The tough regulations for digital assets in some nations have forced crypto-based companies to relocate their headquarters to countries with favoring laws. In terms of headquarters, the United Arab Emirates is followed closely by Hong Kong and New York. 

As per Circle’s chief executive officer and co-founder, the issuer of USDC is ready to shift its headquarters to New York City. 

In an X post dated September, Jeremy Allaire wrote that “ Circle has announced that we are moving our Global HQ to New York City, building out a flagship space on one of the top floors of 1 World Trade Center, a historically important landmark in standing for American global economic leadership.”

BREAKING NEWS: @circle has announced that we are moving our Global HQ to New York City, building out a flagship space on one of the top floors of 1 World Trade Center, an historically important landmark in standing for American global economic leadership. Details below the… pic.twitter.com/fCPzVMtBQw

— Jeremy Allaire – jda.eth / jdallaire.sol (@jerallaire) September 13, 2024

Additional information states that the Circle Consortium will likely complete the relocation HQ by early 2025. 

USDC, pegged to the U.S. dollar, holds the position of the second most traded stablecoin and fourth most traded among all registered cryptocurrencies in the market, according to the data from CoinMarket. 

What Influenced Circle to Shift Headquarter? 

As per market experts, the move to relocate the headquarter seems to be influenced by the ongoing process of the ICO filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. 

Available information notes that Circle filed its ICO application  with the SEC in January 2024. The issuer of USDC is actively seeking a regulatory review of the filed application to clear paths for further expansion.   

However, the move of Circle is largely discussed as the SEC is coined as one of the harsh regulators for the digital asset category. In the past few years, dozens of crypto-based firms have received warnings, as well as other types of judicial and civil notices from regulators in the United States.   

Recent Lawsuit by the U.S. SEC

Earlier on August 29 2024, Todayq reported that OpenSea, one of the biggest non-fungible token (NFT) market players, has received a Wells Notice from the U.S SEC. The notice was issued allegedly over the charges that the NFTs on the marketplace are unregistered securities. 

In June 2023, Binance the leading centralized cryptocurrency, and its CEO were sued by the SEC over the charges of artificially manipulating trading volume including other severe charges. 

Most recently, eToro, a crypto-based trading platform reached a $1.5 million settlement with the SEC over the charges of operating as an unregistered broker and clearing agency. 

Crypto Market Price Update 

When writing the fear and greed index powered by CoinMarketCap was at 36 determining a fear sentiment in the vast market. At the same time, the cryptocurrency market capitalization was $2.04 trillion reflecting a decline of 2.50%. 

Bitcoin lost over 2.50% of its trading price in the past 24 hours; until publishing it was trading at $58,648, with a surged intraday trading volume of 71.79%. BTC/USDT is the most traded pair intraday followed by BTC/FDUSD. 

In the past 24 hours, Ethereum prices have seen a strong declining momentum losing more than 5.48% of its trading price reaching $2,292. In the past 7 days, the market capitalization dominance fell more than 4.92% and slipped more than 10.42%. 

At press time the market capitalization dominance of ETH is below the 20, 50, 100, and 200 days EMA (exponential moving average).