million before listing and is still one of the largest external shareholders

IDG Capital is one of the earliest venture capital institutions in China to make early-stage investments, and has invested in Tencent, Baidu, JD.com, ByteDance, and Coinbase, etc. As an important early investor in Circle, IDG participated in the early A, B, and C rounds of financing, and holds a large amount of equity in the company.

The prospectus shows that IDG's shares are held by its affiliated entities Chuang Xi Capital Limited (controlled by IDG Capital II GP) and Wide Palace Limited (controlled by IDG Capital III GP), totaling 23,275,040 shares, accounting for 12.8% of the shares.

Among them, Chuang Xi Capital reduced its holdings by about 2.328 million shares at a price of $29.3 on June 6, cashing out about $68.29 million. If calculated at the current market price of $213.6, it missed out on potential profits of nearly $430 million. After the reduction, IDG Capital still holds about 20.947 million shares of Circle, accounting for 10.4% of the shares. According to the current stock price, the remaining holdings are worth more than $4.473 billion, and it is still one of the company's largest external institutional investors.

It is worth mentioning that after China Everbright Holdings co-founded the "China Everbright Capital Industrial Fund" with IDG Capital in 2016, it invested in Circle in its first 10 billion yuan investment project. This investment interest may be included in the investment of the above-mentioned IDG subsidiary.

General Catalyst: 10% stake, CRCL position of nearly $4.3 billion

General Catalyst is an investor in Circle's A and C rounds. According to the Form 4 document disclosed by the US SEC, General Catalyst is an important shareholder of Circle, with a shareholding ratio of more than 10% at one time. As a continuous investor in Circle from A to E rounds, General Catalyst sold about 3.55 million shares at a price of $29.3 on June 6, cashing out about $104 million. Calculated at a share price of $213.6, it missed out on a book profit of about $650 million. After the reduction, the institution still holds about 20.12 million shares of CRCL, worth more than $4.29 billion.

ARK Invest: Has sold more than $350 million in cash, CRCL is still one of the core holdings

The official website shows that as of June 27, ARK Invest held a total of nearly $580 million worth of CRCL, with a total holding of approximately 2.818 million shares. Among them, ARK Innovation ETF held $368 million worth of CRCL, ARK Next Generation Internet ETF held $133 million, and ARK Fintech Innovation ETF held $78.85 million.

On the day Circle went public, ARK Invest first purchased about 4.486 million shares of CRCL, with a holding value of about $373 million at the time. However, since June 16, the institution has begun to significantly reduce its holdings of CRCL shares, with a cumulative reduction of about 1,667,000 shares and a cash out amount of about $352 million. Despite the large-scale reduction, Circle is still one of the important holdings of ARK Invest's three major ETFs.

CEO Jeremy Allaire: Large-scale equity conversion before listing, cashing out more than $46 million

Jeremy Allaire is the chairman and CEO of Circle. He carried out large-scale stock conversion and trading operations before the company went public, and his share ratio after the listing was 23.7%. According to the disclosure, Allaire converted all of his 18.59 million Class A common shares into Class B common shares on June 6, and each share was automatically converted at a ratio of 1:1. This type of stock enjoys the same economic benefits as Class A common shares, but has stronger control over voting rights. At the same time, Allaire also converted more than 330,000 Class A common shares into Class B shares through his personally established trust Allaire 2025 Qualified Annuity Trust, and continued to hold it indirectly. Allaire also sold more than 15,800 Class B common shares after automatic conversion on June 6, with an average price of US$29.3 per share, cashing out a total of approximately US$46.4 million. In addition, Allaire also converted more than 18 million Class A stock options into Class B options, with a total exercise period covering 2033.

Although Jeremy Allaire recently sold part of his shares and adjusted his equity structure, his control over Circle has not been substantially affected through the high voting rights of Class B shares, a large option pool and a family trust shareholding structure.

