SEC Sends an “Investigative Subpoena” to USDC Issuer Circle

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sent an “investigative subpoena” to the issuer of USDC stablecoin Circle in July of this year, according to a filing.

Circle made this disclosure as part of a filing about its plans to go public through a merger with the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), Concord Acquisition Corp., in a $4.5 billion deal.

In July, “we received an investigative subpoena from the SEC Enforcement Division requesting documents and information regarding certain of our holdings, customer programs, and operations. We are cooperating fully with their investigation,” reads the filing.

The subpoena requests information and documents regarding Circle’s “holdings, customer programs, and operations.”

“Circle is cooperating in an ongoing SEC investigation,” said a Circle spokesperson who noted that the subpoena was a continuation of one in July that was disclosed in an August filing.

In June, Circle started onboarding corporate clients for its first high-interest yield product called Circle Yield after obtaining a license from the Bermuda Monetary Authority for its high-yield product. “Circle is offering a well-regulated alternative yield market for institutional investors and corporate treasurers domiciled in the U.S. and Switzerland,” said the company at the time.

USDC is a $32.4 billion market cap stablecoin which accounts for 25.32% of the stablecoin market share, up from 12.73% a year back.

The stablecoin is actually issued by Center, a consortium of Circle and cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, which recently dropped the plan to launch its Lend product after receiving a Wells Notice from the SEC.

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