Ripple’s expansion strategy this year has led to an attempt to acquire stablecoin issuer Circle. As ZyCrypto reported recently, the New York-based issuer of USDC, the second-largest stablecoin, held informal talks with stablecoin rival Ripple and its long-time partner, Coinbase, about a potential sale, with the company seeking at least $5 billion. While Ripple seems more aggressive and owns a huge hoard of XRP tokens, Coinbase may still have the edge, given its deep history with Circle. “If Coinbase wanted to buy them, Circle would sell in a heartbeat,” a source reportedly revealed. For Ripple, owning Circle would give it an instant seat at the table in the global stablecoin economy as the blockchain payments firm begins to clear some of its legal entanglements with US regulators. However, skeptics are already throwing up antitrust red flags and cautioning of a potential disaster if the deal with Ripple succeeds. A Potential Disaster Brewing? However, a popular lawyer has suggested that Ripple’s potential takeover of Circle could have a considerable negative impact on the wider crypto market. “This could end up being crypto apocalypse. Making Ripple the largest asset issuer on every blockchain would obviously be disastrous and anticompetitive,” MetaLeX Labs founder Gabriel Shapiro wrote on X. Shapiro pointed out that Ripple previously used its influence to harm its competitors by spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD). In 2022, for instance, Ripple’s Chris Larsen teamed up with Greenpeace to force a BTC code change to reduce the energy use of the industry’s largest cryptocurrency by market value. Moreover, Shapiro believes that even if the acquisition by Ripple is successful, it will likely fail to pass antitrust muster. Regulators review deals for antitrust concerns, indicating that they will determine whether the deal could give Ripple too much control over the stablecoin business. “If a definitive agreement is signed, we will be at the DoJ’s and FTC’s doorstep, citing Ripple’s history of campaigns against Bitcoin and Ethereum,” Shapiro continued. The pundit further argued that Circle should consider the Revlon doctrine, which posits that a company should choose the best deal for its shareholders — including weighing antitrust risk.
