INTELLIGENCE · PERSON DOSSIER
UPDATED 2026-08-13Jeremy Allaire
Founders & CEOs
Circle · United States
Net worth
$1.4bn (Forbes, August 2026)
Circle stake (proxy)
17,708,642 Class B shares and 56,408 Class A shares — 79.8% of the Class B and 23.9% of total voting power
Circle stake (latest filing)
15,652,309 Class B shares held directly, plus 296,296 Class B via a grantor annuity trust
IPO share sale
Sold 1,582,160 shares at $29.295 net, roughly $46.3m
Follow-on share sale
Sold 357,812 shares at $127.075, roughly $45.5m
Identity & Ownership
Current role
Co-founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Circle Internet Group, Inc.
Circle's IPO prospectus records that he "has served as our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer since our founding in August 2013". He signs Circle's proxy letters as "Co-Founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer".
Born
13 May 1971, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Wikipedia gives the full date and place. Corroborated indirectly: Allaire Corporation's April 2000 proxy lists him as aged 28, and Forbes gives his age as 55 in August 2026.
Nationality
United States
Forbes records his citizenship as the United States and his source of wealth as cryptocurrency, self-made.
Based
Boston, Massachusetts
Forbes lists Boston as his residence. Circle's own filings give his business address as the company's New York headquarters.
Company headquarters
One World Trade Center, 87th Floor, New York, NY 10007
Circle moved its headquarters to 1 World Trade Center during 2025. Allaire told shareholders the move put the company "at the center of the financial industry we are seeking to transform".
Education
BA in philosophy and political science, Macalester College (1993)
Stated in Brightcove's IPO prospectus and repeated in Circle's. Macalester lists him among its notable alumni. He has credited a Montessori education with instilling "a belief in self-direction, in independent thought, in peer collaboration".
Listed vehicle
Circle Internet Group, Inc. (NYSE: CRCL)
Delaware-incorporated; Class A common stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange from 5 June 2025. Formerly Circle Internet Financial Limited, an Irish company, before the 2024 redomiciliation to the United States.
Board position
Chairman of the board; the only non-independent director
Circle states that every director other than Allaire is independent under NYSE listing standards. Because he chairs the board as CEO, the board appointed a lead independent director, Rajeev Date. Allaire sits in Class I and on the board's strategy committee.
Control
Holds Class B shares carrying five votes each; founders capped at 30% of total voting power
Class B common stock is held only by Allaire, co-founder P. Sean Neville and entities they control. It carries five votes per share, but the aggregate voting power of the class cannot exceed 30%. The class converts automatically if Allaire is neither CEO nor chairperson.
Recognition
TIME100, 2026
Circle's leadership page states he was named in 2026 to the TIME100 list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Not independently verified against TIME.
Media platform
Host, The Money Movement
A Circle-produced video and podcast series he has hosted since 2020, running to more than 100 episodes across five seasons, interviewing figures in digital money and policy.
Personal Wealth & Holdings
Net worth
$1.4bn (Forbes, August 2026)
Forbes ranks him #2845 in the world, with the wealth sourced to cryptocurrency and marked self-made. A real-time index figure, not an audited number.
Circle stake (proxy)
17,708,642 Class B shares and 56,408 Class A shares — 79.8% of the Class B and 23.9% of total voting power
Beneficial ownership disclosed in Circle's first proxy statement as a public company, measured as of the 2026 record date. Includes shares issuable on RSU vesting and options exercisable within 60 days, and 335,684 Class B shares held by the Allaire 2025 Qualified Annuity Trust.
Circle stake (latest filing)
15,652,309 Class B shares held directly, plus 296,296 Class B via a grantor annuity trust
Position reported after sales on 5 August 2026. He also held 398,179 Class A shares directly and roughly 61,830 in each of four family trusts of which his legal counsel is sole trustee.
IPO share sale
Sold 1,582,160 shares at $29.295 net, roughly $46.3m
Reported on Form 4 for 6 June 2025. He was one of the selling stockholders in Circle's IPO; the shares converted from Class B to Class A on sale. Figure derived by multiplying the reported share count by the reported net price.
Follow-on share sale
Sold 357,812 shares at $127.075, roughly $45.5m
Reported on Form 4 for 18 August 2025, as part of Circle's secondary offering at $130.00 a share. Figure derived from the reported share count and net price.
Compensation, 2025
$16,260,836 total
Salary $900,000, bonus $500,000, stock awards $8,999,974, non-equity incentive $1,764,000 and other compensation $4,096,862. He also realised $16,858,739 on 317,065 shares vesting during 2025.
Compensation, 2024
$12,245,017 total
Salary $900,000, stock awards $8,999,983, non-equity incentive $1,568,700 and other compensation $776,334. His 2023 total was $10,060,553.
Personal security paid by Circle
Company-funded personal security during travel and at his residence
Circle discloses that it pays for personal security "to address safety concerns arising as a result of his position with the Company", and treats the cost as required for Circle's benefit. It is the largest single component of his "all other compensation".
Trading plan
Sells under a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan
Form 4 filings from late 2025 onwards record monthly sales made pursuant to a pre-arranged 10b5-1 plan, alongside parallel sales by four family trusts.
Giving vehicle
Circle Foundation; Pledge 1%
In his 2026 letter to shareholders Allaire wrote that Circle "launched the Circle Foundation, our philanthropic initiative dedicated to advancing financial resilience and inclusion", and that through Pledge 1% the company committed 1% of its equity and resources to charitable giving and community programmes.
