Ripple Acquires Custody Provider Metaco for US$250M

Ripple, the leader in enterprise blockchain and crypto solutions, announced today it has acquired Metaco, a Swiss-based provider of digital asset custody and tokenization technology. Diversifying into custody solutions is a milestone in Ripple’s business and product strategy, bringing new revenue opportunities to the company.

Ripple and Metaco share strong crypto DNA, top-tier institutional customers, and a long history of working with regulated entities to create secure enterprise-grade solutions. With this acquisition, Ripple will expand its enterprise offerings, providing customers with the technology to custody, issue, and settle any type of tokenized asset. Metaco will dramatically accelerate its growth trajectory through access to Ripple’s established base of hundreds of customers, capital to address new demand, and resources to continue delivering on its commitment to banking and institutional clients.

“Metaco is a proven leader in institutional digital asset custody with an exceptional executive bench and a truly unmatched customer track record,” said Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple. “Through the strength of our balance sheet and financial position, Ripple will continue pressing our advantage in the areas critical to crypto infrastructure. Bringing on Metaco is monumental for our growing product suite and expanding global footprint.”

Best known for its flagship payments products, Ripple was the first company to address the multi-trillion dollar pain points in cross-border payments utilizing blockchain and cryptocurrency. The company focused on solving the hardest problems – such as building blockchain-enabled payments infrastructure from the ground up – before expanding its product offerings to address new use cases like liquidity management and tokenization, including Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). Today, Ripple serves hundreds of customers in over 55 countries and 6 continents with payout capabilities in 70+ markets.

Metaco offers secure and versatile mission-critical custody infrastructure for institutions to scale new business models in the crypto economy. Its primary offering Harmonize is the institutional standard for digital asset custody and tokenization infrastructure, chosen by the world’s largest global custodians, top-tier banks, financial institutions and corporates. Metaco’s technology solutions are currently offered across various jurisdictions, including Switzerland, Germany, Turkey, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong and the Philippines, among others.

“As the go-to provider for traditional finance companies looking to integrate crypto and blockchain solutions, Ripple is uniquely positioned to address the growing institutional crypto custody market, expected to reach nearly US$10T by 2030. Custody is a key facet of the infrastructure required for enterprise crypto services. Adding these capabilities to Ripple’s already growing product solutions means we can continue to support customers as they look to utilize crypto and blockchain for real-world use cases across all phases of adoption,” said Monica Long, President at Ripple.

Adrien Treccani, Founder and CEO at Metaco said,“Our mission has always been to enable institutions to thrive in the digital asset economy with the help of our core infrastructure and expertise, and we are delighted to join forces with the team at Ripple, who share that passion. This deal will enable Metaco to leverage Ripple’s scale and market strength to reach our goals and deliver value to our clients at a faster pace. We look forward to continuing to serve unprecedented levels of institutional demand with the utmost excellence in delivery, as our clients have come to expect.”

Ripple will become the sole shareholder of Metaco, which will continue to operate as an independent brand and business unit led by Founder and CEO Adrien Treccani.

About Metaco

Founded in 2015 in Switzerland, Metaco is an enterprise technology company whose mission is to enable financial and non-financial institutions to securely build their digital asset operations. The company’s core product, Harmonize™, is a mission-critical orchestration platform for digital assets. From asset-agnostic custody and trading to tokenization, staking and smart contract management, the platform seamlessly connects institutions to the broad universe of decentralized finance (DeFi) and decentralized applications (Web3 Dapps). Metaco has established itself as the institutional standard for digital asset infrastructure, trusted by the world’s largest global custodians, banks, regulated exchanges, and corporates. Its software and technology solutions enable institutions to store, trade, issue and manage any type of digital asset — such as crypto and digital currencies, digital securities, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) – with the highest possible security and agility.

About Ripple

Ripple is a crypto solutions company that transforms how the world moves, manages and tokenizes value. Ripple’s business solutions are faster, more transparent, and more cost-effective – solving inefficiencies that have long defined the status quo. And together with partners and the larger developer community, we identify use cases where crypto technology will inspire new business models and create opportunity for more people. With every solution, we’re realizing a more sustainable global economy and planet – increasing access to inclusive and scalable financial systems while leveraging carbon-neutral blockchain technology and a green digital asset, XRP. This is how we deliver on our mission to build crypto solutions for a world without economic borders.

Photo by Denis Linine on Unsplash

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