Ripple Acquires Crypto Custody Firm Metaco for $250M in Tokenization Push

By Ryan S. Gladwin

Ripple has acquired Swiss digital asset custody company Metaco.

A deal worth $250 million will see Ripple become the sole shareholder of Metaco which will continue operations as an independent brand.

Metaco offers tokenization tools and custody infrastructure for institutions to scale new business models in the crypto economy. They have already provided their services to the likes of Citi, Union Bank, and Bank BNP Paribas.

The move also means Ripple will be expanding its institutional offerings, providing customers with the technology to custody, issue, and settle any type of tokenized asset—with similar offerings for regular Ripple customers.

For its part, Metaco expects to see its growth accelerate in response to Ripple's established base of customers and resources.

"We have a very strong balance sheet and we have been actively meeting and evaluating crypto custodians for some time," she said. "With Metaco also sharing Ripple’s proactive approach to working with the current financial system and global policymakers, we knew that this was the right decision at the right time."

Despite the enduring crypto winter, Ripple remains focused on a long-term strategy to make "smart-bets" in the market's current state, said Shah.

"According to current trends, crypto assets under custody are expected to reach, if not surpass, $10 trillion by 2030, a majority of which will be driven by institutional adoption," Ripple’s head of custody Sagar Shah told Decrypt via email. "It felt like a natural progression for Ripple to provide customers with the ability to custody, issue, and settle any tokenized asset while giving us a new revenue stream as well as the ability to grow in lock-step with the industry."

The Ripple exec isn’t alone in praising the rise of tokenization.

Last December, the CEO of investment powerhouse Blackrock said the “next generation of markets” is going to revolve around the tokenization of different securities.

Citi bank’s future of finance lead Ronit Ghose echoed these sentiments, calling tokenization blockchain’s “killer use case” and that the technology could “grow by a factor of 80x in private markets and reach up to almost $4 trillion in value by 2030.”

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