Blockchain company Ripple has announced it is enabling the adoption of web3 by acquiring Fortress Trust. Fortress Trust provides Web3 financial, regulatory, and technology infrastructure for blockchain innovators from Fortune 500 businesses to fintech startups who are building blockchain-based services that will transform the world.
The financial company also serves as the back-end infrastructure layer for payments, asset tokenization, and other services that enable B2B clients to launch quickly and scale effortlessly.
Through its technology and licensing, Fortress Trust makes available the infrastructure required to accommodate the growing enterprise crypto market that complements Ripple’s business and product roadmap. The acquisition serves as an extension of Ripple’s investment in the company.
Ripple was already a minority stakeholder in Fortress Blockchain Technologies since 2022 as a part of its seed funding. However, it now wishes to invest in the parent company, Fortress Blockchain Technologies and its FortressPay services, bringing innovative payment solutions to B2B customers around the world.
Speaking on the acquisition, Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple said:
“As an early investor in Fortress Blockchain, we’ve had a chance to get to know the team, its vision and technology. Since their launch in 2021, they’ve built an impressive business with recurring revenue and a strong roster of both crypto-native and new-to-crypto customers.”
“We’re excited to bring on this team and its technology to accelerate our business and continue pressing our advantage in the areas critical to crypto infrastructure,” he added.
Bringing Regulatory Compliance for Blockchain Innovators
Ripple has been in a legal tussle since 2020. However in spite of this, the company has been expanding its reach through acquisition of several regulatory licenses in several jurisdictions. The acquisition of Fortress Trust further expands the company’s growing portfolio of regulatory licenses.
Ripple over the years has acquired a NY BitLicense, more than 30 Money Transmitter Licenses across the U.S., and an in-principle Major Payment Institution License from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the country’s Central Bank.
Also commenting on the acquisition, President at Ripple, Monica Long said licenses go a long way towards enabling the company to deliver quality services to its customers.
“Licenses are a powerful enabler to build and deliver best-in-class customer experiences for enterprises using Ripple’s crypto infrastructure across our payments and liquidity solutions,” she said.
“Acquiring Fortress Trust affords us a lot of optionality to both improve the current customer experience in our existing products and explore new, complementary products – all in service of becoming the one-stop shop for enterprises looking to convert, store, and move value on blockchain around the world,” she added.
Ripple Growing in Spite of Legal Tussle
Ripple still faces a lawsuit as the securities and exchange commission expectedly filed for an appeal in its case in which XRP was declared not a security. In spite of this, the company still pushes on with its efforts to provide high-quality services to its customer base.
Fortress Blockchain Technologies is excited to go on this journey with Ripple, to ensure regulated web3 services are brought to more people.
“We’re extremely pleased that Fortress Trust will be acquired by Ripple, one of the largest and most innovative companies in the industry — it’s a testament to the team and business that we’ve built in a short period of time. Furthermore, we look forward to continuing to collaborate and deepening our partnership with our Web3 payments solution,” said Scott Purcell, CEO of Fortress Blockchain Technologies.
