“If Coinbase wanted to buy them, Circle would sell in a heartbeat,” one of the sources, a banker, said.
“Things change week by week,” a second person said.
Coinbase and Ripple did not return messages for comment. “Circle is not for sale. Our long-term goals remain the same,” the company said Monday in an emailed statement to Fortune.
“I feel like they’re one company,” the second source quipped.
When asked about a possible Circle acquisition, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, told Bloomberg on May 14 that he was very excited for Circle’s success. “They’re going public doesn’t change anything about our commercial relationship, but in terms of other deals we might consider in the future, I mean, that, of course, would be up to them and us, but, you know, nothing to announce today,” Armstrong said.
Coinbase is always looking at M&A opportunities, Armstrong said, noting the exchange’s “pretty large balance sheet” and the benefits of being a public company. Coinbase, however, “doesn’t swing at every pitch” because the hard part of buying a company is actually “successfully integrating it,” Armstrong said.
eToro’s strong first day performance will likely boost Circle’s confidence in going public. But one investor noted that the aftermarket performance of newly public companies often need more time to “see how [they play] out.”
—Leo Schwartz and Jeff Roberts contributed to this report.
