Circle, the fintech best known for the USDC stablecoin, is going public by merging with the special acquisition (SPAC) vehicle Concord Acquisition Corp (CAC) listed on the NYSE. The transaction values Circle at $4.5 billion and the company will have assets of more than $1.1 billion.
Jeremy Allaire will stay on as CEO. The Chairman of CAC is Bob Diamond, the former CEO of Barclays Bank, who stepped down after regulator intervention over Barclays’ involvement in manipulating the LIBOR interest rate benchmark. Although Barclays was not the only culprit, the manipulation contributed to the abandonment of LIBOR as the benchmark interest rate. The Financial Times described Diamond as the ‘face of “casino” capitalism’. Diamond will join Circle’s board.
Under Circle’s management, the USDC stablecoin has grown from a market capitalization of around $1 billion a year ago to $25 billion today. The stablecoin was founded by Centre, a joint initiative with Coinbase, but is managed by Circle on a day-to-day basis. According to Circle’s announcement, the USDC has supported more than $785 billion in on-chain transactions.
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