Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, has come to a mutual agreement with Concord Acquisition Corp, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), to terminate acquisition plans that would have made it a publicly-traded company.
Originally announced in July 2021 and amended in February 2022, the SPAC deal was supposed to see the stablecoin issuer go public at a $9 billion valuation. The deal was still open until December 10, but has now been terminated five days before the deadline. The stablecoin issuer stated that the latest decision was approved by the Board of Directors of both firms.
Failure to Complete SEC’s Qualification
In a Twitter post on Monday, Jeremy Allaire, the co-founder and CEO of Circle, said the termination was initiated because the company did not complete the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) qualification in time, adding that Circle’s plan to go public remains on the table.
“I believe that the SEC has been rigorous and thorough in understanding our business and many novel aspects of this industry. This kind of review is necessary to ultimately provide trust, transparency, and accountability for major companies in crypto,” he said.
Circle Records $43M Net Income in Q3
Allaire also revealed the company’s financial results for the third quarter (Q3), with $274 million in revenue, $43 million in net income, and $400 million in unrestricted cash.
USDC, which is Circle’s flagship product, is currently the second-largest stablecoin and fifth-largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of $43 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.
“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 said.
Meanwhile, with the latest decision, Circle has joined industry firms, including trading platform eToro and crypto miner Prime Blockchain to cancel plans to go public via a SPAC deal this year.
