Circle buys Poloniex for roughly $400 million

in #circle6 years ago (edited)

In big news this morning, Circle announced the purchase of cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex.

Circle is a cryptocurrency financial services firm.

It also just so happens to be backed by Goldman Sachs.

This could be the start of something very big for Circle and Poloniex as they join forces to compete against the likes of other large US based cryptocurrency exchanges.

Coinbase and Bittrex are the main two that come to mind.

Robinhood also hopes to put its hat in the ring with over 3 million users, but they are only starting to adopt cryptocurrency trading just recently.

What this means going forward?

The acquisition should greatly boost Poloniex's customer service abilities which have been lacking, to say the least and put it nicely.

However, it appears that Poloniex and Circle hope to become much more than just one of the better cryptocurrency exchanges.

Check out their quote on what they are hoping to be going forward:

"We envision a robust multi-sided distributed marketplace that can host tokens which represent everything of value: physical goods, fundraising and equity, real estate, creative productions such as works of art, music and literature, service leases and time-based rentals, credit, futures, and more."

(Source: https://www.coindesk.com/circle-acquires-poloniex/)

Wow!

It sounds like they are hoping to be the bank of the future.

The crypto bank of the future.

More from the official release can be found here:

https://www.newsbtc.com/2018/02/26/goldman-sachs-backed-circle-acquires-poloniex-crypto-exchange/

On top of all that, cryptocurrency investors seem to mostly like the news:


(Source: https://www.coinbase.com/dashboard)

Bitcoin shot up close to 900 points (roughly 10%) from the time the news was announced until now.

Most of the rest of the cryptocurrency markets are nicely in the green as well:


(Source: https://coinmarketcap.com/)

I am excited as a Poloniex user as well a cryptocurrency investor.

I think this is part of cryptocurrency becoming more widely adopted and widely held, and I also think this will help push fees at the exchanges down across the board.

Pretty soon exchanges will start engaging in a "race to the bottom" in terms of fees in order to attract more users.

That is a race that users ultimately benefit from.

Competition breeds better prices for consumers.

Stay informed my friends.

Image Source:

https://www.newsbtc.com/2018/02/26/goldman-sachs-backed-circle-acquires-poloniex-crypto-exchange/

Follow me: @jrcornel

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If you can't beat them, buy them! Here come the big banksters to the crypto party!

I do totally agree, that's really a shame. I will definitively stop using Poloniex. Goldman Sachs are BANKSTERS ! They have a lot of blood on there hands. That's the saddest news I have heard today.

This further supports many thoughts that Wall Street has been playing both sides like the good old trading days (similar to Junk Bonds). Slam the asset class you want to get involved in, to buy cheap and to go long, establish strategic positions and then formally support the asset class through M&A, cap markets, market making (legitimacy/liquidity), research/analysis (recommendations) and long term investors (individuals/ investor funds). We have heard that prop desks have been going long crypto. Now with this acquisition, GS is clearly supportive and indirectly involved (due to regulatory issues, they should not directly own, etc.) . Another step towards legitimacy. Lets now see what JPM, CB and the others do. I upvoted to rank my comment higher for your thoughts.

Those are some pretty good thoughts. Goldman may not like the idea of crypto, but they like making money even more, so they will follow wherever money can be made.

Quite true. GS will take all sides of a transaction!

Ironically, GS senior strategist global investments came out with a bubble prediction --> Yesterday!

https://www.facebook.com/goldmansachs/videos/10155852419177247/

As they say, watch what they do, not what they say.

Interesting thing here is now we can put down a valuation for a U.S.-based exchange based on their volume. Poloniex had $152 million in volume last 24 hours vs Kraken $375 and Coinbase/GDAX $450 million. So you could argue Coinbase is worth 3x of Polo and therefore $1.2 billion.

Great points and likely get a greater multiple given their sponsors and that they are US based. It's def starting.

Its crappy news to hear the Shadow government Rothchilds owners of GS are getting into the crypto, perhaps to launder their dirty money?

Its good and as you note, its bad. They need to keep an arms-length given all the regulatory issues. My sense is that they will utilize it for private client investments and assess the regulatory and tax issues as things become more formalized globally. the beauty is that they can't corner this market, even with the other big banks.

great post @jrcornel, thanks for sharing. I added a few things that i thought would be good to know in a post of my own as it was just too much for a comment. Please take a look when you get a chance!

https://steemit.com/crypto/@liotap/circle-s-poloniex-acquisition-and-meaning-going-forward

wow this is good news for crypto's

Do you think that this will make poloniex the largest exchange in crypto world?

like everything else they have been there from the beginning this can be akinda of formal notice of here we go :) which gives even more value to the public Crypto Coin market and as they all come aboard because it's all about greed they won't be able to resist wait it's gonna be a mad dash, so better invest now and make a few dollars for the future.

i have only 1 vertcoin that is all the money i have in the internet because the banks where i live block transactions. You think i should keep it?, it worth to keep money in this exchange?

