Ripple CEO denies Ripple's intention to acquire Circle, saying related reports are false

Planet Daily News: Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse publicly stated at an event in Las Vegas that the company has never sought to acquire stablecoin issuer Circle, refuting previous media reports that Ripple had made an offer as high as $5 billion. Previously, Bloomberg cited sources saying Ripple had proposed a $4-5 billion offer to acquire Circle, the issuer of USDC, which was reportedly rejected as too low, with Coinbase also allegedly making a competing bid. In response, a Circle spokesperson stated, "The company is not for sale." Circle plans to go public this week with the code CRCL, with a valuation of $7.2 billion, intending to issue 32 million Class A common shares at a price range of $27-28. Previously, the company had canceled a SPAC merger listing plan valued at $9 billion in 2022. It's worth noting that Ripple announced the launch of its USD-pegged stablecoin RLUSD in April last year and received approval from the New York Department of Financial Services in December. Currently, RLUSD has a market value of $310 million, which is still far from USDC's $61.5 billion. Ripple previously stated that its future M&A focus would be on companies connecting traditional finance with the crypto ecosystem, such as payment processors and fiat on/off-ramp service providers. In April this year, Ripple acquired the institutional settlement network Hidden Road, with a clearing scale of $3 trillion, for $1.25 billion, which was its largest acquisition until Coinbase's acquisition of Deribit. (TheBlock)