A spokesperson for USD Coin (USDC) issuer Circle has denied stories that it blames the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over its failed $9 billion plan to go public in December.
The stablecoin issuer consultant was responding to a Jan. 25 Financial Times article which characterised Circle as having “blamed” the securities regulator for its “derailed” itemizing on account of dragging its toes on the approval of a merger settlement.
However, a Circle spokesperson clarified to Cointelegraph that was not the case and that it doesn’t maintain any blame over the SEC for the termination of its merger settlement.
“Circle has not and doesn’t blame the SEC for something associated to the mutual termination of our SPAC merger settlement with Concord, and any statements to the opposite are inaccurate.”
Circle’s listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was pegged on them being able to combine with Concord, a company set up by banker Bob Diamond via a Special Purpose Acquisition Company arrangement, also known as a SPAC deal.
However, according to the FT, Circle said the merger failed to be consummated as a result of the SEC not declaring the related S-4 registration effective in time, which would cause the agreement to lapse on Dec. 10.
Circle’s spokesperson however referred to previous statements made by the company in December, noting that “the deal simply termed out.”
Concord had not publicly disclosed a reason for the failed business combination, but filed an 8-K form with the SEC on Dec. 5 — the same day the deal was announced as terminated — which revealed that it was being delisted by the NYSE due to “abnormally low trading price levels.”
Related: Court to hear oral arguments in Grayscale’s lawsuit against the SEC in March
Indeed, in a Dec, 5 tweet Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire had nothing but positive words regarding the SEC, and noted that while it was disappointing that they were unable to complete qualification in time it was still planning on becoming a publicly-listed company.
2/ From my perspective, I consider that the SEC has been rigorous and thorough in understanding our enterprise and lots of novel features of this trade. This type of evaluation is critical to finally present belief, transparency and accountability for main corporations in crypto.
— Jeremy Allaire (@jerallaire) December 5, 2022
As Cointelegraph had beforehand reported, the deal was first introduced in Jul. 2021 at a valuation of $4.5 billion, earlier than doubling in Feb. 2022 when it was revised up to $9 billion.
