Stablecoin issuer Circle has dropped its plan to go public in a $9 billion deal through a blank-cheque company chaired by former Barclays CEO Bob Diamond, Concord Acquisition. The deal would have made Circle one of a handful of publicly traded crypto firms.

Cryptocurrency lender Nexo is planning to gradually cease operations in the United States, according to a post in which the firm says the decision to leave the country is “regrettable but necessary.”

Bitcoin’s mining difficulty has dropped by 7.2% to register its largest decline since July 2021, when China’s crackdown on mining forced miners to relocate and the network’s hashrate to plummet.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Circle Terminates $9 Billion SPAC Deal
• Crypto Lender Nexo to Leave US Over Lack of Clear Regulations
• Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Drops 7.2%
• Chart of the Week: Decentralised Exchanges Outperformed BTC and ETH

Circle Terminates $9 Billion SPAC Deal

Stablecoin issuer Circle has dropped its plan to go public in a $9 billion deal through a blank-cheque company chaired by former Barclays CEO Bob Diamond, Concord Acquisition. The deal would have made Circle one of a handful of publicly traded crypto firms.

Circle’s plan to go public via a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) was first announced in July 2021. The process involves it merging with a shell company that has raised money to acquire it.

Concord had until December 10 to finalize the deal to buy Circle. The stablecoin issuer and its would-be SPAC partner described the move as a “mutual termination.” Circle’s CEO Jeremy Allaire said they were “disappointed the proposed transaction timed out,” but noted that “becoming [a] public company remains part of Circle’s core strategy to enhance trust and transparency.”

The announcement noted Circle is now a profitable company, after earning a net profit of $43 million in the third quarter of the year. Its profitability comes after a series of quarterly losses, partly influenced by write-downs related to its acquisition of Poloniex.

Circle benefits from rising interest rates, as the stablecoin issuer earns interest on the pools of reserves backing USDC, which it administers jointly with Coinbase.

Crypto Lender Nexo to Leave US Over Lack of Clear Regulations

Cryptocurrency lender Nexo is planning to gradually cease operations in the United States, according to a post in which the firm says the decision to leave the country is “regrettable but necessary.”

Nexo said it has been in contact with U.S. regulators for 18 months in an attempt to determine how to comply with U.S. financial laws, but the talks haven’t led to an agreement. The company wrote:

"It is now unfortunately clear to us that despite rhetoric to the contrary, the US refuses to provide a path forward for enabling blockchain businesses and we cannot give our customers confidence that regulators are focused on their best interests.”

The lender has off-boarded customers from New York and Vermont while suspending registrations for the platform’s Earn Interest products in the U.S.. Customers in eight other states will also stop having access to the Earn Interest product this week.

Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Drops 7.2%

Bitcoin’s mining difficulty has dropped by 7.2% to register its largest decline since July 2021, when China’s crackdown on mining forced miners to relocate, which resulted in the network’s hashrate plummeting.

The drop in mining difficulty reflects the tough mining economics that companies have been facing over the last few months, with margins tightening as power costs grow and BTC’s price drops.

The decrease is likely a result of miners unplugging older machines that are now no longer profitable. Analysts believe that the difficulty could drop further as some machines are now losing miners significant amounts of money over their poor output.

Bitcoin’s mining difficulty adjusts every 2,016 blocks, or roughly every two weeks.

Chart of the Week: Decentralized Exchanges Outperformed BTC and ETH

In November, decentralized exchanges outperformed BTC and ETH following the collapse of FTX, as concerns surrounding centralized trading platforms grow. Fears brought by FTX led to market participants withdrawing from CEXs, leaving room for DEXs to grow.

The price of decentralized exchange tokens DYDX, LRC, and SUSHI recorded returns of 9.35%, -4.4%, and -7.38%, respectively in November, compared to BTC and ETH’s returns of -16.2% and -18%, respectively.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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