The big financial shift no one’s paying attention to

Riskhedge ^ | 4/4/25 | Stephen McBride

[EnderWiggin1970]

Are you ready for the Circle IPO?

The “stablecoin” giant just filed to go public. It’s aiming for a valuation between $4 billion and $5 billion and plans to list on the NYSE as early as June under the ticker CRCL.

It will be the biggest crypto IPO since Coinbase (COIN) went public back in 2021.

Circle is the company behind USD Coin (USDC)— the world’s second-biggest stablecoin. I’ll share my favorite way to profit from the rise of stablecoins in a minute.

First, let me quickly break down what stablecoins are and why they’re a huge disruption to the traditional banking system.

A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency worth exactly one US dollar. Technically, a stablecoin can be worth exactly one unit of any currency. Euro stablecoins exist, but they’re insignificant.

US dollar stablecoins are extremely significant. They’re as good as US dollars, and they can be transferred anywhere around the world in mere seconds. 24/7/365.

No banks. No waiting. No Western Union (WU). No middlemen or the costs and delays associated with them. Stablecoins are the only way to send $10,000 to a friend halfway around the world in seconds, from your phone, for less than a penny.

USDC alone processes $300 billion worth of transactions—each month. In fact:

Stablecoins now process more transactions than Visa (V) and Mastercard (MA) combined!

[EnderWiggin1970]

Back when I was doing wire transfers all the time for an internationally-focused Christian charity it drove me nuts that wires took hours, sometimes days, and cost ~$25-65 each time. A phone call from the bank compliance department was needed for every wire, resulting in more delays (especially if I missed the call). The folks at the compliance dept. got to know me really well.

And wires weren't an option for supporting dissidents and charities in restricted nations. Hand carrying using trusted couriers was really the only option, and you can imagine the expense and headaches with that. As the world transitions to cryptocurrency that all becomes a thing of the past. Stablecoins serve as a sort of hybrid between traditional fiat and decentralized cryptocurrency. (Contra a statement in the article above, stablecoins can be and are issued for all sorts of assets, not just the dollar. Euros, yen, gold, etc. all have stablecoins representing them.)

[LS]

Can’t wait for mine, Unicoin, to go public.

[Migraine]

You’re yanking our chain, right?

[PGR88]

Stablecoins are not merely a faster way to move money. That would be a bank transfer. These are a derivative of money - trading offshore or outside the US banking and Federal Reserve system.

Think Eurodollars, on steroids.

The US dollar is already worth “nothing” - look on a US dollar in your wallet. Its is merely a promissory piece of paper of the Federal Reserve, promising you “a US dollar.”

Stablecoins are a derivative on top of a derivative.

And when people start making loans with them, or offering options and futures on them, we will then again geometrically increase the money supply, with the first-movers and beneficiaries again being Wall Street.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Is this it?

https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/kei-stablecoin

[EnderWiggin1970]

Is that what?

I've not heard of that stablecoin. Not surprising given it is #3124 among cryptocurrencies by market cap! It has a market cap of $1.1 million and appears to be an algorithmic stablecoin, as opposed to the major stablecoins like Tether and USDC that are backed by dollar deposits.

[LS]

Nope. It’s already gone from $.05 per to $1.75. Ranges differ, but the average expected price when it goes public is $4, as high as $20.

[Disestablishmentarian]

What do you think about RPL?

[EnderWiggin1970]

I've never been a fan of it since it's goal is to empower banks. And the whole point of bitcoin was to eliminate much of the need for banks. But insofar as banks are not going to go away completely I can grudgingly admit it may be a winner. Not enough for me to invest in it though.

In general I advise following the Buffett Rule when picking crypto - pick the top 1-2 options in each niche. So, like Bitcoin for store of value, ETH and SOL for smart contracts, Monero for privacy, Nano for speed and free transactions, and so forth. XRP would be a leader in its niche as well.

[Disestablishmentarian]

Thank you for these insights.

I am focused on smart contracts, so love SOL. ETH gas is way too high.

I have a very knowledgeable friend who believes RPL is a long-term winner; but, based upon their mechanism for locking into USD (and other currencies) it is not clear to me how the RPL increases in value, even when the market cap increases. Pretty sure this is my lack of understanding, which I am working to alleviate.