Fireblocks, a digital asset custody, transfer, and settlement platform, has announced its acquisition of First Digital, which is a stablecoin, and digital asset payments technology platform, in a deal whose financial detail was not revealed.
As the company unveiled, the acquisition will strengthen the Fireblocks’ payment offering by granting access to all of its Payment Service Providers (PSPs) in its network to accept and conduct their businesses through digital currencies. The acquisition will help all the PSPs within the Fireblock ecosystem in response to the surging demand amongst retail investors for crypto-related payments.
“We’re thrilled to welcome First Digital to the Fireblocks family as we accelerate our expansion plans to help every business become a crypto business. We’re pushing ‘fast forward’ to give PSPs the suite of tools they need to begin accepting crypto payments,” said Michael Shaulov, CEO and Co-Founder.
Fireblocks is currently valued at $8 billion following its $500 million funding round in January. Its deep liquidity arguably paved the way for this acquisition. The deep capital has also positioned the Fireblocks startup as the highest-valued digital asset infrastructure provider globally. This designation will bolster its plans to champion the emergence of a new digital payments enterprise.
Following the acquisition, the First Digital team will join the Fireblocks engineering team, adding their knowledge and expertise in the payments space to the latter firm’s growing tech stack. Ran Goldi, the Chief Executive Officer, will also assume a new role as the Vice President of Payments at Fireblocks.
Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) are becoming a very prominent trend in the digital currency ecosystem today. To maintain a balanced stance in being prepared for the onboarding of the following 1 billion users that will enter the digital currency ecosystem, firms with adequate backing from Venture Capital (VC) firms like FTX Derivatives Exchange have been making several strategic acquisitions last year.
Image source: Shutterstock