Ripple Acquires Digital Asset Custody Provider Standard Custody

Ripple Acquires Its Second Custody Services Provider

Ripple has acquired Standard Custody and Trust Company, ‘an enterprise-grade regulated platform for digital assets’. Ripple announced the deal in an official press release dated February 13th.

Last year, Ripple acquired Metaco, another digital asset custody service provider.

“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,” said Monica Long, Ripple President.

Ripple is a global financial solutions provider that aims to create an internet of value using crypto. It is offering its services in over 80 countries. It is behind the XRP Ledger and XRP  (XRP) cryptocurrency.

“Standard Custody provides financial institutions with the confidence and platform to safeguard their digital assets. Ripple continues to lead the industry with its deep crypto expertise, relationships with financial institutions and strong product offerings, across both payments and custody. Together with Ripple, we will further innovate and extend our leadership position in providing crypto infrastructure,” says Jack McDonald, Standard Custody CEO.

Per Ripple’s press release, ‘The closing of the transaction is subject to regulatory approval and standard closing conditions. TD Cowen served as exclusive financial advisor to PolySign.’

Standard Custody and Trust Company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of PolySign. PolySign develops institutional-grade custody solutions.

PolySign executives have strong links with Ripple. Arthur Britto founded PolySign and is presently serving as its President. Britto is also a co-designer of XRP Ledger.  David Schwartz is a board member and advisor at PolySign, he is also the CTO and Chief Cryptographer at Ripple Labs and is a co-designer of the XRP Ledger.

According to Cointelegraph, Ripple ‘holds a New York BitLicense and nearly 40 money transmitter licenses in American states.’

Metaco CEO Leaves Company: Ripple Spokesperson

A Ripple Labs spokesperson disclosed that Mecao Chief Executive Officer Adrien Treccani had resigned on Feb 12th, per Reuters. Ripple acquired Metaco for $250 Million last May. The date of resignation was not disclosed.

The National Bank of Georgia (NBG) has partnered with Ripple for its CBDC project ‘Digital Lari’. Ripple’s other major acquisitions include Fortress Blockchain Technologies (September 2023) and SimpleHoney (April 2013)

Ripple continues to be in a legal battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC sued Ripple, Chris Larsen, and Brad Garlinghouse in 2020, alleging that XRP is an unregistered security. However, Judge Analisa Torres ruled in a summary judgment that XRP was not a security when it was sold to investors in July 2023.

XRP Market Snapshot

After Ripple bought $285 Million of its shares ‘from early investors and employees last month, per Reuters, it was valued at around $11.3 Billion. 

Intraday, XRP price was up 2.96% to $0.536, its market capitalization showed an uptick of 3.03% to around $29.3 Billion. Trading volume increased 7.09% in the last 24 hours toward the $1.1 Billion mark. Total token supply stands at 99,987,912,526 XRP with the circulating supply at 54,506,969,135 XRP (54.1%). Maximum token supply is 100 Billion XRP.

Mr. Pratik chadhokar is an Indian Forex, Cryptocurrencies and Financial Market Advisor and analyst with a background in IT and Financial market Strategist. He specialises in market strategies and technical analysis and has spent over a year as a financial markets contributor and observer. He possesses strong technical analytical skills and is well known for his entertaining and informative analysis of the Financial markets.