Binance buys $100 million stake in Circle, expands partnership

Sept 22 (Reuters) - Circle ‌said on ​Tuesday ​that Binance has purchased a $100 million stake in the stablecoin issuer, deepening the crypto ‌exchange's ties with the company behind USDC, a ⁠major dollar-pegged token.

Circle shares were last up nearly 2% in ‌premarket trading.

Here are more ‌details:

• Circle disclosed in a regulatory filing that on September 17, it issued and sold roughly ​1.24 million shares to Binance at a purchase price of $80.84 per share.

• Circle is the issuer ⁠of USDC, a dollar-pegged stablecoin with a market capitalization of nearly $75 ​billion, according to CoinMarketCap data.

• Stablecoins are digital tokens designed to maintain a stable value, ​typically pegged to currencies such ‌as the US dollar. They have grown popular as a faster way to ⁠move money across crypto markets and are increasingly being used for payments.

• The expanded commercial arrangement has a ⁠five-year term, although either Circle or Binance can terminate it ​early under certain specified circumstances.

• "Under the arrangements, we agreed to pay Binance a monthly incentive fee," Circle said.

• The company ‌added that Binance has agreed to undertake certain other activities to promote USDC ‌on its platform.

• Shares of Circle are up roughly ⁠19% so far ‌this year, giving it ​a market cap of about $24 billion.

(Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh ‌Kuber)

---

Serious News for Serious Traders! Try StreetInsider.com Premium Free!

---

You May Also Be Interested In

• Wall St futures steady with focus on Mideast talks, US-China summit
• International Criminal Court convicts Central African militia leader
• Thirty thousand mistakes. How red and blue states added non-citizens to the US voter rolls