The crypto market is still in its early days. Though Bitcoin turns 10 years old this month, it is undeniable how there are still a lot of things to be done within the niche. For instance, regulations aren’t exactly unified when it comes to dealing with crypto-related businesses and cryptos as a whole. For this reason, the top position for crypto-related companies is still up for grabs. And Circle is among those players that have a clear goal to become a market leader within the niche.
Circle has been doing a lot of in the industry today. Today, from what started as a peer-to-peer payment company that existed five years ago, now, the company has been buying exchanges and startups. And though the crypto market is in a hunch, Circle is here to stay.
The latest move by the company is to acquire equity-fundraising startup SeedInvest. Though nothing to do with cryptos, CEO Jeremy Allaire explained that it is in anticipation for a financial system that is going digital. He said that “If we zoom out, there’s going to be this tokenization of everything”. He added that “Eventually these marketplaces will have tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of assets—so the next piece was a broker dealer”.
The timing is also quite tricky for acquiring the startup. Circle has bought the crypto exchange called Poloniex. It has also introduced a dollar-backed stable coin. And yes, despite the criticisms of Tether, this has been a brave move.
Same Vision As Circle
According to SeedInvest CEO Ryan Feit, SeedInvest’s crowdfunding strategy is ultimately a “cousin” of how cryptos raise funds via ICOs. What SeedInvest does is connect the fellow startups with different investors online. It has a broker-dealer license that makes this possible. This is a great alternative considering ICOs have been rampant with fraud.
He said that “We’re chasing a similar vision of changing the way businesses raise capital”, He also added that “It’s a different form of enabling companies to raise money, and another form of alternative assets for investors”.
This can be a good experiment for them. In fact, aside from the fact that the crypto craze attracted retail investors to invest billions last year, crowdfunding method has also raised $12 billion in this year alone according to a report by Autonomous Next.
Allaire believes that “it was an incredible experiment in crowdfunding, and tokens and smart contracts as new capital formation model”. He also said that “the growth in ICOs were really pivotal moment for this concept of how can businesses issue digital investment contracts directly over the internet, from all around the world”.
Blockchain As Future?
The reason why Circle invested so much money in the crypto market today is the fact that they truly believe that this is something that can become bigger in the coming years. As he believes that there will be a “tokenization of everything”, could these investments actually make much more sense in the future? He even said that cryptocurrencies will “make the web look like a cute experiment, comparatively speaking”. But of course, it is still quite early to tell.
