As 2018 has come and gone, both individuals and businesses involved in the crypto industry have taken moments to look back at the tribulations and accomplishments experienced throughout the year.
A lot has happened in 2018 and giant crypto businesses everywhere are sharing their 2018 year in review accomplishments. One such year in review story that’s caught the attention of crypto enthusiasts, traders, and investors alike comes from Circle, the global crypto finance conglomerate.
Circle’s OTC Trading Volume
In a recent Circle blog post, the company noted their 2018 accomplishments.
Perhaps their most notable accomplishment is that their OTC (over-the-counter) trading desk, Circle Trade facilitated more than $24 billion worth of trades in 2018.
This number is not to be understated as OTC trading volumes are not reported publicly and this volume is quietly coming in from high net-worth individuals and institutional investors. The substantial volume makes Circle Trade one of the core liquidity providers of the entire crypto ecosystem.
Circle Trade executed more than 10,000 OTC trades, with nearly 600 distinct counterparties across 36 different crypto assets.
Liquidity is being provided to miners, exchanges, project developers, founders, venture capitalists, crypto funds, hedge funds, and family offices all around the world.
Circle’s Growth and Expansion
Apart from Circle’s OTC market, the crypto giant experienced significant growth across all areas of business as well.
The company now serves more than 8 million customers from over 195 countries and facilitated over 200 million transactions that equate to roughly $75 billion in value.
At the start of 2018, Circle only offered 2 product offerings and by the end, they expanded to 5 product offerings including the Poloniex exchange, Circle Trade, Circle Invest, Circle Pay, and Circle’s USDC stablecoin.
Circle also increased their headcount with over 150 new hires while other crypto companies like Bitmain suffered massive layoffs.
As stated by Circle:
Circle Trade has continued to expand despite a tumultuous year for the industry: we onboarded a record number of new institutional clients, and grew our trading operations to 24/7 with coverage in the US, Europe, and Asia.
Poloniex Acquisition
On top of the substantial trading volume achieved by Circle’s OTC desk, perhaps their second greatest accomplishment is the acquisition of one of the earliest crypto exchanges, Poloniex. Poloniex has been operational for nearly 5 years and is already a highly popular exchange.
With Circle’s acquisition of Poloniex, the exchange underwent a series of serious regulatory and engineering upgrades including support, verification, security, and risk and compliance improvements.
The exchange delisted 20 digital assets to improve the overall health and quality of the marketplace, and added new digital assets including EOS, Quantum, Basic Attention Token, Status, Kyber, LOOM, FOAM, MANA, Bancor, and USDC.
These new assets were added in line with Circle’s new Circle Asset Framework for reviewing and adding digital assets to the exchange.
Further improvements include mobile trading apps for both iOS and Android devices which support over 13 different languages.
Heading into 2019, Circle noted that users can expect to see significant UX improvements, robust geographical support, and major improvements for their crypto custody and wallets services.
Conclusion
Overall, Circle had an amazing year despite the drastic decline in crypto prices across the board.
The company has positioned itself well and is ready for the next cryptocurrency bull run. Circle customers can look forward to more improvements and growth as the crypto giant is constantly innovating.
What do you think about Circle’s accomplishments in 2018? Were they the most successful than other leading crypto companies? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
