Crypto Company Circle tore the New York Stock Exchange on June 5th, launching what has become Tech IPO’s biggest comeback since its peak in 2021.
Supported by Accel, Breyer Capital and General Catalyst, Circle stocks were opened strongly and then exploded. It currently rises to six times the IPO price and sits at a market capitalization of $42 billion. The rally brought the three-year frozen IPO dream back to the table.
This surge did not occur alone. Midway through June, the US Senate passed the Genius Act and laid out a ridiculous rulebook tied to the dollar. The law brought circle prices on track. Accel, Breyer, and general catalysts now manage $8 billion in circle stock, even after trimming their holdings.
VCs eventually get an exit after a brutal dry spell
The Technology IPO was suspended in early 2022. Inflation rose, prices rose, and deals disappeared as the US and Europe were tightened more heavily with corporate acquisitions. Major buyers have retreated. That’s when a venture capital firm gets stuck holding onto a company with no clean exit. They’ve been waiting ever since.
But now, in the first half of 2025, that freeze is finally beginning to break. In June alone, we have seen five high-tech IPOs, more than doubled the monthly pace since January. Boost wasn’t just for one name. CoreWeave, an AI infrastructure company, was launched in March and did nothing at first.
Eric Hippeau, managing partner at Lerer Hippeau, said the change was delayed. “It’s refreshing and something we’ve been waiting for for a long time,” Eric said. “I’m not sure if I’m sure this will still be a sustained trend, but it was very encouraging.”
The last good year of the IPO was 2021. At the time, 155 US venture support companies attracted over $60 billion. following year? Only 13 IPOs. He then turned 18 in 2023 and 30 last year.
In total, they didn’t reach $14 billion based on data from University of Florida finance professor Jay Ritter. A slowdown occurred shortly after the Federal Reserve launched an aggressive rate hiking campaign to beat inflation. It worked, but it crushed the IPO market.
While large companies prepare for public debuts, other companies remain private
Some small IPOs could sneak up on. Hinge Health is $3.5 billion, Omada’s health is about $1 billion, Etoro is over $5 billion, and Chime Financial is just under $11.5 billion. However, none of them matched the scale or speed of the circle. Omada shares are below the offer price.
Some of the biggest names of technology are unacceptable. SpaceX, Stripe, and Databricks are still private. Openai and humanity continue to grab a huge check, but show no signs of revealing it. Still, venture companies say many others are waiting in line.
FirstMark partner Rick Heitzmann said, “As the IPO market is beginning to open, the VC world is cautiously optimistic. We are preparing businesses for our next public offering.”
While VCS is waiting, some people are cashing out through secondary sales. This is a way to dump stocks to new investors before an IPO. Others have banked the bank in strategic moves, such as those by Mark Zuckerberg last month.
In June, Meta spent $14 billion on a 49% stake in Scale AI. It was not a regular transaction. Meta scooped up the company’s founder, Alexandre Wang, and several key engineers. The deal cleared half of the stock held by early investors, giving them the opportunity to win cash now and perhaps again.
Accel, which scales AI Series A in 2017, was able to walk away for over $2.5 billion. Index Ventures joined Series B in 2018, while Peter Thiel-led Founders Fund ran Series C in 2019.
There is hope that rate reductions may come next. However, the Fed has not committed. There will also be talks between US exchanges and the SEC about loosening IPO rules, but no official announcement has been made. Last week, Reuters reported that these debates were intended to make the public offering attractive again.
Still, some IPOs are suspended. Klarna and Stubhub postponed the list to April due to tariff concerns and geopolitical risks. Neither company has given a new timeline.
But for now, it is clear that the dry years are declining. “At the end of the tunnel there’s a kind of light starting to begin,” said Eric of Lerer Hippeau.
The light began with Crypto’s Circle.