I hope they will improve as I use this poloniex site for quite some time.
Recently I had a problem with zcash when I deposit and after I made a support ticket to them they resolved the issue. I am very happy about that...but I still have a ticket for about 53 days relating a siacoin depozit to the poloniex site.
I hope at least things will improve as this will be in their interest because wihout clients the site will fail.

Buying a large exchange like Poloniex is an important step in Crypto world.
Circle is a company held by Goldman Sachs which is one of the largest banks in the world, and it's just the beginning.

I think we will see similar actions like this in 2018 as many banks will start buying Cryptocurrencies or generate their own tokens or buy crypto companies or even create their multi-function platforms.
Not only banks but also large companies as we saw Telegram created TON (Telegram open network) and LINE app will create a crypto exchange at the end of 2018 and IQ option forex broker created also OTN token (Open trading network).

That's why I see 2018 is crypto revolution year.

I'm so happy to see this news
Thank you @jrcornel for sharing this news and info with us :)

That is very good news on many levels. It will be good for crypto investors in general, but perhaps most importantly, because Goldman Sachs is involved, it may mean that cryptos are here to stay and won't be banned by the U.S. government.

It also just so happens to be backed by Goldman Sachs.

terrible news, but most people have moved on by now from poloniex, this was probably a money grab, hand over and then closed doors in two years.

Haha not even close. Read into it a bit ;)

i'd rather not get involved in drama.

This is great news. I sent 12 STEEM over to Poloniex a month ago and they lost it. Still waiting for their customer service to get back to me.

Circle have experience in peer-to-peer financial transactions...So the experience and financial backing by circle is a good thing for Poloniex..
However the reservation of a centralized exchange instead of de-centralized one stands.

Yes there is still that. Also there is still the issue of Polo not getting their Steem and SBD wallets up and functioning... again.

They will get it up, I hope...for their own sake

This is indeed great news.

Far-sighted investment projects, continuous attention.

well post... and i is helpfull post forevery one...
thanks....

I totally agree with you saying this is a part of cryptocurrency and also it’s going to make it grow far beyond what we seeing as of now. And the more it’s growing and wildly spread and heard, digital currencies will be preferred for transaction rather than visible cash! Thanks for shearing these great post... Very unique and informative..

I have yet to get my self registered on Poloniex but this might be just the push I need. I first started trading on Coinbase and then opened accounts on Kraken and Binance to get access to more obscure altcoins. I like the ease of getting money onto Coinbase but the currencies are just so limited. Kraken is nice because I can interact with my Canadian accounts to withdraw and Binance gives me more access to coins. I have now been told twice that Poloniex is a great option. Being Canadian I have been told that Poloniex is very user friendly and I am able to withdraw to my Canadian accounts. Thank you for the information. Poloniex here I come!!!

thanks for the impormation and your continued success is amazing I follow you

@jrconel i'm so glad to hear these news, I believe that the contractual rules around exchange for anything and everything will become increasingly represented in distributed global software, rely on in-convertible distributed shared memory in the form of distributed ledgers, and benefit from the services of global multidimensional marketplaces.bitcoin the biggest bubble in the world today, or a great investment bet on the cutting edge of new-age financial technology? My best guess is that crypto is for the future

Well said. I agree! :)

when circle ?

This is an example of how institutions will cone into the space as adoption increases. Some are still waiting for regulatory clarity but these transactions help even that uncertainty as innovation will be fostered by the assets going mainstream. This is very exciting news!

This is great news. It shows a huge vote of confidence in crypto. And a lot of money will be invested to fix Polo, which needs the overhaul.

I agree. Also, the more competition, the better for all of us!

good to see bitcoin again crossing 10k mark. :) hope things will be soon streamline.

I would be very excited about the news, if GS wouldn't be involved from the shadows. Important deal though, it might reshape the crypto exchanges as we know them now.

Great points fees need to come down. Let the competition begin!

good news finally.

Feels good when big business decides to get involved

It'll be nice once Poloniex reactivates Steem/SBD... not sure how I feel about Goldman Sachs having jackshit to do with crypto. Seems like the selling out of a vision free from banks is happening.

Finally someone picked up polo. Have been using them for several years. Maybe now they can get caught up to support tickets and keep things running smoothly. Is it just me. Or am i the only one that like the dark theme on night mode.

Tanks to share

Oh, I wonder if they will reopen accepting new members? My application has never been approved since late last year.

shall i withdraw from poloniex all my coins for security alert since they are merging their business

That's a very sad news because Goldman Sachs is a highly corrupted institution but in my opinion, centralized exchanges don't have any future.

The decentralized cryptoexchanges, democratically managed by there community of users, will take over all the traditional centralized cryptoexchanges. For some security reasons, for some cost reasons and for some efficiency reasons.

I'm going now to start withdrawing all my balances and will definitively boycott Poloniex as it is now between the hands of the traditional capitalists banksters.

I invite you to boycott Goldmans Sachs... I wanted to say Poloniex

Have a nice day steemians

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Thanks dear sharing this news your news helpful able all steemer

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