It’s been a long journey for Allaire, who tried to take the stablecoin issuer public through a SPAC merger in 2021 but didn’t get approval from the SEC, which had then questioned how to classify its USD Coin, a form of cryptocurrency backed by the U.S. dollar, and the company itself.

Fast forward and it’s a new day. The GENIUS Act just passed the Senate with bipartisan support and looks likely to become law, providing a federal framework for regulating stablecoins. (The House introduced its own stablecoin bill.) Said Allaire: “No matter what your political affiliation is, sound regulation makes sense, especially when a technology like this is on the cusp of such widespread adoption.”

For Allaire, though, nothing matches the thrill of being under the watch of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “As a financial platform and financial infrastructure company that people are going to build on, where we’re actually issuing a new kind of money, being public really matters,” he said. “Becoming an SEC-regulated and supervised company just strengthens those attributes at a time where stable coin is becoming a global mainstream phenomenon.”

At the end of a long day, Allaire told me he’s grateful to his family, his team, developers that build applications on this technology, and the broad and deep array of investors that helped give Circle a successful debut. But, he says, he doesn’t want to get too caught up in the stock price. “What’s important is that we’re building a great company. We’ve got investors that want to be with us. We’ve got a lot to do.”

More news below.

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com

TOP NEWS

Trump and Musk butt heads

President Donald Trump and Elon Musk traded jabs on social media on Thursday as Musk continues to criticize Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” for raising the budget deficit. Trump’s attacks on Musk, which included threats to cut billions worth of government contracts to Tesla, brought the EV company’s shares down more than 14%. 

Plus: Fortune’s Alexei Oreskovic breaks down which Big Tech figure could replace Musk in Trump's circle.

Anduril raises $2.5 billion

Anduril announced a $2.5 billion funding round on Thursday, giving the defense firm a $30.5 billion valuation. Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund led the round with a $1 billion investment.

Making smartphones on American soil

Meet Purism CEO Todd Weaver, the founder of one of the only smartphone companies that manufactures some of their smartphones in the U.S. He says that the U.S. is disadvantaged when it comes to skilled workers and supply chain costs, but isn’t the manufacturing dead end that some believe it to be.

Judge blocks Trump's Harvard ban

A federal judge in Boston temporarily blocked President Trump’s effort to ban international students from entering the U.S. to enroll at Harvard University. Around a quarter of Harvard’s students come from abroad, and the university relies on their often full-fee tuition payments.

Trump-Xi call doesn't solve mineral shortage

Trump said he had a “very good” call with China's Xi Jinping, but the high-stakes call has yet to resolve a global shortage of rare earth minerals that businesses say could halt production of cars and other industrial goods this summer. China announced new export controls on seven rare earth elements in April. 

Musk cuts ISS delivery craft—or not

Elon Musk said SpaceX would start to decommission its Dragon spacecraft “immediately” because of Trump's threats to cancel government contracts with his businesses. But hours later, Musk said he nixed that decision after an X user urged him to “cool off.” Dragon is the only U.S. option for transporting crew to and from the International Space Station.

Europe's defense bonanza

Europe's rush to boost defense spending in response to Trump's threatened pullback of the U.S. from the world stage has anointed a swathe of industrial winners beyond the obvious defense stocks, running from chemicals producers to goggle makers. 

JPMorgan warns new hires

JPMorgan is telling incoming graduate employees that if they accept future-dated job offers elsewhere within 18 months of starting their analyst program, they will be fired, the Financial Times reports. While JPMorgan did not single out private equity firms, there is an implicit reference to recruiting in which buyout groups offer graduates jobs two years ahead of their expected start date. 

The markets

• The S&P 500 was down 0.5% Wednesday. The index is up 1.0% YTD. 
• S&P futures were trading up 0.5% this morning. 
• The Stoxx Europe 600 was flat in early trading. 
• Asia was mixed: Japan was up 0.5%. Hong Kong dropped 0.5%. Shanghai was flat and India’s Nifty 50 was up 1.0%.
• Bitcoin was sitting up at $103,800 this morning.

From the analysts 

• UBS on May jobs: "The US May employment report is due, with the regular reminders that this data has become increasingly unreliable in recent years, and average earnings are not wages. This month’s data will correct errors that crept into last month’s data. Signs of weakness in restaurant and leisure travel sectors mean fewer lower paid workers may be employed, raising average earnings without affecting wages. But, the Federal Reserve’s “data dependency” means the labor market is seen as a trigger for policy action. Expectations are for fewer jobs to have been created (and the most common forecast is for a payrolls figure below consensus). Firms may have slowed hiring as trade policy uncertainty has increased, but there is unlikely to be an increase in firing. That does mean that rate cuts would have a limited impact right now (although if consumer demand weakens, rate cuts become more important)," per Paul Donovan.
• BofA on jobs and the Fed: "Another busy week in uncertain times. ADP employment and ISM services surprised on the downside, and there was a larger than expected uptick in jobless claims. But the most important release of the week is today's non-farm payrolls. We expect an above-consensus 150k increase to show the labor market remains resilient. This should keep the Fed on hold for an extended period, against a more constructive rates view that the market focusing more on stag than flation seems to have … The 150k forecast we have for payrolls would come aſter a 177k print in April. One of the main reasons we are above consensus is that while firms likely paused the hiring of trade & transportation workers aſter the front-loading driven increase in the previous months, we don't think they would have already started shedding workers. We expect the u-rate to remain at 4.2%," per Claudio Irigoyen et al.
• Goldman Sachs on Section 899: "A provision in the House-passed fiscal package (H.R. 1), would create a new Section 899 of the tax code, which would raise the US tax on many forms of passive income and active business income by 5pp next year, 20pp over four years and, in some cases, as much as 50pp over the next decade. The policy would only apply to entities based in or owned by countries that impose 'discriminatory' taxes on US entities, but these countries are responsible for the majority of foreign investment in the US. These policies could negatively impact holders of US assets, but rather than an intentional effort to discourage demand for US assets to weaken the dollar, the intent of this policy is to pressure other countries to rescind taxes on US multinationals. In fact, most foreign holders of US debt instruments would be exempt from increased tax withholding on interest under the provision, and taxation of capital gains on US equities would not change," per Jan Hatzius et al.

AROUND THE WATERCOOLER

NY Federal Reserve finds a ‘significant share’ of companies saying they raised prices on goods not affected by tariffs by Sasha Rogelberg

Red Lobster’s 36-year-old CEO started as a Goldman Sachs intern. He reveals 3 bold moves he’s cooking up for the seafood chain’s comeback by Sydney Lake

Trump Media files for Bitcoin ETF with SEC as company continues to entrench itself in the crypto world by Paolo Confino

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says AI is ready for entry-level jobs—but unbothered Gen Z have made it their new work friend by Preston Fore

CEO Daily is compiled and edited by Joey Abrams and Ian Mount.