San Francisco-based enterprise blockchain company Ripple has reportedly approached Circle with a mammoth acquisition offer. It has proposed buying the USDC issuer for a sum in the $4-5 billion range, according to the Wednesday Bloomberg report.
However, Circle, Ripple's key competitor in the stablecoin sector, has rejected the offer since it believes that it undervalues the company.
This comes after Circle filed to launch an initial public offering (IPO) in the US in early April.
The Bloomberg report says that Ripple is still interested in acquiring its main rival, but it is still on the fence about making another offer. Meanwhile, Circle remains focused on its IPO, refusing to comment on "market rumors."
As reported by U.Today, Ripple President Monica Long recently stated that the company was not interested in going public, adding that it was in an "acquisitive" position.
Earlier this month, Ripple announced its decision to buy prime brokerage Hidden Road for a whopping $1.25 billion, which marks one of the largest crypto deals in history.
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Circle is no stranger to massive acquisitions. The company famously purchased the Poloniex exchange for $400 million back in 2018. However, it ended up losing a whopping $156 billion with that deal. As reported by U.Today, Poloniex ended up spinning out of Circle in late 2019 amid restructuring.
Circle's USDC stablecoin currently boasts a market cap of $62 billion, which makes it the second-biggest stablecoin (behind only Tether's USDT) and seventh-biggest cryptocurrency overall.
Last year, Ripple also jumped into the burgeoning stablecoin sector with the launch of the Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin, whose market cap recently surpassed $300 million.
