Ripple Acquires Crypto Wallet and Custody Firm Palisade

Ripple has acquired digital wallet provider and custody firm Palisade, the blockchain-based financial technology company announced on Monday, adding to its growing list of recent mega-purchases.  

The acquisition is expected to increase the firm’s custody capacity, allowing Ripple to better serve crypto-native firms, financial technology companies, and other corporations. 

“Secure digital asset custody unlocks the crypto economy and is the foundation that every blockchain-powered business stands on—that’s why it’s central to Ripple’s product strategy,” said Ripple President Monica Long in a statement. 

“Corporates are poised to drive the next massive wave of crypto adoption. Just as we’ve seen major banks go from observing to actively building in crypto, corporates are now entering the market, and they need trusted, licensed partners with out-of-the-box capabilities.” 

Palisade’s wallet-as-a-service (WaaS) product, which offers features like multi-party computation (MPC) and multi-blockchain support, will slide directly into Ripple Custody and Ripple Payments—two of the fintech firm’s key business offerings. 

“The combination of Ripple’s bank-grade vault and Palisade’s fast, lightweight wallet makes Ripple Custody the end-to-end provider for every institutional need, from long-term storage to real-time global payments and treasury management,” Long added. 

The XRP-linked fintech firm has been expanding its service offerings through acquisitions throughout this year. In April it acquired prime broker Hidden Road for $1.25 billion to service institutional clients on a broader scale. 

Thanks to that acquisition, its prime clients are gaining access to dozens of cryptocurrencies in the United States. 

In August it snatched up Canadian stablecoin platform Rail for $200 million and just two weeks ago, the firm spent another $1 billion to acquire treasury management firm, GTreasury. 

Beyond landmark acquisitions, Ripple also closed a four year legal battle with the SEC, after the two parties ended their appeals in August. 

XRP, the Ripple-linked crypto asset, made a new all-time high earlier this year, climbing above $3.40 for the first time since 2018 to $3.65. It’s since fallen around 38% to $2.30 but remains the fourth largest crypto asset with a market capitalization of $140.5 billion. 

A representative for Ripple did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment.