Boston-based crypto financial firm Circle has announced plans to go public through a merger with Concord Acquisition Corp, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) backed by former Barclays CEO Bob Diamond. The deal values the combined entity at $4.5 billion and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Deal Details and Investor Roster
According to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the merger will generate approximately $691 million in proceeds for the combined company. Additionally, Circle has secured PIPE (private investment in public equity) financing from prominent institutions including Daniel Loeb's Third Point, Ark Investment Management, Marshall Wace, and Fidelity Management & Research Co. Following the transaction, Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire will remain at the helm, while Bob Diamond, chairman of Concord Acquisition and former CEO of Barclays, will join the board of directors.
Circle's Journey and USDC Ecosystem
Founded in 2013 by Sean Neville and Jeremy Allaire, Circle is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Over the past eight years, the company has launched a range of services, most notably the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin in partnership with Coinbase and the Centre consortium. Circle briefly owned the Poloniex exchange before selling it to Voyager Digital in February 2020. Notably, Circle was the first company to receive a BitLicense from the New York State Department of Financial Services in September 2015, underscoring its regulatory compliance focus.
Explosive Growth of USDC Adoption
Circle CFO Jeremy Fox-Geen highlighted the stablecoin's momentum during an investor conference call: "We've seen growing adoption and usage of USDC across an ever-widening range of use cases. While we believe the use case for USDC is the same as for a dollar, for many of those use cases, USDC is the better product." Allaire elaborated on CNBC's Squawk Box: "We operate this market infrastructure of USDC which doesn't have a clear comparable. It's a fundamental innovation in payment systems, so you might think about large payment technology companies." The strong interest from institutional investors and expanding use cases of USDC — from remittances to DeFi — make Circle's public listing a landmark event for the digital asset industry. The company aims to leverage its public status to grow globally and cement its position as a trusted platform in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
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