USD Coin (USDC) issuer Circle has rejected claims that it blames the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the failure of its $9 billion plan to go public in December, according to a company spokeswoman.

The representative of the stablecoin issuer was responding to an article that was published on January 25 in the Financial Times. The article characterized Circle as having “blamed” the securities regulator for its “derailed” listing by delaying approval of a merger deal. “Circle has not, and does not, blame the SEC for anything related to the mutual termination of our SPAC merger agreement with Concord,” the representative said, adding that any statement to the contrary is inaccurate.

Circle’s listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) depended on their being able to combine with Concord, a company that was established by banker Bob Diamond through an agreement known as the Special Purpose Acquisition Company agreement, also known as SPAC agreement. This was one of the requirements for Circle to be eligible to be listed on the NYSE.

According to the Financial Times, Circle said the merger could not be completed because the SEC failed to declare the relevant S-4 filing valid in a timely manner. This would have caused the deal to lapse on December 10.

Circle’s spokeswoman, on the other hand, referred to previous comments made by the company in December, saying that “the contract has just ended.”

However, on December 5, the same day the deal was announced to have been terminated, Concord filed a Form 8-K with the SEC, which revealed that the New York Stock Exchange was delisting it due to ” abnormally low trading price levels”. Prior to this, Concord had not publicly disclosed the reason for the failed business combination.

In fact, Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire only said positive things about the SEC in a tweet he posted on December 5. In the tweet, he mentioned that while it was disappointing that they couldn’t complete the qualifications over time, the company still planned to become a publicly traded company.