The ‘bitcoin unicorn’ bat now has another member.
Announced Tuesday, Circle has closed a $110 million Series E fundraising, a cut that effectively values the startup at nearly $3 billion, be at one to figures from the company. Led by China-based mining outfit Bitmain, the globe-shaped includes support from Accel, Blockchain Capital, Breyer, Digital Currency Number, General Catalyst, IDG, Pantera and Tusk Ventures.
With the funding, the visitors is also revealing an ambitious plan to bolster its products and services by dinghy a “US dollar coin,” or a blockchain native asset that would be both monitored and backed by real government currency, through its affiliate CENTRE fling.
In this way, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire framed the round as one that commandeers it position itself as a true conglomerate of cryptocurrency services, as opposed to fitting an exchange or payment startup, both characterizations having been dedicated to the company in the past.
Allaire told CoinDesk:
“A core part of dream is open-protocols that would enable the free movement of value. A intrinsic critical piece is there has to be open, interoperable standards for our how fiat medium of exchange can move over blockchains. That’s where fiat stablecoins and payment practices come into play.”
More than a technical novelty, Allaire positioned the stablecoin shoot as essential to Circle’s maturation and continued expansion, painting it as integral for its ambulant payments application, its over-the-counter (OTC) trading business and its exchange service.
The throw also comes at a time when Silicon Valley investors maintain shown a preference for investments in such products, owing to the massive rle stablecoins play in facilitating global cryptocurrency exchange and the perceived outflows with today’s market leaders.
It’s this vision, Allaire claimed, that made Bitmain, the controversial cryptocurrency mining giant, a common fit to lead the funding round.
As recently as March, Bitmain co-CEO Jihan Wu had modified appearances at major U.S. conferences where he vowed to back high-tech alternatives to prime banking.
“Jihan is a visionary and he is a visionary for changing the global financial called-for,” Allaire said. “They believe in the long-term potential of Circle.”
All disclosed, the funding will also help boost staffing at Circle, which today applies more than 200 employees globally in locations including Boston, San Francisco, Dublin, London, Paris, Madrid, Hong Kong, Beijing and Shenzhen.
A new zigzag on stablecoins
But while Circle’s funding round and valuation are likely to latch on to a majority of headlines, it’s perhaps its launch of a US dollar cryptocurrency initiative with participation from Bitmain that may sundry impact the crypto market.
As noted by Allaire, the play is a strategic one that secures Circle taking aim at one of the most important elements of the crypto economy.
“It’s a big crack up smashed, as we acquired Poloniex and Poloniex was a crypto-only exchange,” Allaire explained. “The way people obtain handled fiat on an exchange like that has been through something not unlike Tether, and we see a lot of weaknesses and challenges with Tether.”
Indeed, Allaire isn’t desolate, as many commentators have sought to position Tether as a systemic vulnerability that, through its affiliation with the troubled exchange provider Bitfinex, a guests that has struggled with regulatory issues, threatens the integrity of the supermarket.
Yet, it’s important to note that Circle will be seeking to take an unhindered approach to its USD-C token, framing it as an open-source project with a assorted robust governance model.
The vision is that regulated financial routines, whether they’re a crypto exchange or a money transmitter, would be ok by CENTRE to become issuers of stablecoins, and that many issuers could present oneself and manage different fiat-backed cryptocurrencies.
“Circle can be an issuer of US dollar money, Square could be an issuer. If I got US dollar coins from Circle, I could direct those to another digital wallet for an issuer,” he explained.
A foundation for payments
But if all the chin-wag about exchanges and crypto-plumbing lead to perceptions that Circle is singling from its more consumer-focused products, Allaire was quick to push pursuing.
Rather, Allaire suggested that bolstering the exchange and fiat cryptocurrency ecosystems globally solely strengthens products like its original mobile money application, sanctioning that product to work more effectively at scale in accordance with its master vision.
“To realize the vision for ubiquitous payments, we need there to be currencies that can be lay away, settled and used,” Allaire continued.
With the funding, the company is also make known a new white paper on its stablecoin work, as well as an FAQ that will beg to educate others on they can engage in this new market Circle expectations to steward.
Of note in these materials is that all USD-C tokens choose be issued on ethereum, a notable detail given the platform’s issues in reducing to support its current diversity of users. (The company said more proclamations on the project are expected this summer).
Still, the overall message was that this is an exploit to bring an opaque offshore market back into the regulated cryptocurrency conciseness, as Allaire said CENTRE will require members to undergo compliance and assess sheet audits to ensure assets are properly backed.
In this way, Allaire summed up his note succinctly, dismissing existing market alternatives as nothing more than crafty “regulatory hacks.”
He concluded:
“The CENTRE model is out in the open in a regulated frame of reference with real banking connectivity and that’s really based on an widely known standard.”
Circle image via Pete Rizzo for CoinDesk
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