Circle’s NYSE Debut—A Vertical-Integration Masterclass
On 5 June 2025 Circle (ticker: CRCL) went public at US $31, opened at US $69 and closed day-one at US $83. By late August the stock had touched US $135, giving the stable-coin issuer an eye-watering 4× pop. The listing—under a U.S. administration that passed the GENIUS Act and unveiled a 160-page “crypto-capital” roadmap—was read on Wall Street as proof that regulated dollar tokens can mint real cash-flow. Circle’s Q2 revenue hit US $658 M; adjusted EBITDA US $126 M. The playbook is vertical integration: USDC + EURC minting (Circle Mint), a SWIFT-replacement network (CPN), custody SDKs, cross-chain teleport (CCTP), gas-abstraction (Paymaster), tokenised T-bill fund (USYC) and, last month, a purpose-built L1 called Arc. Owning every layer—issuance, wallet, bridge, settlement—lets Circle capture the full life-cycle of a digital dollar.

After Circle, Who’s Next? Enter Frax Finance
Public markets offer no pure-play peer, so investors are scanning on-chain. Two protocols issue GENIUS-compliant dollars: Ethena (USDtb) and Frax Finance (frxUSD). Frax wins the narrative because founder Sam Kazemian literally helped draft the GENIUS Act, briefing Senator Cynthia Lummis on Capitol Hill in March. While Ethena moved its issuer vehicle to Anchorage Digital Bank, Frax went further: it re-engineered the entire stack—money, front-end and back-end—around the statute.

Money—frxUSD Is Built to the Statute
Only U.S.-chartered banks, OCC-approved trust companies or state-licensed entities can mint under GENIUS. Frax governance (FIP-432) created FRAX Inc. (Delaware) to apply for such a licence. Reserves must be 1:1 in Fed deposits, ≤93-day T-bills, overnight repo or registered government-only money-market funds. frxUSD’s basket:

• USTB (Superstate short-T-bill fund)

• BUIDL (BlackRock on-chain MMF)

• WTGXX (WisdomTree gov-only MMF)

• USDB (Stripe/Bridge cash token)

• USDC (emergency liquidity sleeve)
  The mix is tokenised, auditable by block and yields 5.2 % gross. The statute bars paying interest “for merely holding” the coin; yield is instead streamed through FraxNet (see below), mirroring how Coinbase pays 4.1 % on platform USDC.

Front-End—FraxNet Wants to Out-Circle Circle
FraxNet is a consumer fintech wrapper:

• Multi-asset on-ramps (wire, ACH, USDC, USDT, PYUSD, RWA tokens) → mint frxUSD

• Embedded smart wallet (Google OAuth → MPC key)

• Dashboard (cross-chain balances, one-click send)

• Auto-yield (bond interest paid in sFRAX or USD)
  Road-map items: virtual Visa cards (Stripe/Bridge), virtual bank accounts (Lead Bank) and a mobile app (H1-2026). The goal is to beat Circle Mint’s UX while keeping users inside the Frax branded layer.

Back-End—Fraxtal, the frxUSD-Optimised L1
Fraxtal launched February 2024—four months before Circle’s Arc. It uses a fast EVM consensus, gas fees payable in FRAX and block rewards that recycle frxUSD reserve yield to validators and dapps. Dozens of “Fraxtal-native” apps (Fraxswap, Fraxlend, frxETH v2) already treat frxUSD as the quote currency. In short, Frax copied the vertical-integration thesis before Circle went public.

Tokenomics—North Star Aligns Everything Around FRAX
March 2025’s “North Star” upgrade:

• Old volatile “FRAX” and “FXS” tickers retired; new unit of account is frxUSD.

• FRAX token becomes the sole gas & governance token for Fraxtal.

• Protocol buy-backs route reserve surplus to FRAX stakers, turning the token into a cash-flowing equity slice of the stable-coin business.
  Kazemian calls FRAX “the Berkshire Hathaway share of decentralised dollars.”

Is Frax a Clone or a Category Leader?
Circle keeps 100 % of the reserve spread; Frax shares it with FRAX holders. Circle sells pick-and-shovel SDKs to banks; Frax builds the consumer bank itself. Circle needed an IPO to monetise equity; Frax turned its token into equity. The blueprint looks similar, but the incentives run in the opposite direction: the more frxUSD minted, the more cash-flow accrues to on-chain token owners. If GENIUS-compliant dollars become the offshore settlement layer for Web3, Frax Finance argues it is already the vertically integrated, community-owned version of that future—no listing fees, no board seats, just code and a licence application waiting for OCC approval.

