Circle, Inc. Sells OTC Desk to Kraken, Focusing on Stablecoin

Published on 18 December 2019 by Cryptovest Staff

Circle is slowly shedding its crypto trading assets, ahead of potentially stricter regulations in the coming year.

Circle, Inc., the fintech company that made a foray into crypto trading, is now rolling back its decisions. The firm sold its OTC trading desk to Kraken, while announcing a readiness to focus on its stablecoin.

https://twitter.com/circlepay/status/1207049114678112257

“We’re announcing today that we have sold the Circle Trade OTC business to Kraken. We have known and admired Jesse and his team at Kraken for many years, and we have every confidence and expectation that Circle Trade customers and partners will continue to find best-in-class OTC liquidity service and responsiveness through Kraken going forward,” the Circle team announced in a recent blog posting.

Circle will now focus on the potential of stablecoins, to transfer dollar value over public blockchains. USDC has been one of the most actively growing stablecoins, which operates in a fully legal and transparent manner. The asset is also used as a fiat on and off ramp for spot markets.

USDC now has a supply above 474 million coins, as USD Coin now sits close to the top 20 of all digital assets by market capitalization. In 2019, the coin grew its supply from around 226 million coins to its current level.

Circle has also wound down the activity of the Circle Pay app, and will focus on the potential of stablecoins for crypto adoption. Such a move uses Circle’s positioning as a fully legalized US entity, and its stablecoin may be the first mainstream asset to boost crypto adoption without price risk.

“The global interest in stablecoins and digital currency backed by central bank money, the introduction of third generation public blockchains, and the accelerated global policy interest in crypto all provide an exciting backdrop for our new platform services in 2020. We are excited to get these technologies into the hands of creative developers and businesses everywhere,” Circle announced.

Stablecoins have been viewed as a risk, especially when Facebook intended to launch its Libra asset. But in the case of USDC, the asset may be accepted as it has already built a significant history of usage through transparent exchanges.