First Digital, the Hong Kong-based group behind the FDUSD stablecoin, has signed a definitive settlement to merge with CSLM Digital Asset Acquisition Corp III (Nasdaq: KOYN), a particular function acquisition firm, in a deal that values First Digital at $250 million on a pre-money fairness foundation, per an announcement on Wednesday. The mixed firm might be a brand new Cayman Islands holding firm listed on Nasdaq, with closing anticipated in the primary half of 2027.
First Digital stated it generated about $87 million in income in the fiscal 12 months ended June 30, 2025. FDUSD doesn’t pay curiosity to holders, in order that income got here largely throughout a interval when the stablecoin’s float was far bigger than it’s now. FDUSD reached a peak circulation of greater than $4.4 billion in April 2024, pushed by its integration throughout Binance, which stays its largest centralised market. Its present market capitalisation is about $325 million, in accordance to CoinGecko, a decline of roughly 93% from that peak. The announcement doesn’t give a present circulation determine.
The corporate is asking public traders to again what comes subsequent. Finance District, its ecosystem for AI brokers and the individuals they act for, has 4 reside merchandise: an identification credential known as District Move, an Agent Pockets that brokers function by the Mannequin Context Protocol, a service provider funds device known as Prism, and an AI assistant. First Digital stated Finance District “doesn’t but contribute materials income” and is designed to be ruled by holders of FDFI, a governance token that confers no fairness in the corporate.
“A Nasdaq itemizing would give us entry to public capital markets, the transparency of a listed firm, and shareholders who can take part in constructing it with us,” stated founder and CEO Vincent Chok. Chok will obtain Class B shares carrying ten votes every, whereas different shareholders obtain single-vote Class A shares. The deal has no minimal money situation.
The itemizing will put First Digital’s governance and reserves underneath SEC disclosure for the primary time. In April 2025, Justin Solar publicly alleged that First Digital Belief, the group’s Hong Kong custodian, was successfully bancrupt and had misappropriated TrueUSD reserve property, which despatched FDUSD briefly under its peg. First Digital denied the claims, stated it had acted as custodian on consumer directions, and filed a defamation action in opposition to Solar in Hong Kong’s Excessive Court docket the next day. The case stays listed in the corporate’s disclosures.
First Digital additionally named South Korea as a strategic precedence, with memoranda of understanding signed with a subsidiary of KOSDAQ-listed ITCEN Group and with alternate operator Wavebridge, and a Korean department workplace deliberate for the primary quarter of 2027. It holds a belief licence in Hong Kong and has a fiat-referenced token utility pending with Abu Dhabi World Market.
