Why I Left Circle’s IPO: The $5.9B Exit That Rewrote Crypto’s Soul

I remember the night I read Circle’s S-1 filing—not with excitement, but with sorrow.

The numbers were clean: 32 million shares issued, 19.2 million sold by insiders, \(5.9 billion realized at \)31 per share. But the market soared to \(300—implying a \)50 billion unrealized gain slipped through their fingers like sand.

I don’t blame them for exiting.

In our family, my father taught me: true wealth is what you keep, not what you imagine.

Circle built USDC as a monetary altar—1:1 backed, regulated, transparent—in a world drowning in crypto noise. They didn’t chase hype; they built infrastructure. A reserve fund managed by BlackRock. A cross-chain protocol for developers. A payment network woven with Visa and Mastercard.

Yet here lies the paradox: those who knew the risk left early. Those who believed in the future bought at peak.

I’m not anti-capitalist—I’m pro-soul.

The most dangerous asset isn’t volatility—it’s delusion dressed as progress.

When every token becomes currency, who gets to define its value?

The answer isn’t in algorithms. It’s in silence after the bell rings.