Accel: holdings valued at over $230 million, with a shareholding ratio of 5.3%

Accel is one of the major shareholders who participated in Circle's multiple rounds of financing. Its partner Jim Breyer is also IDG's investment partner in the United States. According to publicly disclosed information, Accel originally held 12.816 million shares of CRCL, accounting for 6.9% of the shares. During Circle's current round of listing, Accel reduced its shareholding to 10.925 million shares, accounting for 5.3% of the shares, which is worth more than $230 million based on the latest closing price.

Breyer Capital: Sold 335,000 shares, and the remaining holdings are still worth more than US$280 million

Breyer Capital participated in Circle's A to D rounds of financing. Although Breyer Capital chose to reduce its holdings by more than 335,000 shares when Circle went public, and did not disclose the specific price of the reduction, the market value of these shares has reached 71.6 million US dollars based on the current market price of 213.6 US dollars. Currently, Breyer Capital still holds 1.336 million shares, accounting for 6.5% of the shares, and its holdings are worth more than 285 million US dollars.

Oak Investment Partners: After the reduction, it still holds 5.9% of the shares, with a position of US$250 million

Oak Investment Partners began supporting Circle as early as 2014, participating in its Series B and C rounds of financing. According to public data, before Circle went public, Oak reduced its holdings of about 209,000 shares of CRCL, which is worth about $44 million at the current market price. Currently, Oak holds more than 1.188 million shares, accounting for 5.9% of the shares, and the holdings are worth about $250 million.

It is worth mentioning that Iftikar Ahmed, Oak’s head of trading at the time, faced charges for other merger insider trading and stealing company funds a year later, which directly led to Oak’s decision not to raise new funds.

FMR: Maintaining its shares unchanged, holdings valued at more than $280 million

FMR is the parent company of Fidelity Investments and participated in Circle's US$50 million Series C financing round. It did not reduce its holdings during Circle's listing process. Its shareholding remained at 1.341 million shares, with a voting rights ratio of 4.6%. The current market value of its holdings exceeds US$280 million.

CFO Jeremy Fox-Geen: Cashed out more than $5.8 million, option positions exceeded 1.2 million

Jeremy Fox-Geen is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Circle. On June 5, he reduced his direct holdings of about 44,600 common shares through non-trading transfers (Class F operations), and then increased his holdings of 160,000 common shares and corresponding stock options at a price of $10.11; on June 6, he sold another 200,000 shares at a price of about $29.3, with a cumulative cash out of about $5.854 million. If calculated at the current market price of $213.6, the potential book profit of this part of the sale of shares exceeds $37 million.

Currently, Jeremy Fox-Geen directly holds approximately 320,000 shares of CRCL common stock and has approximately 1.27 million stock options with an exercise price of $10.11 and a term of up to 6 years.

Date Rajeev V.: Profit of approximately $1.46 million, indirect holdings worth nearly $200 million

Date Rajeev V. is the managing partner of Fenway Summer LLC, an investment and consulting company. According to the Form 4 document disclosed by the US SEC, he increased his indirect holdings of approximately 600,000 shares of CRCL common stock through non-sale transfers (Class J operations) on June 6, 2025, and sold 50,000 shares of common stock at a price of approximately US$29.3, cashing out approximately US$1.465 million. If calculated at the current market price of US$213.6, the potential book profit of this part of the sale of shares exceeds US$9.5 million.

Currently, Rajeev V indirectly holds approximately 900,000 shares of CRCL common stock through affiliated entities Fenway Summer Ventures LP, FS Venture Capital LLC and other trust institutions, which is worth approximately US$192 million based on the current CRCL share price.

CPO Nikhil Chandhok: Cashed out more than $22 million, still holding more than 600,000 shares

Nikhil Chandhok is Circle's Chief Product Officer (CPO). According to the Form 4 document disclosed by the US SEC, he sold a total of approximately 758,000 shares of CRCL common stock between June 5 and June 6, with the price range between US$29.3 and US$31, and the cash amount was approximately US$22.7 million. If calculated at the current market price of US$213.6, the potential book profit of this part of the shares sold exceeds US$160 million.

Currently, Nikhil Chandhok still holds approximately 606,000 shares of CRCL common stock, which is worth approximately US$130 million based on the current share price.