Ripple partner and Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings is acquiring UK crypto trading company B2C2 through its subsidiary SBI Financial Services.
The acquisition comes a few months after SBI purchased a minority stake in the institutional trading platform.
In a press release, B2C2 says the acquisition puts the companies in a position to become the entry point for institutional organizations looking for a bank counterparty to trade crypto assets.
B2C2 founder Max Bonnen says the deal came at the right time for the Ripple partner as the nascent asset class is showing signs of strength.
“With Bitcoin hitting an all-time high this month, it is dawning on everyone in finance that crypto is here to stay. The timing could not be better for SBI, a financial firm admired for its farsightedness, who is not simply dipping in but opening a new chapter for the industry.
The integration is well underway, with both firms’ client bases already benefiting from our combined capabilities. We share a bold vision of the influence that crypto will exert on financial markets over the coming decade.”
The deal makes SBI the world’s first major mainstream financial group to run a crypto trading desk, reports Reuters. Boonen says B2C2’s team in Japan is transferring to SBI offices following the acquisition.
The team is also expected to grow from 50 to 70 people in the coming months.
SBI has been working with payments startup Ripple as both companies figure out more efficient means to move money across borders. Earlier this month, SBI revealed it is testing the use of XRP in the $6.6 trillion foreign exchange (FX) market.
The experiment aims to determine whether XRP’s speed can be leveraged to reduce the risk of price fluctuations that may occur as one fiat currency is traded for another as well as determine the possible savings on charges associated with the transfer.
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