According to an exclusive report on Blockchain technology blog Modern Consensus, Circle, a multi-currency money-sending app, is reportedly in the works to acquire Poloniex, a major US-based cryptocurrency exchange.
Modern Consensus cited two unnamed sources that had information about the potential deal.
However, when asked about the reported acquisition of Poloniex, Raj Date, a board member of Circle, told Modern Consensus:
“I can’t comment on anything like that. I’m actually in Europe right now. Thanks for the reach out.”
Ari Paul, the CIO at digital currency hedge fund BlockTower Capital, denied the legitimacy of any deal on Twitter, citing his own source at Circle and calling the Modern Consensus article “fake news”:
I just posted a link to an article asserting that Circle was acquiring Poloniex. Someone helpfully replied that the article was fake news. I confirmed with Circle that the article is not correct. Circle is not acquiring Polo (according to my circle source.)
— Ari Paul (@AriDavidPaul) February 3, 2018
Modern Consensus is a blog founded by Ken Kurson, former editor-in-chief at the New York Observer, that covers technology news in the cryptocurrency and Blockchain spheres.
Another twitter user responded to Paul casting doubt on his alleged Circle source, given that Kurson put his reputation at stake in publishing the news:
Do you think there is any possibility that your source at Circle is wrong or intentionally denying? Asking because the post on modern consensus is by Ken Kurson, who appears to be someone who would care for their reputation.
— Vlad Stanishev (@xbrkd) February 3, 2018
Kurson cited one of the sources, who he referred to as “highly placed”, with apparent access to the acquisition discussions as saying:
“Circle and Poloniex agreed to terms and Circle has already approached the regulators. The regulators came back with a list of KYC demands [Know Your Customer] and Circle has agreed to meet all the conditions.”
Both Circle and Poloniex did not respond to Cointelegraph’s requests for comments on the pending deal by press time.
Circle, which received $50 mln from Goldman Sachs in a funding round in 2015, contains Circle Pay for fiat transfers, Circle Trade as a liquidity provider of cryptocurrencies, and soon will add Circle Invest, an app allowing retail customers to invest in crypto markets.
Poloniex is currently the 14th largest crypto exchange by 24-hour volume on CoinMarketCap, trading a total of almost $300 million on the day to press time. The exchange allows users to trade in 68 different coins, a huge number as compared to Coinbase's popular crypto exchange platform GDAX, which offers only four, but is in 7th place by trading volume. The Poloniex exchange faced problems this year with incorrect user balances and a very slow withdrawal waiting period.