Ripple has agreed to acquire Standard Custody & Trust Company, an enterprise-grade regulated platform for digital assets.
The move underscores Ripple's commitment to regulatory compliance and enables the company to expand beyond its primary payments network into other blockchain-based financial products for institutional clients.
Under the proposed deal, Ripple will gain access to Standard Custody's limited purpose trust charter and its money transmitter licenses, contributing to the firm's growing portfolio of regulatory licenses. Ripple and its subsidiaries collectively hold a New York BitLicense, nearly 40 money transmitter licenses across the US, a Major Payment Institution License from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and a Virtual Asset Service Provider registration with the Central Bank of Ireland.
Monica Long, Ripple president, says: “Ripple and Standard Custody are dedicated to enabling enterprises to reap the benefits of blockchain across a host of financial use cases building institutional-grade solutions to tokenize, store, move, and exchange value. By expanding our licenses portfolio and making smart acquisitions, Ripple is well-positioned to take advantage of the current market opportunities and further strengthen our crypto infrastructure solutions.”
The acquisition of Standard Custody follows last year’s $250 million acquisition of custody provider Metaco. Recently, Ripple announced a series of custody partnerships with top-tier banks, such as HSBC, BBVA and Zodia Custody, and expansion to new territories for its Ripple Payments offering, such as Africa.
The closing of the transaction is subject to regulatory approval. Financial terms were not disclosed.