Ripple acquires crypto custody startup Metaco for $250 million

Ripple has introduced that it has acquired Metaco, a cryptocurrency custody firm primarily based in Switzerland, for $250 million in money and Ripple fairness. With this transfer, Ripple will broaden its choices as it should now be capable of custody, situation and settle any sort of tokenized asset.

“Metaco is a confirmed chief in institutional digital asset custody with an distinctive government bench and a very unmatched buyer monitor document,” Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse mentioned in an announcement. “By means of the energy of our steadiness sheet and monetary place, Ripple will proceed urgent our benefit within the areas crucial to crypto infrastructure. Bringing on Metaco is monumental for our rising product suite and increasing international footprint.”

Ripple is the corporate behind the Ripple cost protocol that makes use of XRP as its native cryptocurrency. Ripple has been working with conventional finance corporations in order that they’ll combine crypto and blockchain into their infrastructure. Whereas Ripple and XRP are technically separate entities, Ripple nonetheless owns a considerable amount of XRP tokens.

In 2020, Ripple and its crew faced a lawsuit from the U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee as a result of nature of XRP token gross sales. The SEC argued that XRP is a safety and it ought to have been registered with the fee. It’s price noting that Ripple and a handful of executives generated greater than $1.38 billion from gross sales of the XRP token.

With as we speak’s announcement, Ripple is diversifying its actions. Metaco has been working with institutional clients to supply them a number of enterprise-grade options, similar to custody, orchestration, buying and selling and extra.

Following as we speak’s transaction, Metaco will proceed to function as an impartial model and enterprise unit — however Metaco now has a brand new proprietor. It might point out that Ripple needs to make use of its steadiness sheet to construct a portfolio of cryptocurrency-focused corporations and bounce again from the SEC feud.