Tales from the Crytpo: Goldman-backed startup Circle buys Poloniex cryptocurrency exchange

For those of you who don't know what Circle is, Wikipedia describes it as:

"...a peer-to-peer payments technology company. It was founded by Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville in October 2013. Circle’s mobile payment platform, Circle Pay, allows users to hold, send, and receive traditional fiat currencies."

Today it was reported that Circle, backed by financial giant Goldman Sachs, purchased the American based cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex in an effort to cement its position as one of the leading companies in the world of blockchain technology.

"I think this is a really good sign for the industry. It shows that a lot of companies are going to start consolidating and that will bring [out] the best talent," said Erik Voorhees, an early investor in bitcoin who is now CEO of digital asset exchange ShapeShift. "I think you're going to see a lot of that in 2018. These companies have so much capital at this point."

"These markets are still in their infancy but they hold enormous promise," Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire told CNBC in a phone interview Monday. "There's going to be a huge amount of value creation."

"Maybe the first $1 trillion company in the world will be created in this space," he said.

Circle's aim seems to be to scoop up Poloniex, which is currently the 18th largest exchange on the planet, and turn it into a fully U.S. regulated exchange. A possible leaked presentation slide was posted on twitter by Nathaniel Popper, expressing the future plans of Circle with their new acquisition.

What does this mean for the whole crypto-space? Looks like the big companies and government regulatory bodies are just starting to sink their teeth into things. This whole ecosystem could turn out to be a far different animal than how it was first thought to be. Could things go from decentralized freedom to just another over regulated and smothered system? Hard to say but maybe there will be a place for both going forward. As the success of crypto grows, it WILL catch the eyes of the global giants and be bought up and consolidated. To what degree, we will see.

Sources: Reuters, CNBC, Nathaniel Popper