Circle, which is a cryptocurrency startup funded by Goldman Sachs has just bought Poloniex, which is a digital-based exchange for tokens. Following the takeover, on Monday representatives from Circle stated that the takeover of Poloniex is part of the company's aim to "cement its position" as the key player in the emerging market.
Even though the total amount of the buyout is not officially stated by either party, the Fortune Magazine speculates that the deal is worth $400 million, which does not come as surprise because Poloniex supports 70 tokens and digital currencies and has a daily trading volume of over $2 billion.
Mr. Jeremy Allaire, CEO, and Co-Founder of Circle commented on the buyout that the team at Circle is really impressed in the purchase. He also stated that Poloniex originally shaped the thoughts people had about altcoin exchanges.
For those who are not familiar with Circle, it is a P2P payment application that makes use of the blockchain technology and is one of the key players in the over-counter market when it comes to trading in bitcoins and will soon be launching an app that focusses on retail buying of cryptocurrencies.
Apart from Goldman Sachs, Chinese technology company Baidu is also one of its key investors. The founders of Circle mentioned that the acquisition has been discussed with their investors and regulators and the deal was closed on Friday.
As per trading site Coinmarketcap, the value of cryptocurrencies has skyrocketed since the beginning of 2017 when the total valuation was around $17 billion. The current valuation of cryptocurrencies had topped at $800 billion in January 2018.
Source: Poloniex Press Release, Circle Press Release