Ripple announced that it has acquired the shares of Bitstamp, which is owned by the American investment company Pantera Capital.
This strategic move reflects Ripple’s trend of expansion, which has been proven by its continued growth-oriented efforts. Investment management firm Galaxy Digital Holdings featured this development in its latest quarterly report. According to the report, Galaxy Digital advised Pantera to sell its Bitstamp shares to Ripple in the first quarter of this year. Galaxy Digital President and CIO Christopher Ferraro also highlighted the move at this month’s shareholder update conference.
Details About the Purchase Are Not Certain Yet
According to a report published by Bloomberg in 2014, Pantera Capital made a significant investment of up to 10 million dollars in Bitstamp in 2013, just before the UK-based stock market gained significant recognition. However, Pantera decided to sell its shares to Ripple ten years later.
As WrathofKahneman, who is a significant influence within the XRP community, points out, the exact reason for the sale remains unclear. Underlining the acquisition, WrathofKahneman noted that the sale was not seen as an acquisition, and drew attention to Galaxy Digital’s point of view. This has led to speculation as to whether Ripple is acting strategically to strengthen its Liquidity Center (LH) solution or serve its On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) goals.
However, it should be noted that Bitstamp is one of Ripple’s longstanding partners for On-Demand Liquidity (ODL).
In addition, as highlighted in previous reports by The Crypto Basic, Bitstamp recently expanded its services on the XRP Ledger by integrating EUR-backed IOUs into the network in January. The Bitstamp stock purchase marks another strategic move by Ripple to strengthen its offerings. However, specific details on the acquisition target are currently limited. Let us also remind you that Ripple recently acquired digital asset custody firm Metaco to expand into the custody and tokenization sector.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse previously announced that the company has up to $1 billion in reserves that can be used for these expansion initiatives. The firm continued to grow and expand despite its long legal battle with the US SEC.
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