Circle Internet Financial, the company behind the USDC stablecoin, said on Monday it has increased the size of its initial public offering, now targeting a fully diluted valuation of up to $7.2 billion.

The New York-based fintech firm and some of its existing investors are looking to raise as much as $896 million from 32 million shares, priced between $27 and $28 each — up from an earlier offering of 24 million shares priced between $24 and $26.

The revised IPO plans signal a resurgence of investor appetite for regulated crypto firms, helped by a more welcoming political environment under President Donald Trump, whose administration has promised clearer and friendlier rules for the sector. Circle is expected to list on the New York Stock Exchange later this week under the ticker “CRCL”, with J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, and Goldman Sachs acting as lead underwriters.

From SPAC Collapse to Wall Street Listing

Circle’s road to an IPO has been anything but smooth. The company initially announced plans to go public in 2021 through a $9 billion merger with Concord Acquisition Corp, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). At the time, the move was hailed as a breakthrough moment for stablecoins, which were gaining popularity among crypto traders and fintech platforms.

But that deal collapsed in December 2022, after delays in securing regulatory approvals — a setback many in the crypto space blamed on the Biden-era clampdown on digital assets. The SEC’s slow movement and growing scrutiny of crypto firms made it nearly impossible for Circle to complete the merger within the required timeframe. The failed SPAC was a turning point, reinforcing concerns that U.S. crypto firms faced a hostile environment that was pushing innovation offshore.

Now, under a Trump-led administration that has repeatedly pledged to scale back enforcement-heavy tactics and roll out a stablecoin bill, Circle is seizing what it views as a more favorable moment. The firm’s renewed IPO effort comes amid a broader push by U.S.-based crypto companies to return to domestic capital markets, encouraged by the promise of regulatory clarity and market access.

Stablecoin Boom and Financials

Circle’s flagship product, USDC, is the second-largest stablecoin globally, maintaining a 1:1 peg to the U.S. dollar and backed primarily by short-term U.S. Treasuries. USDC is widely used for transferring funds between tokens and across platforms and is increasingly being adopted in cross-border payments and institutional finance.

With interest rates remaining high, Circle’s reserve income — generated from yields on U.S. Treasuries — surged 55.1% to $557.9 million in the quarter ending March 31. However, the company also saw a 68.2% jump in distribution and transaction costs, largely due to its partnerships with Coinbase and other distributors.

The rising costs have tempered profit margins, but Circle executives remain confident that the IPO will support long-term growth and scalability.

Regulatory Tailwinds and Institutional Adoption

Much of the optimism around Circle’s IPO is tied to expectations that Congress will soon pass a stablecoin regulation bill, which is seen as a catalyst for increased institutional involvement. The legislation would set clear standards for how reserve-backed tokens like USDC operate, helping to distinguish regulated issuers like Circle from offshore players with opaque reserves.

Some analysts believe that USDC is already well-regarded for its transparency and regulatory alignment. If the bill passes, Circle is positioned to become the go-to issuer for institutional stablecoin use in the U.S.

That regulatory support is now more likely under President Trump, who has previously criticized the overregulation of the crypto industry and voiced support for digital innovation in the financial sector. Several crypto initiatives are tied to Trump-linked campaigns, and the administration has signaled a willingness to bring crypto players back into the fold after a period of regulatory flight.

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence venture xAI is seeking a staggering $113 billion valuation in a share sale worth $300 million, according to reports on Monday.

The development underscores the breakneck pace at which xAI is growing, just two years since its founding, and comes amid a flurry of financial engineering designed to consolidate its role in the AI-social media space.

According to Bloomberg, Morgan Stanley has launched a $5 billion debt package to support xAI, including a term loan B, a fixed-rate term loan, and senior secured notes. The proceeds will reportedly be used for “general corporate purposes.”

Commitments for the debt sale are due by June 17.

The Financial Times earlier reported that the $300 million share sale will allow employees to sell their shares to investors, with a larger investment round expected to follow. In that subsequent round, xAI plans to issue new equity to outside investors, possibly marking a major infusion of fresh capital for the company.

A Blurred Line Between xAI and X

The latest capital moves come just months after Musk formally merged his social media platform X (formerly Twitter) into xAI. The March acquisition valued xAI at $80 billion and the X platform at $33 billion, according to Musk. The combined business model integrates social media with generative AI, potentially giving xAI a significant user base to feed and test its AI models in real time across one of the most politically active and controversial digital platforms in the world.

The merger also drew attention to Musk’s broader ambition to build a vertically integrated tech ecosystem — one that touches AI, media, cloud infrastructure, autonomous vehicles, and energy — all with Musk-linked entities at the center.

The financing push also follows Musk’s departure from a high-profile role in President Donald Trump’s administration, where he led the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The campaign, aimed at reducing federal spending, ended in a chaotic four-month stretch that drew both praise and criticism.

Musk resigned earlier this month but is expected to remain a close adviser to Trump, who has increasingly aligned himself with high-growth tech entrepreneurs in a bid to frame his administration as pro-innovation.

