Voyager Digital Canada, Ltd., operator of U.S. digital asset broker Voyager and the Ethos Universal Wallet, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Circle Invest, the retail cryptocurrency account business from Circle Internet Financial, Inc.
This transaction adds more than 40,000 retail accounts to Voyager’s customer base, making it one of the largest crypto-asset-only agency brokers in the U.S., servicing over 200,000 global users across its platforms. The majority of Circle Invest customers are expected to be converted to the Voyager Platform by the end of March of this year.
“This product line acquisition signifies a tremendous development for Voyager as we welcome a substantial number of new users to our platform. This transaction also helps us deliver on our promise to investors, providing regulated brokerage services and resources to as many users as possible in the digital asset marketplace. Going forward, we remain committed to building best-in-class features for the Voyager Platform to empower investors and bring into the mainstream the most revolutionary asset class to date.”
– Stephen Ehrlich , Co-Founder and CEO of Voyager
Voyager Growth
The acquisition presents Circle Invest customers access to expanded assets and new investment and trading features from the Voyager suite of products and services. Additionally, Voyager will be integrating features of Circle’s new stablecoin platform service into the Voyager Platform.
Circle Invest’s retail customers will now also have access to Voyager’s unique brokerage services, which include commission-free trading of more than 30 crypto assets, lock-up free interest yield on popular coins, digital transfers, secure omnibus custody wallets, and portfolio management tool. Circle Invest’s popular “collections” feature, which allows customers to buy baskets of assets grouped by their attributes and weighted according to their market capitalization, will now be integrated into the Voyager Platform. With this feature, investors utilizing Voyager can gain exposure to the best-performing asset class of the last decade, while maintaining a diversified portfolio.
“We’re very happy to be able to provide Circle Invest customers with a broader depth of retail investment features through the transaction with Voyager. This transition comes at a time when Circle is launching new platform services and products for businesses around the world to help them bring the benefits of stablecoins into their products and grow global commerce in new and innovative ways.”
– Rachel Mayer, Director of Product Management at Circle
Today’s move represents divestment of the last remaining segment of Circle’s crypto account businesses, as the company now will focus solely on its USDC stablecoin product. Last year, Circle sold off its cryptocurrency OTC business to Kraken and unloaded its previous acquisition of altcoin exchange Poloniex to a group of investors.
Deal
As part of the transaction, Circle and Voyager will partner on strategic business initiatives, such as delivering fast, global, low-cost payments to the combined Voyager customer base. In addition, Voyager will leverage Circle’s USDC and platform products to solidify its treasury management infrastructure and expand internationally.
As consideration for the transaction, Voyager will issue common shares to Circle representing an approximate 4% ownership stake in the company, post-closing, along with reimbursement of certain costs incurred by Circle.