Circle Acquisition of Poloniex and More

It is no secret that movement within the crypto market initiates a reaction from investors. Price swings usually result to either investors panicking to buy or sell their digital currencies.

Despite the shaky cryptocurrency price recently for Bitcoin and other altcoins, Circle, a cryptocurrency startup has been benefitting from both the ups and downs of the market. According to Jeremy Allaire, “In this market, you have to assume regular 20% swings”. Circle is one of the biggest trading desks for cryptocurrencies. This means that they act as an intermediary for whales and shoppers.

Circle Trade and Circle’s Vision

One of the reasons for the gains of Circle is Circle Trade. Handling more than $2 billion monthly in crypto transactions with a minimum deal size of $250,000, they cater to different investors from those who are already cashing in to hedge funds and to those that have hosted ICOs. In fact, Circle Trade has brought around $60 million in revenue from November to January alone.

There are also other ventures that Circle got involved in. It has Circle Pay app that allows the users to send money in a convenient way. It is also going to launch Circle Invest, which allows and encourages small investments in cryptocurrencies. And also, you have Centre Protocol which is an open-source project that is designed to make different digital wallets that can operate with each other.

Buying Poloniex

Circle has announced that it has bought Poloniex, which is an active cryptocurrency exchange. With this investment, Circle paid around $400 million. This acquisition made Circle a threat to companies such as Coinbase, Bittrex, as well as Kraken. With the contribution of the cryptocurrency exchange, Circle’s income over the last three months not including February has already exceeded $250 million.

The goal of Circle is to lay the groundwork for cryptocurrencies. And this would actually pay dividends once cryptocurrencies are no longer that volatile and the utility of digital tokens go mainstream.

What Made Circle Successful over the Years?

If you will take a closer look at what Circle did as a strategy in order to grow to what it is today, it has found its way working with regulators. In fact, in 2013, during the early days of cryptocurrencies when it was used mainly for dark-web activities, founder Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville, Circle’s president was asked in a conference in London what they will do if they were presented with a subpoena to unveil customer information. Allaire didn’t hesitate to answer—Hell yeah, of course. With this, despite causing a ruckus among investors, it has attracted big investors including Goldman Sachs, Baidu which is a Chinese internet company, and Jim Breyer who is known to be one of the earliest backers of Facebook.

By June of 2016, Circle has been valued at $480 million. Now, it has doubled its worth. For both Allaire and Neville, cryptocurrency is an inevitable transition from paper money turning into a code. It is possible that in the next ten years or so, traditional securities could transition towards becoming tokens that are recorded on blockchains. It is also possible that people will have digital assets just as common as having their car, stocks, and other assets.