During Tesla’s earnings call in April, Musk said he would refocus on the electric vehicle company, though he continues to juggle his involvement with SpaceX, Neuralink, The Boring Company, X, and xAI. The AI startup, in particular, is now at the forefront of Musk’s vision for a future dominated by artificial general intelligence and user-driven algorithmic platforms.

Reports from April had indicated that xAI was in early-stage talks with investors to raise as much as $20 billion to support its expansion, including potential investments in GPU infrastructure, data centers, and content moderation systems for X. With the new debt deal and upcoming equity sale, the firm appears to be accelerating those plans.

The combined valuation of $113 billion, if achieved, would place xAI among the top-valued AI companies globally, rivaling even OpenAI and Anthropic. Unlike its peers, xAI has the added advantage of a built-in social platform for real-time deployment and feedback — an integration Musk has said will be central to training more “truthful” and censorship-resistant AI models.

Growing Market Appetite for AI and Musk-Branded Ventures

The upsized valuation drive reflects both growing investor appetite for artificial intelligence and continued market confidence in Musk-led ventures, despite growing concerns over leverage and governance. Musk’s ability to raise massive rounds — whether through debt, equity, or convertible instruments — has remained largely intact due to his tech and business acumen and the cult-like following surrounding his companies.

Morgan Stanley’s involvement is another signal that Wall Street is again warming to high-stakes, high-valuation bets, especially under a Trump administration that is promising a more favorable climate for AI development and reduced regulatory headwinds for controversial social platforms like X.

If successful, the current funding round and debt raise would make xAI not only one of the fastest-growing startups in history but also a cornerstone of Musk’s broader ambition to reshape everything from public discourse to digital cognition.

With Elon Musk’s controversial time in Washington, D.C., having officially come to a close, two of his fledgling companies are shoring up their financial standing: Musk’s neurotech startup, Neuralink, announced a $650 million Series E funding round on Monday. Meanwhile, Musk’s xAI artificial intelligence venture is looking to generate fresh capital via a $300 million secondary stock offering, per the Financial Times, citing anonymous sources. An anonymously-sourced Bloomberg report notes xAI is also weighing selling $5 billion in debt.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday rejected dire warnings from JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon that the country’s bond market is heading for a rupture due to runaway spending and lax fiscal discipline.

Speaking on CBS’ Face the Nation, Bessent downplayed Dimon’s concerns as typical of his forecasting style and reassured Americans that the administration was already on course to reduce the deficit gradually over time.

“I’ve known Jamie a long time and for his entire career, he’s made predictions like this. Fortunately, none of them have come true,” Bessent said. “That’s why he’s a banker — a great banker. He tries to look around the corner.”

Dimon, speaking Friday at the Reagan National Economic Forum, warned that excessive stimulus spending during the COVID-19 pandemic — including quantitative easing and record-breaking deficits — has created a structural imbalance that could result in a “crack in the bond market.”

“It is going to happen,” Dimon said. “I just don’t know if it’s going to be a crisis in six months or six years.”

He said market makers have lost much of their flexibility to absorb shocks, and warned that unless the U.S. reverses its debt trajectory, confidence in its creditworthiness and institutions could erode rapidly.

But Bessent insisted the administration remains committed to fiscal discipline.

“So the deficit this year is going to be lower than the deficit last year, and in two years it will be lower again,” Bessent said. “We’re going to bring the deficit down slowly. We didn’t get here in one year — this has been a long process.”

However, concerns over U.S. fiscal policy are not limited to Dimon. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who recently stepped down as head of the White House Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), also voiced his disappointment in what he called reckless spending.

“I was, like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit — not decreases it — and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,” Musk said in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning. “I think a bill can be big, or it can be beautiful. But I don’t know if it can be both.”

The bill in question, President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill”, recently passed in the House and is now under Senate review. The legislation, designed to expand infrastructure, defense, and energy spending, is expected to add $2.5 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Peter Schiff, chief economist and global strategist at Euro Pacific Capital, was even more direct, warning that the bill could erode global confidence in the U.S. dollar itself.

“Jamie Dimon warned that if we don’t get our fiscal house in order soon, then in forty years the U.S. dollar won’t be the world’s reserve currency,” Schiff said. “He’s right, but his time frame is off. If the Big, Beautiful Bill passes, the U.S. dollar won’t be the reserve currency in four years!”

Schiff, known for his bearish views on U.S. debt and inflation, has long argued that Washington’s addiction to deficit spending risks destabilizing global markets, especially at a time when countries like China and Russia are building alternative settlement systems that bypass the dollar.

The concerns shared by Dimon, Musk, and Schiff highlight a growing consensus among influential business leaders that the U.S. is approaching a tipping point.

While Bessent continues to defend the administration’s fiscal path, pointing to its pledge to “leave the country in great shape in 2028,” many believe that the rising debt burden, aging infrastructure, and costly new spending plans are placing the U.S. on a dangerous trajectory — one that could rattle global markets and weaken the foundations of the dollar-based global order.