Cryptocurrency company Circle has announced that it has terminated its previous agreement with Concord Acquisition Corp., a publicly traded blank-check company — a SPAC. At the same time, it has reached a new deal with Concord Acquisition Corp. for a new merger. If the transaction goes through, Circle would become a public company at a $9 billion valuation.
Originally announced in July 2021, the merger was supposed to close in Q4 2021. And it sounds like Circle wasn’t satisfied with its original deal that valued Circle at $4.5 billion. The company didn’t wait until the termination date of April 3, 2022 to scrap it and sign a new deal.
Circle is better known as one of the founding members of the Centre consortium with Coinbase. This consortium is in charge of managing USD Coin (USDC), a popular stablecoin. At any point in time, one USDC is always worth one USD.
It is backed exclusively by cash, cash equivalent and short-duration U.S. Treasuries. Those reserves are regularly checked by auditing firms. This way, you aren’t exposed to crypto volatility but you can send and receive money from one wallet to another using code — it works like any regular cryptocurrency transaction.
Behind the scenes, USDC is available on several different blockchains. Each blockchain provides different advantages and drawbacks depending on what you’re looking for when it comes to fees, speed and convenience. USDC is currently available on Ethereum, Algorand, Solana, Stellar, Tron, Hedera, Avalanche and Flow.
And USDC usage is growing rapidly. In July 2021, Circle said that there were $25 billion worth of USDC in circulation. That figure has more than doubled as USDC circulation has reached $52.5 billion.
In addition to reserve-related incomes, Circle provides several APIs and yield-generating products. For instance, the company helps you process payments and trigger payouts with simple API calls. It is compatible with many classic payment methods, such as card payments, bank wires and ACH.
Developers can take advantage of those services to create on- and off-ramps for their crypto products. And those “transaction and treasury services”, as Circle calls its API services, are generating most of Circle’s revenue. Some companies using Circle’s transaction and treasury services include Dapper Labs, Compound Labs and FTX.
More recently, Circle started offering Circle Yield. Companies using Circle Yield can generate fixed interests through short-term investments that range from one to 12 months. It’s also worth noting that Circle owns SeedInvest, an equity crowdfunding platform.
Let’s see if Circle finally goes public with this new deal. As TechCrunch’s Alex Wilhelm wrote last year, Circle still thinks it has a lot of growth potential ahead. Instead of betting historical revenue, the company wants investors to bet on future opportunities.
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