Circle marks a possible $3B loss from Binance stablecoin conversions

cointelegraph.com:

Circle, the company behind the issuance of USDC Coin (USDC) said recent events have caused it to miscalculate its financial projections — referring to the collapse of FTX and a decision by rival exchange Binance.

In September, crypto exchange Binance announced it will auto-convert USDC to its own stablecoin Binance USD (BUSD), last week saw the collapse of FTX.

Circle’s 2022 miscalculated projection was noted in its amended S-4 registration statement which was filed to the United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) on Nov. 14.

The S-4 is a registration statement is a document that companies fill out and submit to the SEC before merging or taking over another company or providing an exchange offer.

Circle noted that while they were not able to assess how significant a role Binance’s auto conversion’s from USDC to BUSD played in USDC’s decline in circulation, they observed an approximate $3 billion increase in BUSD from Aug. 17 to Sept. 30, with the firm adding:

The stablecoin issuer added that the additional $13.5 billion USDC issued since Jun. 30 was a 36% reduction in comparison to 2021.

The first S-4 filing was submitted to the SEC in Aug. 2021, in which Circle planned to merge with capital markets firm Concord Acquisition. However, Concord decided to delay the merger in Oct. 2022 until “no later than Jan. 31, 2023.”

As for its business partnership with FTX, Circle has historically conducted payment processing services for FTX by issuing the now bankrupt trading platform with USDC and being a customer of Circle’s Payment API over the last 18 months, according to Circle CEO and co-founder Jeremy Allaire.

The stablecoin issuer said the financial impact that FTX has had on its balance sheet wouldn’t be any larger than