- Stablecoin issuer Circle announced on Monday that its $9 billion plan to go public via SPAC was off.
- Circle's cofounder says the company is still in "the best financial position we've ever been in."
Circle, the company behind stablecoin USDC, said it will no longer go public via merger with special purpose acquisition company Concord Acquisition Corp. on Monday.
Jeremy Allaire, the cofounder and CEO of Circle, says the company did not complete the US Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) "qualification in time."
"This morning, we announced the termination of our proposed deSPAC transaction. While disappointing that we did not complete SEC qualification in time, we remain focused on building a long-term public company," Allaire tweeted on Monday. A deSPAC refers to the merger between the blank-check firm and its acquisition target.
—Jeremy Allaire (@jerallaire) December 5, 2022
Circle announced plans to go public in July of 2021, with a $4.5 billion valuation in its initial agreement. In February, the company updated those figures to a $9 billion valuation.
In a statement to Insider regarding plans to complete an initial public offering in the future, a Circle spokesperson said: "We are not prepared to put a specific deadline on the decision, but we will be taking steps to continue our journey to go public as soon as practicable."
The company says that it "became profitable" in Q3 2022 with $274 million in revenue and almost $400 million in unrestricted cash. "We are strong, growing, profitable and in the best financial position we've ever been in," Allaire added.
Crypto markets are still reeling from the fallout of FTX, the once $32 billion digital asset empire started by now disgraced founder Sam Bankman-Fried. A number of firms including crypto lender BlockFi have tumbled in bankruptcy, and token prices are struggling to regain their footing.
The Circle spokesperson said that the FTX implosion did not play a role in the decision to terminate the SPAC deal.
"While there are a lot of challenges within the crypto and blockchain industry, I am of the very firm conviction that we are going to decisively leave the speculative value phase and enter the utility value phase, and stablecoins such as USDC will play a huge part," Allaire tweeted.