Mobile payments app Circle acquires crypto exchange Poloniex

Mobile payments app Circle is acquiring US-based cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex. Circle is paying $400 million for the acquisition, according to Fortune.

The Poloniex exchange offers trades in 68 different coins, and is currently the 14th largest crypto exchange by 24-hour volume on CoinMarketCap, trading a total of almost $140 million today to press time.

Circle started off as a Bitcoin company that wanted to make bitcoin more accessible. Shortly after this, it started calling itself a social payment company, a Venmo competitor with no mention of bitcoin or cryptos . But looks like its back to where it started off.

The peer-to-peer payment service that was called “Circle” is now called Circle Pay. It also runs Circle Trade, an over-the-counter trading desk for large cryptocurrency investors and exchanges. Then there is upcoming Circle Invest, an app that will allow retail customers to invest in crypto markets.

Fortune says that Circle is also working on Centre, a protocol that is going to make Alipay, PayPal, Circle and other digital wallets interoperable. And if you’re a Poloniex user, Circle says that the transition should be smooth.

"We also look forward to scaling Poloniex up and out through market expansion and localization, increasing token listings where possible and appropriate, and exploring the fiat USD, EUR, and GBP connectivity that Circle already brings to its compliant Pay, Trade, and Invest products,” Circle co-founders Sean Neville and Jeremy Allaire wrote in a blog post.