Stablecoin issuer Circle is looking to go public via a merger with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Concord Acquisition Corp. Circle today announced that the deal values the firm at $4.5 billion, with Circle shareholders owning 86% of the firm upon completion of the transaction, expected at yearend.

As opposed to notoriously volatile cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, stablecoins are pegged to fiat currencies and aim to serve more as a payment system than a speculative instrument.

In addition to the SPAC transaction, investors have committed $415 million in private investment in public equity (PIPE) financing to the Boston-based Circle, the company said in documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Concord is led by Bob Diamond, former chief executive of Barclays, who will also join Circle’s board.

“USDC is not displacing the existing central bank money,” Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said in a conference call with investors. “It sits inside that two-tiered banking system. It is not volatile like other cryptocurrencies. But it’s also not bound by the limitations that exist in the existing fiat currency system.”

Allaire added that while Circle began the year with $4 billion of USDC in circulation, the firm has experienced sharp growth, with over 22.6 billion USDC in circulation as of May 31. USDC is currently the eight largest cryptocurrency in circulation by market capitalization, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

“Circle’s world-class leadership team, its track record of delivery, and extraordinary ambition help position the firm as one of the most exciting companies in the transformation of finance,” Diamond said in a statement announcing the transaction.

Circle, which was founded in 2013, derives its revenues from two main income streams, Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Fox Green said during the investor conference call. “We earn interest income from the U.S. dollar-denominated reserve we hold against that USDC, which is driven by the size and growth of that reserve,” and the firm’s “payments and payouts APIs monetize the fiat to digital currency flows and the digital to fiat currency flows with well-established payments charges.”

The firm also rolled out treasury services in June that allow depositors to earn annual yields between 3% to 7% on their USDC holdings, Circle noted in its investor presentation. The firm counts Visa, Coinbase, Signature Bank and U.S. Bancorp asset management among its customers and partners and said that it estimates USDC in circulation will likely reach $190 billion by 2023.

Circle may incur “significant liability as a result of several ongoing disputes and investigations,” the firm noted in its presentation. Prime among these is an ongoing SEC investigation into the Poloneix cryptocurrency exchange, owned by Circle between 2018 and 2019, regarding trading of crypto-tokens “deemed to be unregistered securities.” Circle said it expects to resolve the issue with the SEC with a $10.4 million settlement offer. Additionally, the firm is also engaged in a dispute with Financial Technology Partners, a financial advisor on the SPAC transaction regarding the fees they are owed.

Circle plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol CRCL. The company has raised a total of $711 million in funding to date, according to Crunchbase data. Shares of Concord Acquisition Corp. [NYSE:CND] were up 6.5% to $10.49 as of 4 p.m. today.