Cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex is acquired by Payments Startup Circle

Circle Internet Financial Ltd. has announced that it is acquiring U.S. based digital token exchange, Poloniex Inc. According to the terms of the agreement, the mobile payments firm is paying $400 million to acquire Poloniex which used to be one of the biggest exchanges in the market. Though the company is well established, it hasn’t been going forward much, and it is expected that the acquisition will restore its fortunes while fortifying Circle’s presence in the crypto market.

In a statement, Poloniex said that its team would be bolstered by the operational and customer support resources from Circle "so that we can continue to scale effectively going forward." Initially, Circle pitched itself as a bitcoin company that wanted to make bitcoin more accessible. Later on, it called itself a social payment company. CEO Jeremy Allaire said that they never thought of themselves as a Bitcoin startup, and ever since their inception, they have been focused on trying to build a new consumer finance company.

 Now, as Circle gets back into the cryptocurrency game, the peer-to-peer payment service that was called “Circle” is now called Circle Pay. It also runs Circle Trade that fosters liquidity between a handful of fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies. According to Fortune, Circle Trade manages $2 billion a month in transactions and generated $60 million in revenue in just three months. The company also wants to introduce Circle Invest, an easy-to-use investment app to start buying cryptocurrencies, and Poloniex, a full-fledged exchange.