In a move that will be seen as further ‘legitimizing cryptocurrencies’, Goldman Sachs-backed company Circle has acquired US crypto exchange Poloniex.

The takeover aims to extend the firm’s commitment to a new vision for global finance and to position the company as a leader in the blockchain industry.

According to Reuters, the Boston-based company already operated its peer-to-peer payment network through blockchain. The firm has had one of the best funding schemes that a startup could ever hope for, with its investors being Goldman Sachs Group and Chinese search giant Baidu Inc.

Exchanges to expand towards a crypto future

Posting in a company blog, Circle founders Sean Neville and Jeremy Allaire said: “We’re proud to announce that Circle has extended its commitment to a new vision for global finance by acquiring Poloniex, a leading token exchange platform.”

While the platform has managed to get into the top 20 rank for cryptocurrency exchanges, facilitating trades that amount to $171,921,321 in the past 24 hours, better-positioned platforms like Kraken – which has nearly double the volume in transaction terms – have maintained a steady lead, competing with the likes of Bitfinex, Gdax and Binance.

In a blog post, the company said: “We’ve been privileged to get to know and collaborate with the Poloniex founders and their teams over the past several months as we contemplated this union and completed extensive due diligence together, and we learned that we share a similar perspective on the future as well as the same sharp sense of urgency about immediate needs and challenges.”

In keeping with the hurdles that other exchanges face, Circle said that its main mission will be to address customer support, scale risk, compliance and technical operations.

“scaling Poloniex up and out through market expansion and localization, increasing token listings where possible and appropriate, and exploring the fiat USD, EUR, and GBP connectivity that Circle already brings to its compliant Pay, Trade, and Invest products.”

According to Coinmarket cap, which is the gold-standard for tracking crypto big data, Poloniex is the 14^th most prominent cryptocurrency exchange in the world, whereas Kraken stands as the 9^th largest.

While the exchange has a long way to go to reach trade volumes akin to its competitors, this development might spur leading exchanges to up their game and increase their investment in the budding industry.