Circle courting acquisition bids from Coinbase and Ripple, asks for at least $5 billion: Fortune

Circle Internet Financial, the issuer of the second-largest stablecoin, is reportedly courting buyers at a valuation of at least $5 billion, according to Fortune on Monday. The alleged sales talks — reportedly involving its longtime partner Coinbase and recent stablecoin rival Ripple — are happening while the San Francisco-based startup still pursues a public listing.

In April, Circle filed a prospectus for an initial public offering at an unknown valuation. Later that month, Ripple — which has been on a bit of an acquisition spree — offered to pay between $4 billion and $5 billion to acquire the firm. Circle reportedly declined the bid at the time, saying it was too low.

In 2022, during the depths of the crypto bear market, Circle canceled its plans of a black-check SPAC merger, which would have valued it at $9 billion.

The firm joined a bevy of established crypto businesses, including exchange Kraken and custodian BitGo, that have signaled interest in going public since President Donald Trump took office. However, some experts have cast doubt on this trend, especially if Trump’s economic agenda ends up killing the appetite for new public listings.

Trump has notably pushed legislators to pass stablecoin legislation by the end of the summer.

Circle and Coinbase have had a long-lasting partnership since the formation of the CENTRE Consortium, which initially managed the USDC stablecoin. USDC is the most used stablecoin on Coinbase, and Circle paid about $900 million in distribution costs to Coinbase in 2024.

Coinbase, which has also been in the market for acquisitions, including derivatives exchange Deribit and privacy platform IronFish , will become the first pure-play crypto firm to join the S&P 500 index.

Ripple recently launched its RLUSD stablecoin on Kraken , integrating it into the exchange’s payment platform.