Circle is 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 .[1][2] In September 2015, Circle received the first BitLicense issued from the New York State Department of Financial Services.[3][4][5] In April 2016, the British government approved the first virtual currency licensure to Circle.[6] Circle is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.[7]
Up until December 2016, Circle Pay also operated as a bitcoin wallet service to buy and sell bitcoins.[8][9][10] It has since ceased to provide such service, claiming the company “is now more than ever not a consumer bitcoin exchange, and will continue to focus resources on global social payments and future next-generation blockchain technology“.[11] Circle has launched a Bitcoin Blockchain-based remittance and messaging application to serve the unbanked.[12]