Furious Arca CIO Slams Circle For “Measly” IPO Allocation, Vows To Cut All Ties

Arca CIO Jeff Dorman has slammed USD Coin (USDC) issuer Circle for giving the company a “measly” allocation during its initial public offering (IPO) yesterday, and vowed to cut all ties with the firm.

“I cannot believe our efforts to help you grow for years culminated in you giving us a joke, throwaway allocation,” Dorman wrote in an open letter entitled “F*ck you!” to Circle shared in a now-deleted X post.

That’s after Dorman said Arca placed an order to invest $10 million in Circle IPO shares months ago, but only received “a measly” $135,000 allocation, which is just 1.35% of the order. 

Circle Accused Of Favoring TradFi Investors During IPO

Dorman accused the stablecoin issuer of favoring traditional finance investors and institutions over Arca, who he claims has been a loyal backer of Circle over the years.

“You decide to give fat allocations to TradFi mutual funds and hedge funds who likely didn’t even read your prospectus, have no wallets, and will never use your product,” he wrote in the letter.

His comments come after Circle’s shares surged 168% following the company’s debut on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) yesterday, data from Yahoo Finance shows.

The IPO had substantial interest, and was oversubscribed and also upsized twice. Initially, the company wanted to sell shares for $25, but later decided to sell 32 million shares for between $27 and $28.

Dorman Says Arca Will Close Accounts With Circle

Usually, an oversubscribed funding round reduces the allocations investors were promised. Despite this, Dorman feels his company got the short end of the stick and said that Arca will close all of its clients’ accounts with the stablecoin issuer. 

“We will also tell all of our customers and LPs in our funds how Circle operates, and we hope they too pull their business from you,” he said in the letter to Circle.