Circle, the company behind USD Coin (USDC), the second largest stablecoin by market capitalization USDC, has denied ever blaming the United Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for failure to complete its $9 billion merger agreement that should have seen it go public.
The stablecoin issuer’s comment was in response to a Jan 25 publication by The Financial Times which claimed that the merger agreement between Circle and Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) Concord Acquisition Corp. failed because the SEC did not approve of it.
The report claimed that the regulator failed to declare Circle’s S-4 registration, a document that allows it to offer new shares effective in time thereby causing the agreement with Concord to lapse on December 10.
According to a spokesperson for the firm, the SEC did not in any way contribute to the failure of the merger deal between the stablecoin issuer and Concord. In Fact, the spokesperson said the deal that would have seen Circle listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) just simply termed out.
Circle Still Plans to go Public
Even though its plan to get publicly listed via its initial SPAC deal was not successful, the firm is still working on being a publicly listed company according to an earlier tweet from Circle’s co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire.
Jeremy in his tweet was full of praise for the SEC after admitting that his firm did complete the SEC’s qualification in time. He further added that the regulator’s thorough and rigorous reviews were necessary requirements to provide transparency and accountability in the sector.
Circle’s SPAC merger with Concord was first announced in July 2021 at a $4.5 billion valuation. It was later doubled in February 2022 after it negotiated a new deal which is reflective of its competitive position and an improvement on its financial outlook. The deal was later terminated earlier in December after board members of both firms reached an understanding.
Meanwhile Peter Thiel-backed cryptocurrency exchange Bullish recently pulled the plug on its SPAC merger agreement with Far Peak Acquisition Corporation a few days before the stipulated deadline.
