Oh baby, baby. All I have to say about Circle’s official public launch is that it is worth the wait.

The company is launching its site to the masses and internationally today, available in English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Japanese and Chinese — enough to initially cover 40% of the global population. Its account balances will render in over 160 different currencies, responsive to the individual user’s IP address, and the same deposit and withdrawal limits will apply for all new users. Circle will slash or eliminate its $10 sign-up bonus, but that is AOK to me given the company’s continued commitment to fee-less transactions.

For a sizable portion of the Bitcoin early adopter crowd, Circle won’t feel like bitcoin, it will feel like banking 2.0.

Although anyone will be able to open an account with an email address and phone number, Circle’s international users won’t be able to connect bank accounts just yet. They will, however, be able to deposit money for a small fee from any Visa or Mastercard card. Perhaps more importantly, users will be able to send bitcoin to new email addresses or user anywhere in the world via the company’s beautiful, confidence-inspiring web wallet. Circle seems content to launch internationally and on-board early adopters before unveiling formal banking partnerships — an intriguing strategy. The second that Circle signs a deal with a bank in Latin America or Africa or Southeast Asia, free international remittances could actually become a reality.

The company’s mobile wallets are also “imminent,” and I was shown both the Android and iOS apps during my visit to the company’s rapidly growing office in Boston. The Android app will be full-featured from Day 1, while the iOS app will not allow deposits or withdrawals due to the App Store’s policies.

CEO Jeremy Allaire was characteristically tightlipped about specifics regarding his company’s underwriters (“they are highly rated”), banking partners (“we have a great US partner; not ready to talk about international banks yet”), future products (“we are focused on this initial roll-out”) and KYC/AML policies (“we’ve spent a lot of time on this during the beta”). Others will have more to say about the launch, but since I can’t get any proprietary intel out of the team, I won’t drone on.

Suffice it to say, I think they are continuing to knock it out of the park with their early products. Circle has been stress testing its site for months in anticipation of its broader public launch. We’ll see how it holds up as its user base explodes from low five figures into (probably) the six figures this week.

If this can’t spark a rally, I don’t know what can.

Circle’s Blog Post: https://www.circle.com/2014/09/29/circle-opens-doors-global-audience