Ripple CEO denies Ripple's intention to acquire Circle, saying related reports are false

Odaily News Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse publicly stated at an event in Las Vegas that the company never sought to acquire stablecoin issuer Circle, refuting previous media reports that Ripple had offered as much as $5 billion.
Earlier, Bloomberg cited sources saying that Ripple had offered $4 billion to $5 billion to acquire USDC issuer Circle, but the offer was rejected as too low. Coinbase also reportedly made a bid. In response, a Circle spokesperson said, "The company is not for sale."
Circle plans to go public as early as this week under the ticker CRCL, with a valuation of $7.2 billion. It plans to issue 32 million Class A common shares at a price range of $27-28. Previously, the company canceled its SPAC merger listing plan in 2022 with a valuation of $9 billion.
It is worth mentioning that Ripple announced the launch of the dollar-pegged stablecoin RLUSD in April last year and obtained approval from the New York Department of Financial Services in December last year. The current market value of RLUSD is US$310 million, which is still far from USDC's US$61.5 billion.
Ripple previously stated that future M&A efforts will focus on companies that connect traditional finance with the crypto ecosystem, such as payment processors and fiat currency deposit and withdrawal service providers. In April this year, Ripple acquired Hidden Road, an institutional settlement network with a clearing scale of $3 trillion, for $1.25 billion, which was its largest acquisition until it was surpassed by Coinbase's acquisition of Deribit. (TheBlock)