Circle’s NYSE Debut—A Vertical-Integration Masterclass
On 5 June 2025 Circle (ticker: CRCL) went public at US $31, opened at US $69 and closed day-one at US $83. By late August the stock had touched US $135, giving the stable-coin issuer an eye-watering 4× pop. The listing—under a U.S. administration that passed the GENIUS Act and unveiled a 160-page “crypto-capital” roadmap—was read on Wall Street as proof that regulated dollar tokens can mint real cash-flow. Circle’s Q2 revenue hit US $658 M; adjusted EBITDA US $126 M. The playbook is vertical integration: USDC + EURC minting (Circle Mint), a SWIFT-replacement network (CPN), custody SDKs, cross-chain teleport (CCTP), gas-abstraction (Paymaster), tokenised T-bill fund (USYC) and, last month, a purpose-built L1 called Arc. Owning every layer—issuance, wallet, bridge, settlement—lets Circle capture the full life-cycle of a digital dollar.

After Circle, Who’s Next? Enter Frax Finance
Public markets offer no pure-play peer, so investors are scanning on-chain. Two protocols issue GENIUS-compliant dollars: Ethena (USDtb) and Frax Finance (frxUSD). Frax wins the narrative because founder Sam Kazemian literally helped draft the GENIUS Act, briefing Senator Cynthia Lummis on Capitol Hill in March. While Ethena moved its issuer vehicle to Anchorage Digital Bank, Frax went further: it re-engineered the entire stack—money, front-end and back-end—around the statute.

Money—frxUSD Is Built to the Statute
Only U.S.-chartered banks, OCC-approved trust companies or state-licensed entities can mint under GENIUS. Frax governance (FIP-432) created FRAX Inc. (Delaware) to apply for such a licence. Reserves must be 1:1 in Fed deposits, ≤93-day T-bills, overnight repo or registered government-only money-market funds. frxUSD’s basket:

• USTB (Superstate short-T-bill fund)

• BUIDL (BlackRock on-chain MMF)

• WTGXX (WisdomTree gov-only MMF)

• USDB (Stripe/Bridge cash token)

• USDC (emergency liquidity sleeve)
  The mix is tokenised, auditable by block and yields 5.2 % gross. The statute bars paying interest “for merely holding” the coin; yield is instead streamed through FraxNet (see below), mirroring how Coinbase pays 4.1 % on platform USDC.

Front-End—FraxNet Wants to Out-Circle Circle
FraxNet is a consumer fintech wrapper:

• Multi-asset on-ramps (wire, ACH, USDC, USDT, PYUSD, RWA tokens) → mint frxUSD

• Embedded smart wallet (Google OAuth → MPC key)

• Dashboard (cross-chain balances, one-click send)

• Auto-yield (bond interest paid in sFRAX or USD)
  Road-map items: virtual Visa cards (Stripe/Bridge), virtual bank accounts (Lead Bank) and a mobile app (H1-2026). The goal is to beat Circle Mint’s UX while keeping users inside the Frax branded layer.

Back-End—Fraxtal, the frxUSD-Optimised L1
Fraxtal launched February 2024—four months before Circle’s Arc. It uses a fast EVM consensus, gas fees payable in FRAX and block rewards that recycle frxUSD reserve yield to validators and dapps. Dozens of “Fraxtal-native” apps (Fraxswap, Fraxlend, frxETH v2) already treat frxUSD as the quote currency. In short, Frax copied the vertical-integration thesis before Circle went public.

Tokenomics—North Star Aligns Everything Around FRAX
March 2025’s “North Star” upgrade:

• Old volatile “FRAX” and “FXS” tickers retired; new unit of account is frxUSD.

• FRAX token becomes the sole gas & governance token for Fraxtal.

• Protocol buy-backs route reserve surplus to FRAX stakers, turning the token into a cash-flowing equity slice of the stable-coin business.
  Kazemian calls FRAX “the Berkshire Hathaway share of decentralised dollars.”

Is Frax a Clone or a Category Leader?
Circle keeps 100 % of the reserve spread; Frax shares it with FRAX holders. Circle sells pick-and-shovel SDKs to banks; Frax builds the consumer bank itself. Circle needed an IPO to monetise equity; Frax turned its token into equity. The blueprint looks similar, but the incentives run in the opposite direction: the more frxUSD minted, the more cash-flow accrues to on-chain token owners. If GENIUS-compliant dollars become the offshore settlement layer for Web3, Frax Finance argues it is already the vertically integrated, community-owned version of that future—no listing fees, no board seats, just code and a licence application waiting for OCC approval.