Circle will go public via a reverse merger with SPAC Concord Acquisition Corp. The cryptocurrency company’s shares will list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CRCL.
1/7 Today, we announced that we have signed definitive agreements for a transaction that will result in Circle becoming a publicly listed company on the NYSE trading under the ticker CRCL. https://t.co/WIK9CUKNIR
— Jeremy Allaire (@jerallaire) July 8, 2021
Circle’s pre-merger valuation was $4.5 billion. Under the terms of the deal, the combined company will receive $415 million in investment commitments at $10 per share. It will be supported by Marshall Wace, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Adage Capital Management, Third Point and other investors, including institutional ones.
An additional $275 million will be added to this amount, raised by Concord during the December 2020 IPO. The merger will bring Circle $691 million, to be used to support growth and development of new products.
Existing Circle shareholders will hold about 86% of the merged company’s shares. The deal is expected to close in Q4 2021.
“Circle was founded with the aim of transforming the global economic system through digital currencies and the open Internet,” said co-founder and chief executive Jeremy Allaire.
According to him, listing on the stock exchange will provide Circle with “capital and connections” to achieve this mission. He noted that the company will enable businesses worldwide to connect to a “more open, inclusive and efficient economic system.”
According to the press release, the central component of Circle’s ecosystem is the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin, which it jointly issues with Coinbase through the Centre consortium.
The company noted that USDC’s market capitalization exceeded $25 billion (about $25.9 billion, according to CoinGecko). Since the start of 2021, on-chain transactions with the asset have totaled more than $758 billion.
In June Circle announced the launch of USDC on the Tron blockchain. Deployment of the asset on this network could intensify competition with the leader of the segment — Tether (USDT). According to the latter’s transparency report, the most USDT (~$32 billion) is issued precisely on Tron.
In addition to USDC, Circle on its payments platform also offers a suite of services based on three main APIs: Payments, Payouts and Digital Dollar Accounts.
Earlier in May 2021, Circle closed a $440 million funding round. Investments were provided by FTX, Digital Currency Group, Fidelity Management, Valor Capital Group and other venture firms.
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