US cryptocurrency company Circle has raked in $440m from a funding round.
The round saw participation from Marshall Wace, Willet Advisors, Fidelity Management and Research Company, Atlas Merchant Capital, Intersection Fintech Ventures, Breyer Capital, FTX, Digital Currency Group, Pillar VC and Valor Capital Group.
Launched in 2013, Circle enables businesses to harness stablecoins and public blockchains for payments, commerce and financial applications worldwide. The firm’s platform has supported over 100 million transactions and has nearly 10 million retail customers and stores and secures more than $5bn in digital currency assets.
The company also created the USD Coin (USDC), which the firm claims is the fastest growing, fully-reserved and regulated stablecoin that has a $3bn market cap and is adding over 100 million net new digital dollars in circulation week-by-week. In 2021, the USDC has grown by 436% and over 28,000% over the past year.
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said, “As a company, Circle has remained committed to our mission of raising global economic prosperity through the power of digital currency, blockchains and breakthroughs in programmable money.
“The sustained global demand for our services powering the growth of USDC, as the most trusted and well-regulated dollar digital currency, signals that we are one step closer to achieving our mission.
“With powerful backers who are committed to our mission and vision, we will redouble our efforts to expand into new markets, continue driving fundamental technology innovation and grow our team.”
In July last year, Circle raised $25m in a strategic investment from Digital Currency Group. The deal saw Circle also form a partnership with digital asset prime brokerage company Genesis, a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group.
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