Austrian investment platform, Bitpanda, has acquired Trustology, a British crypto and DeFi custodian, to expand its professional investor offering.
Bitpanda Pro, Bitpanda’s platform for experienced traders and institutional investors, would be able to develop its own custody service as a result of the agreement. While the company could not provide a precise figure, a spokeswoman stated that the transaction cost it a “substantial two-digit million” in US dollars.
Bitpanda’s first acquisition comes following a frenzied fundraising period in which the Vienna-based business raised roughly $450 million in different stages last year. The company was valued at $4.1 billion in its most recent financing round in August. Since October 2021, Trustology, which will be rebranded as Bitpanda Custody, has been fully registered as a crypto-assets firm with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), making it one of only a few dozen crypto firms to meet the regulator’s anti-money laundering regulations.
All of Bitpanda’s assets will be held in Trustology’s custody throughout its retail, institutional, and white-labelling divisions.
The acquisition is seen by Bitpanda as a first step in turning the Bitpanda Pro platform into a full-fledged prime brokerage firm. In October of last year, the startup hired Joshua Barraclough, a former JPMorgan employee, to oversee the platform. The Block reported a month later that the business was planning to start a crypto derivatives desk.
That’s everything happening with Bitpanda for now.
