Mapping Out Circle Ventures Portfolio

Circle, founded in 2013 by Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville, is a global financial technology firm behind the second-largest stablecoin, USDC. The stablecoin enables businesses to access liquidity, trade, and settle payments with USD and the recently launched Euro Coin (EUROC). In addition to its flagship business, Circle also operates a crypto venture arm by investing in early-stage companies and helping with go-to-market strategy and infrastructure for its business. 

Many of these investments happen in the DeFi category, which synergizes with Circle's USDC stablecoin ecosystem. Additionally, the firm invests in infrastructure, Layer-1, scaling solutions, or payment applications. Indeed, unlike other most active crypto venture firms, Circle Ventures has DeFi and Infrastructure as their most common portfolio categories. NFTs/Gaming has been the most popular crypto venture category for the past six quarters. However, the Crypto Financial Services category is almost tied with NFTs/Gaming for fourth in Circle Venture's portfolio.