By Peter Bergman (MoneyAmped.com)
Ripple made an important announcement on Wednesday. It says the blockchain company has paid $250 million for the Swiss-based cryptocurrency storage service Metaco.
What Are the Benefits of Ripple?
The deal will give Ripple access to a platform to store, issue, and settle for tokenized assets. This will allow the company to offer more products. Customers can use Metaco’s necessary and secure storage infrastructure, enabling institutions to build new business models in the Bitcoin market.
Ripple said that the move to custody solutions would give it new ways to make money. The company also said the purchase was part of its plan to grow its business outside the United States without precise regulation.
The Company’s Problems With the SEC
In 2020, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Ripple and several top executives for selling around $1.3 billion worth of XRP tokens without proper registration.
Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple’s CEO, recently said that the current legal fight would cost the company about $200 million. He also advised people with coin-related businesses to avoid shopping in the United States. On Tuesday, the judge handling the Ripple case said that the regulator could not hide papers related to a speech that former official William Hinman made in 2018. The main topic of that speech was cryptocurrencies and securities. Hinman’s speech was delivered in 2018. A company spokesman said the deal was paid for with cash and Ripple shares.
Management Is Happy With the Metaco Acquisition Deal
Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, said Metaco is a proven winner in corporate digital asset storage with a great executive team and a customer track record that cannot be beaten.
Ripple will be the only company with a stake in Metaco. That said, it is already known that Adrian Treccani, who created Metaco and is now its CEO, will continue to run it as a separate division. The transaction is expected to occur by the end of the second quarter of this year. Metaco itself still needs to comment on the deal.