Severance terms
$4.5m cash severance, rising to $5.58m plus $42.0m of accelerated equity on a change of control
Circle's disclosed potential payments assuming a qualifying termination on 31 December 2025.
Background
Co-founder, Allaire Corporation (1995)
Founded with his elder brother Joseph J. "JJ" Allaire. The company's IPO prospectus records that at formation it issued 2,040,000 shares to JJ Allaire for $51,000 and 40,000 shares to "Jeremy D. Allaire, the brother of Joseph J. Allaire", for $1,000. Its products were ColdFusion, HomeSite and JRun.
Chief Technology Officer
He was not an executive officer or director at the January 1999 IPO — JJ Allaire held the chairman and CTO titles then. Allaire Corporation's April 2000 proxy lists "Jeremy D. Allaire, 28, Chief Technology Officer" among the executive officers. Circle's own filings describe him as "co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Allaire Corporation".
Allaire Corporation listed on Nasdaq (ALLR), 22 January 1999
2,500,000 shares at $20.00, raising $50m gross and $46.5m net to the company. Backed by Polaris Venture Partners; Lotus 1-2-3 creator and Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder Mitchell Kapor sat on the board.
Macromedia acquired Allaire Corporation for about $360m, announced 16 January 2001
Macromedia exchanged 0.2 of its shares plus $3 in cash for each Allaire share, valuing the deal at approximately $360m fully diluted. The merger completed in March 2001; Allaire Corporation deregistered its stock on 21 March 2001.
January 2001 to February 2003
He joined Macromedia through the Allaire merger and worked on the Macromedia MX platform and the development of Flash as an application and video runtime. Dates as stated in Brightcove's IPO prospectus.
Technologist and entrepreneur-in-residence, General Catalyst Partners, March 2003 to August 2004
He incubated the idea that became Brightcove during this period. General Catalyst was co-founded in 2000 by David Orfao, who had been Allaire Corporation's president and chief executive.
Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Brightcove, 2004 to 2013
The online video platform he founded after leaving General Catalyst. He was CEO and chairman from founding until 31 March 2013, then executive chairman, resigning from the board on 28 April 2016.
Brightcove listed on Nasdaq (BCOV), 17 February 2012
5,000,000 shares at $11.00, raising $55m gross and $51.15m net to the company, underwritten by Morgan Stanley. Shares were delivered on 23 February 2012.
Built NativeNet and World News Report while at Macalester, 1990-93
NativeNet was a UUCP-based communications platform for Native American tribal schools; World News Report was an early news aggregation service. He also worked with Noam and Carol Chomsky between 1994 and 1996 on an online archive of Chomsky's political writing.
Authored a National Information Network proposal submitted to Al Gore's Senate science and technology subcommittee, 1992
Written while an undergraduate, three years before he founded his first company and two decades before his first congressional testimony.
Four appearances on the published record between 2013 and 2023
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (18 November 2013), Senate Banking (30 July 2019, on behalf of the Blockchain Association), House Financial Services (8 December 2021 and 13 June 2023). Circle's prospectus describes this as a founding principle: "walking in through the front door of regulators and policymakers".
Member, IMF High-Level Advisory Group on FinTech
Listed on his Milken Institute speaker biography, which also records him as an expert witness before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee. Not verified against an IMF membership list.
Testified before the Senate on behalf of the Blockchain Association, 2019
The published hearing record titles his statement "Jeremy Allaire, Cofounder, CEO, and Chairman, Circle Internet Financial Limited, on behalf of the Blockchain Association".
Attended the White House signing of the GENIUS Act, 18 July 2025
In his remarks the President named him among the industry leaders present: "Jeremy Allaire of Circle. It's a big day. Good job, Jeremy." Circle's own reserve-backed model became the template the Act codified.
Brother of Joseph J. "JJ" Allaire, creator of ColdFusion
Allaire Corporation's proxy states plainly: "Joseph J. Allaire and Jeremy Allaire are brothers." JJ Allaire went on to found RStudio, now Posit.
Told Fortune in 2013 he had not planned to start another company
Speaking a few months after leaving the Brightcove chief executive role and shortly after founding Circle.
Notable Coverage
25 items
New York grants Circle a limited purpose trust charter
Circle receives final OCC approval for a national trust bank
Circle reports $2.7bn of 2025 revenue and a loss driven by IPO share-based charges
Circle raises $1.3bn in a follow-on offering at $130 a share
Allaire attends the White House signing of the GENIUS Act
Circle lists on the New York Stock Exchange at $31 a share
Circle becomes the first global stablecoin issuer to comply with the EU's MiCA regime
FT Partners sues Circle over advisory fees
Circle states it "properly and effectively terminated" the engagements and "strenuously disputes" the fee demand, saying the transactions were conducted without the adviser's assistance.
Circle buys out Coinbase's half of Centre and takes sole control of USDC
Allaire tells Congress the dollar is at a crossroads
Poloniex settles with the US Treasury over sanctions breaches for $7.6m
Circle discloses the settlement in its own filings without contesting it.
Silicon Valley Bank's failure strands more than $3bn of USDC reserves
Circle stated the funds were ultimately made available and transferred to new banks, and that redemptions have always been honoured one-for-one.