Ripple Acquires Standard Custody & Trust Co. to Expand US Business

According to CoinDesk, Ripple has struck a deal to acquire Standard Custody & Trust Co. in order to secure a New York trust charter and expand its U.S. regulatory licensing. The acquisition, which is still awaiting approval from the New York Department of Financial Services, will allow Ripple to offer more in-house services, including to financial firms seeking to tokenize assets. This move is part of Ripple's ongoing efforts to push beyond its well-known role as a payments network and into other financial products that can benefit from blockchain technology. Ripple President Monica Long said in an interview that the company wants to offer more infrastructure pieces to financial institutions and sees the acquisition as providing a lot of flexibility. The deal with Standard Custody & Trust adds a crypto custody and settlement business to Ripple's offerings, allowing customers to maintain custody with Ripple instead of relying on an outside partner. This acquisition follows Ripple's purchase of another cryptocurrency custody firm, Metaco, last year. Despite Ripple's overseas focus and its legal clash with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company is still trying to expand its capabilities in the U.S. Long stated that Ripple's hesitation about the U.S. market is more about the regulatory uncertainty surrounding digital assets rather than the specific clash with the SEC. However, she believes that the U.S. has the potential to emerge as a leader in driving innovation in the digital asset space.