Circle, one of the earliest bitcoin companies, has sold its retail trading app to a 1-year-old digital asset broker named Voyager, which will take a 4 percent ownership stake in Circle through the issuance of common shares.
With the purchase, Voyager is acquiring 40,000 retail accounts from Circle Invest, adding to its existing 200,000 users. Circle Invest users will be converted to the Voyager platform by the end of next month.
This is part of Circle's shift in strategy to focus more on stablecoins, digital assets that are typically pegged at a one-to-one ratio to a more stable asset (like the U.S. dollar) held in reserve. In December it sold its over-the-counter trading desk and in June it shut down its Circle Pay app.
"They're going to come out with a whole breadth of products on [stablecoins]," Voyager CEO Steve Ehrlich told Cheddar, without sharing further details. "We're working on integrating that into our self-custody wallet application so people can fund accounts to buy or sell digital assets."
"We believe stablecoins are going to be the way people transmit money to other people, to merchants," he added. "Stablecoins are definitely the financial way of the future. It'll be the fastest, easiest and most productive way to move money across the globe."
Bitcoin, which also functions as a store of value as well as a currency, has a similar role in the future of money, Ehrlich said, for users that prefer an asset not tied to monetary policy; USDC, the U.S.-dollar backed stable coin developed by Circle and Coinbase, is just a payment mechanism.
"We see everything long term for retail consumers becoming more fungible so you can use any of your digital assets to buy equity securities, futures contracts, to buy options," Ehrlich said. "We're positioning ourselves to be able to execute on this mantra of a full financial services firm where everything becomes fungible to the consumer. If they want to buy equities at a moment's notice using bitcoin as a denomination why shouldn't they be able to do that?"
This is the second acquisition in a year for Voyager, a New York-based company that went public on the Canadian Stock Exchange last February. In October it acquired Ethos, a cryptocurrency wallet, and services provider.
Ehrlich said he expects more M&A activity since the cryptocurrency industry, now 11 years old, still has so many small startups looking to scale. He also said regulatory clarity around how crypto businesses should operate and treat digital assets will drive up costs for those businesses, and therefore drive up M&A.
A big-screen adaptation of the anime “Chainsaw Man” has topped the North American box office, beating a Springsteen biopic and “Black Phone 2.” The movie earned $17.25 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. “Black Phone 2” fell to second place with $13 million. Two new releases, the rom-com “Regretting You” and “Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere,” earned $12.85 million and $9.1 million, respectively. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” is based on the manga series about a demon hunter. It's another win for Sony-owned Crunchyroll, which also released a “Demon Slayer” film last month that debuted to a record $70 million.
The Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility. The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports on Sunday morning soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown. The hold on planes taking off for LAX lasted an hour and 45 minutes and didn't appear to cause continued problems. The FAA said staffing shortages also delayed planes headed to Washington, Chicago and Newark, New Jersey on Sunday.
Boeing workers at three Midwest plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed have voted to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a strike that started almost three months ago. The strike by about 3,200 machinists at the plants in the Missouri cities of St. Louis and St. Charles, and in Mascoutah, Illinois, is smaller in scale than a walkout last year by 33,000 Boeing workers who assemble commercial jetliners. The president of the International Association of Machinists says Sunday's outcome shows Boeing hasn't adequately addressed wages and retirement benefits. Boeing says Sunday's vote was close with 51% of union members opposing the revised offer.
The stunning indictment that led to the arrest of more than 30 people — including Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and other NBA figures — has drawn new scrutiny of the booming business of sports betting in the U.S. The multibillion-dollar industry has made it easy for sports fans — and even some players — to wager on everything from the outcome of games to that of a single play with just a few taps of a cellphone. But regulating the rapidly-growing industry has proven to be a challenge. Professional sports leagues’ own role in promoting gambling has also raised eyebrows.
Tesla, the car company run by Elon Musk, reported Wednesday that it sold more vehicles in the past three months after boycotts hit hard earlier this year, but profits still fell sharply. Third-quarter earnings fell to $1.4 billion, from $2.2 billion a year earlier. Excluding charges, per share profit of 50 cents came in below analysts' estimate. Tesla shares fell 3.5% in after-hours trading. Musk said the company's robotaxi service, which is available in Austin, Texas, and San Francisco, will roll out to as many as 10 other metro areas by the end of the year.
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