Ripple Completes Acquisition of Standard Custody! Further Strengthening USD Stablecoin and RWA

Ripple Labs announced the official completion of the acquisition of Standard Custody & Trust Company. This is Ripple’s second major acquisition after Metaco, further strengthening its stablecoin and physical asset tokenization business.

Public chain Ripple acquired Swiss digital asset custody company Metaco for $250 million at the end of May 2023, and reached an acquisition agreement with New York digital asset custody company Standard Custody & Trust Company (hereinafter referred to as Standard Custody) in mid-February this year. This is a company that holds a BitLicense license from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), allowing it to legally operate institutional-level digital asset custody business in New York.

Just yesterday (11), Ripple Labs announced that it has officially completed the acquisition of Standard Custody and appointed Standard Custody CEO Jack McDonald as Ripple's senior vice president of stablecoin business while maintaining his position in Standard Custody.

Standard Custody is a subsidiary of PolySign, a digital asset infrastructure company founded by Ripple co-founder Arthur Britto, who is currently the president of PolySign.

Ripple's acquisition boosts the US dollar stablecoin business

This acquisition is crucial to Ripple's goal of launching a US dollar stablecoin and tokenizing real-world assets. Ripple said in the announcement: This is an exciting moment for Ripple to open a new chapter. It will not only strengthen its existing product line, but also explore new complementary products such as stablecoins, all based on a commitment to regulatory compliance.

Since 2016, Ripple has held the New York BitLicense through its subsidiary XRPII and obtained nearly 40 money transmission licenses in various states in the United States. The completion of this acquisition will also add Standard Custody to its license portfolio.

The announcement stated that this development enables the company to further strengthen its enterprise infrastructure solutions, thereby providing institutional clients with better asset tokenization, storage, movement and exchange services.

Emphasizing the importance of compliance

Standard Custody is Ripple's second major acquisition in the past year after Metaco. Ripple said in the announcement that these two actions highlight the importance and increasing breadth of digital assets, ranging from stablecoins and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) to tokenized physical assets (RWAs) such as stocks, bonds, commodities, and real estate.

"Market participants need trust, utility and liquidity to unlock access to these new asset classes and the broader token economy, and Ripple is committed to accelerating this growth."

Ripple added that they will continue to use their financial advantages to make strategic acquisitions to further consolidate their leadership in areas such as enterprise-level cross-border payments and digital asset custody, and meeting regulatory requirements and obtaining relevant licenses will be the key next step in promoting institutional adoption of blockchain technology.

XRP fell 1.3% in the past 24 hours

However, Ripple's native token $XRP does not seem to be significantly motivated. It fell 1.3% in the past 24 hours as Bitcoin fell. It was temporarily reported at $0.48 before press time, with a market value of $26.63 billion, making it the 8th largest cryptocurrency.