Kraken, a cryptocurrency exchange based in San Francisco, recently acquired the over-the-counter desk (OTC) at Circle.

Kraken made the announcement on December 17th that they had purchased one of the most well-known over-the-counter desks in the crypto industry. Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville, the co-founders of Circle, confirmed the announcement of the sale. They have known Jesse and his Kraken team for a number of years and have every expectation and confidence that partners and customers of Circle Trade will find world-class OTC responsiveness and liquidity services going forward with Kraken. Circle Trade looks forward to seeing Kraken grow their business further as it embodies huge success for them, as well as for the industry itself.

Circle Focuses More on Its Stablecoin

Allaire and Neville say that the sale of their company’s OTC desk is part of an improved product map for 2020 and beyond as Circle plans to effectively refocus on its stablecoin by restructuring their teams, narrowing its product portfolio, and reducing complexity in order for them to implement it swiftly.

Despite the announcement, Circle laid off 10 more of their employees at the beginning of the month. The reason behind this was due to the company streamlining some of their departments, and also because the company wants to focus more on USD Coin, its stablecoin.

Kraken Expands to Over 20 Global Specialists

It’s expected that Kraken’s acquisition of Circle’s over-the-counter desk will strengthen their services significantly as they hope to provide enhanced trading tools, tighter spreads, deeper overall liquidity, and new worldwide trading partners that will reorganize their trading procedures from quote to settlement.

Sean Neville Leaves CEO Position

Sean Neville will be transitioning from his CEO position at Circle to a spot on their board of directors in January. Neville and Allaire launched Circle back in 2013. Together, Allaire and Neville made some important changes over the last couple of years, including acquiring crypto exchange Poloniex last year, as well as drifting away from Bitcoin.