{"id":50669,"date":"2021-10-05T11:52:16","date_gmt":"2021-10-05T08:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=50669"},"modified":"2025-09-02T19:30:29","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T16:30:29","slug":"sec-opens-investigation-into-circle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/sec-opens-investigation-into-circle\/","title":{"rendered":"SEC opens investigation into Circle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has opened an investigation into Circle. The matter is described in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/Archives\/edgar\/data\/1876042\/000110465921122565\/tm2124445-1_s4a.htm\">the documents<\/a>, published on October 4.<\/p>\n<p>The company <a href=\"https:\/\/sec.report\/Document\/0001104659-21-101498\/\">reported<\/a> regulator interest in August, but the information went largely unnoticed.<\/p>\n<p>According to the new Form S-4, in July 2021 Circle received a subpoena ordering it to provide &#8216;documents and information regarding certain assets, client programs and operations&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>Circle stressed that it is &#8216;fully cooperating&#8217; with the SEC in the investigation. The documents do not specify its scope or details.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/circle-raises-440-million-from-ftx-dcg-fidelity-and-other-investors\">Circle closed a financing round of $440 million<\/a>. Investments were provided by FTX, Digital Currency Group, Fidelity Management, Valor Capital Group and other venture capital firms.<\/p>\n<p>In July it became known<a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/circle-to-go-public-via-spac-merger-valued-at-4-5-billion\"> that Circle planned to go public<\/a> through a merger with SPAC Concord Acquisition Corp.<\/p>\n<p>Around the same time, the company<a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/circle-discloses-details-of-usdc-reserves\"> disclosed information about the backing of the stablecoin<\/a> USDC, the issuer of which is the Centre consortium, managed by Circle in partnership with the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange. Most of the &#8216;stablecoins&#8217; are backed by US dollars, the rest by bonds and other highly liquid assets.<\/p>\n<p>The USDC reserves were later <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/usdc-issuer-to-shift-reserves-into-cash-and-u-s-treasuries\">promised to be converted into dollars and U.S. Treasuries<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In August, Circle&#8217;s chief executive, Jeremy Allaire, said that<a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/circle-to-become-a-national-full-reserve-digital-currency-commercial-bank\"> Circle would become a &#8216;commercial cryptocurrency bank with full reserves&#8217;<\/a>. Its activities would comply with the requirements of <span data-descr=\"Federal Reserve System\" class=\"old_tooltip\">the Fed<\/span>, the U.S. Treasury, <span data-descr=\"Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)\" class=\"old_tooltip\">OCC<\/span> and <span data-descr=\"Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)\" class=\"old_tooltip\">FDIC<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Last summer, <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/us-treasury-secretary-janet-yellen-urges-swift-stablecoin-regulation\">the development of a regulatory framework for stablecoins<\/a> was urged by U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.<\/p>\n<p>Chairman Gary Gensler described stablecoins as <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/gensler-calls-stablecoins-poker-chips-in-a-wild-west-crypto-casino\">&#8216;poker chips in a Wild West casino&#8217;<\/a>, and Senate lawmakers have called for <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/us-senate-calls-for-100-cash-backing-of-stablecoins\">full cash backing of these digital assets<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In October, sources at The Wall Street Journal reported that the Biden administration was examining<a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/media-reports-say-us-authorities-plan-to-treat-stablecoin-issuers-as-banks\"> the possibility of including stablecoin issuers under the regulatory framework<\/a>. They could be subjected to the same requirements used to regulate the banking industry.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to ForkLog news on <a href=\"https:\/\/vk.com\/forklogcom\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">VK<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has opened an investigation into Circle. The matter is described in documents published on October 4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1220,128,26],"class_list":["post-50669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-circle","tag-sec","tag-usa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"25","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50669"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50671,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50669\/revisions\/50671"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}