Chapter 5. Circle: Building a Blockchain Ecosystem
This is the moment that we have been waiting for. When we started our company, we thought it would take five to ten years to reach this point, but six and a half years later, we are now here.
—Jeremy Allaire, Circle cofounder and CEO, December 12, 2019
With its large open workspaces and kitchen stocked with free food, Circle had the feel of a hip technology company. Yet its sweeping panoramic views of the Boston skyline placed it squarely in the middle of the city’s financial district, home to some of the world’s largest financial institutions.
This combination—new tech meets old money—was perhaps a perfect way to describe the company. From its startup ambition of being a “blockchain bank” in 2013, Circle had quickly attracted venture capital from major financial players like Goldman Sachs, and five years later had a valuation of over $3 billion.1
As the company had grown, so had its vision. Circle had grown into a new kind of global financial services company—where individuals, entrepreneurs, and institutions come together to use, trade, invest, and raise capital with easy-to-use financial products and services.
But unlike traditional financial services companies, this one was built on blockchain.
It had been a long road for Jeremy Allaire, the cofounder and CEO of Circle. As he looked out the window of his office at Circle’s HQ, his gaze fell once again on the fortress-like Federal Reserve building, the center of the US financial ...
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