Boston-based cryptocurrency platform Circle is now making plans to apply for a banking license in the U.S. As previously reported, Circle, which is backed by Goldman Sachs, was founded in 2013 and offers four products: Circle Invest, which allows users to easily invest in crypto; Circle Pay, allows users to send money like a text; Circle Trade, the company’s OTC trading desk; and Poloniex, which allows users to buy and sell on its active crypto exchanges.
According to Bloomberg, Circle is now looking to achieve the banking license in order to provide more services to customers. The company is intending to register as a brokerage and trading venture with the SEC. Its officials have also had preliminary conversations with the OCC to explore banking functions, as well as with staff at the SEC and officials from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, which oversees brokerages. The media outlet noted that Circle will more than likely to pursue SEC regulation before the banking license. While sharing details about the expansion, CEO of Circle, Jeremy Allaire, stated:
“To hold reserves with the Federal Reserve, to natively access the central-banking system without intermediaries, to directly settle with other banks in other markets around the world through those networks — that can improve the efficiency of what we deliver, it can reduce the costs.”
Plans to expand Circle’s products comes less than a month after the company announced its partnership with USD Coin and Bitmain. It recently released a new feature, Buy the Market, which allows customers to decide how much they want to invest and Circle distributes it across all of the coins on Circle Invest. The company revealed:
“This is one of the first experiences of its kind for consumers. Other crypto products that allow you to invest in market weight distributed fashion are accompanied by high minimums and 3% management fees. Circle Invest removes all this friction, making investing in multiple coins at once available for anyone at the same competitive pricing we deliver on all of our coins.”
