Ripple Acquires Crypto Custody Startup Metaco for $250 Million

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Image credits: Stock Photos / Fotos Download / Flickr under CC BY 2.0 license. (image has been modified)

Ripple has announced that it has acquired Metaco, a Swiss-based cryptocurrency custody company, for $250 million in cash and Ripple shares. With this decision, Ripple will expand its offerings as it will now be able to hold, issue and settle any type of tokenized asset.

Metaco is a recognized leader in the custody of institutional digital assets with an exceptional leadership bench and a truly unrivaled client track record, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said in a statement. With our strong balance sheet and financial position, Ripple will continue to drive our edge in critical areas of crypto infrastructure. The arrival of Metaco is monumental for our growing product line and expanding global footprint.

Ripple is the company behind the Ripple payment protocol which uses XRP as its native cryptocurrency. Ripple has worked with traditional financial companies so they can integrate crypto and blockchain into their infrastructure. Although Ripple and XRP are technically separate entities, Ripple still owns a large amount of XRP tokens.

In 2020, Ripple and its team faced a lawsuit from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission due to the nature of XRP token sales. The SEC argued that XRP is a security and should have been registered with the commission. It should be noted that Ripple and a handful of executives have generated over $1.38 billion from sales of the XRP token.

With today’s announcement, Ripple is diversifying its business. Metaco works with institutional clients to provide them with several enterprise-grade solutions, such as custody, orchestration, trading and more.

Following today’s transaction, Metaco will continue to operate as an independent brand and business unit, but Metaco now has a new owner. This could indicate that Ripple wants to use its balance sheet to build a portfolio of cryptocurrency-focused businesses and bounce back from the SEC row.

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