Stablecoin's plan to go public cancelled.

Stablecoin group Circle has ditched plans to go public in a $9bn deal through a blank cheque company chaired by former Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond, underlining how successive crises have hit the crypto sector. The tie-up, which was forged during the crypto bull market in July 2021 and expanded early this year, was seeking a valuation of $7.65bn to $9bn. The collapse of the Circle deal comes after the failure of digital asset exchange FTX, which knocked a crypto industry already under pressure from rising interest rates and a series of bankruptcies of big-name firms. Circle’s USD Coin is the second-largest stablecoin on the crypto market, with a valuation of around $43bn, according to data from Circle, falling from more than $55bn in June last year after investors pulled out of the crypto market.

Stablecoins play a key role in connecting traditional and crypto markets, with most tracking the value of a major currency such as the dollar. Crypto traders use them like cash between making bets. Many publicly listed crypto groups come been under pressure this year. Market tumult has hit other key players in the crypto industry, including broker Genesis, which halted withdrawals from its lending scheme last month, and lending platform BlockFi, which followed FTX into bankruptcy.

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