USDC stablecoin developer Circle terminates its plan to go public via a SPAC merger with Concord Acquisition Corp., announced in July 2021, by mutual agreement
Context & Ripple Effects
Circle's road to public markets has been long and winding: it raised $440M in May 2021 ahead of a SPAC deal with Concord Acquisition Corp. announced that July at a $4.5B valuation, then by February 2022 claimed the deal valued it at $9B — double the original price. Today's mutual termination ends that run without Circle ever ringing a bell.
The timing matters: the termination lands after the 2022 crypto downturn crushed the SPAC window that made the deal attractive, and roughly a year before sources reported Circle was weighing a traditional IPO for early 2024 — suggesting the company always intended to go public, just not via this vehicle at this price.
First-order effects
- Circle remains private, avoiding the quarterly disclosure obligations and locked-up share structure the Concord merger would have imposed on the USDC issuer.
- Concord Acquisition Corp. is left without its target, and SPAC shareholders who backed the $9B-valuation deal get no Circle exposure.
Second-order effects
- Other crypto firms that priced SPAC mergers off 2021 froth face the same math: public-market investors won't underwrite peak-cycle valuations, forcing renegotiations or terminations across the pipeline.
- Circle must keep funding growth from private capital while it waits for a listing window, raising the stakes of each subsequent raise or revenue quarter.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the 2021 cohort of crypto SPACs unwinds into either traditional IPOs at reset valuations or quiet stays private — with stablecoin issuers' public-market debuts increasingly gated on regulatory clarity rather than market sentiment alone.
The trend: Crypto companies that rushed into SPAC mergers during the 2021 boom are abandoning those deals and returning to traditional IPO paths as SPAC valuations deflate.