Crypto focused financial services firm Circle disclosed that it had achieved trading volume of $24 billion through trades executed over the counter (OTC) in 2018.
A Medium blogpost which carried the information also carried the following statement from the company:
“At the other end of the spectrum, our OTC trading business, Circle Trade, has continued to expand despite a tumultuous year for the industry: we onboarded a record number of new institutional clients (more on that below), grew our trading operations to 24/7 with coverage in the US, Europe and Asia, and added significant workflow improvements, including the launch of our RFQ Electronic API.”
The company further stated that “Circle Trade executed, more than 10,000 OTC trades, with nearly 600 distinct counterparties, across 36 different crypto assets.”
Circle also commented about the stablecoin – US Dollar Coin (USDC) – it introduced in partnership with the cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase. Speaking of the stablecoin, Circle said, “This approach has been widely supported on the market, with USDC rapidly rising to be the second largest fiat stablecoin by market cap ($280 million at the time of writing), growing at almost 10 percent per week and becoming the largest fiat token in 2019.”
Notably, last year, the company had also taken over cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex. At that time, Circle said, “It was one of the first exchanges in the world to offer significant liquidity in ethereum, it was the first exchange to reach a daily volume of $1 billion and it continued to boost innovation by hosting a wide range of carefully selected tokens. Customers have traded crypto assets worth billions of dollars via the Poloniex platform.”
In addition to these remarkable achievements, it is also important to remember that Circle has allegedly established preferential treatment links with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
By acquiring Poloniex, “Circle will become the first regulated crypto exchange in the United States of America and provide a platform for all types of tokens, including tokens deemed to be security.”
It is interesting to note that the company has also approached the Securities and Exchange Commission concerning the registration of “the new entity as a broker with regulatory bodies such as SEC and FINRA and would, in turn, be licensed as an electronic marketplace.” Pleased with the developments, the SEC has guaranteed close cooperation with Circle.
