BitGo Abandons Acquisition Deal with Struggling Prime Trust

The cancellation of Prime Trust’s acquisition has stirred the entire market, and some tokens directly connected to both these firms slipped by a few percent intraday.

Earlier this month, BitGo announced that it would be acquiring struggling crypto custodian, Prime Trust, and asserted that it would work hard to bail it out of trouble. The exact amount at which the acquisition deal was finalized, however, was undisclosed.

In an official announcement, BitGo said, “After considerable effort and work to find a path forward with Prime Trust, BitGo has made the hard decision to terminate its acquisition of Prime Trust. This decision to terminate the deal was not made lightly, and BitGo remains committed to our mission to deliver trust in digital assets.”

Prime Trust has been struggling for some time. In early January, it laid off one-third of the total workforce. Earlier on, BitGo itself was all set to be acquired by Galaxy Digital for the sum of $1.2 Billion, but due to some uncertainty, the deal was canceled.

Crunchbase data reveals that BitGo has acquired three companies as of now, and the acquisition of Prime Trust would have marked its fourth acquisition. Between October 2019 and April 2020, BitGo acquired Lumina, Harbor, and Hedge for an undisclosed amount.

Is the Empire of Prime Trust Crumbling?

On June 14, 2023, TheCoinRepublic reported that Banq, a subsidiary of Prime Trust, filed for bankruptcy on June 13, 2023. The process of filing was initiated in the District Court of Nevada.

The crypto custodian Prime Trust listed assets worth 17.72 million US Dollars and liabilities amounting to 5.4 million US Dollars.

Banq revealed in its court filing that $17.5 Million worth of assets were transferred to the Fortress NFT Group in an ‘unauthorized transaction,’ which might be a reason for the financial crisis of the company.

As per the court filing, several unapproved transactions were initiated with the former executive of Banq, including trade confidential and proprietary information. The Chief Executive Officer, Chief Technology Officer, and Chief Product Officer of Banq had founded the Fortress NFT Group.

At press time, the leader of all cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, was trading at $30,0169 with a 24-hour trading volume of $17 Billion. Earlier, BTC was holding the first position in terms of trading volume and price, but Tether, the popular stablecoin, has now acquired the first position.

In the meantime, the overall crypto market capitalization fell over 0.50% and was at $1.17 trillion. Pepe token prices surged more than 67.75% in the past seven days but slipped around 5.10% intraday.

Disclaimer

The views and opinions stated by the author, or any people named in this article, are for informational ideas only and do not establish financial, investment, or other advice. Investing in or trading crypto assets comes with a risk of financial loss.

Andrew is a blockchain developer who developed his interest in cryptocurrencies while his post-graduation. He is a keen observer of details and shares his passion for writing along with being a developer. His backend knowledge about blockchain helps him give a unique perspective to his writing