Following the acquisition, Trustology will undergo a name change to Bitpanda Custody, and target new investors and professionals alike.
Crypto and securities trading platform Bitpanda, has acquired Trustology, a UK-based custodian of digital assets, for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition marks the first for Bitpanda, and represents a larger effort by the Austrian unicorn to scale up its operations. Trustology, which secured full registration from the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in October last year, seems primed to be an integral part of Bitpanda’s agenda.
The acquisition now sees Trustology changing its name to “Bitpanda Custody”. Furthermore, the newly-christened Bitpanda Custody will assume control of Bitpanda’s assets across its retail, institutional, and white-labeling businesses. According to Bitpanda, this will make it one of the largest custodians of digital currencies globally. In a press statement, Bitpanda chief executive officer Joshua Barraclough stated:
“Bitpanda Custody is part of our strategy to offer a fully comprehensive set of services to our client base and we can now combine an FCA-registered, institutional-grade custody solution with a leading trade execution venue.”
Merger Between Bitpanda and Trustology Seems Potent
According to Bitpanda, Trustology brings a wealth of experience for DeFi custodian services, boosting Bitpanda’s own offering for professional investors. Inside sources say the Vienna-based crypto unicorn spent eight figures on the Trustology deal – eight figures to be exact.
Bitpanda views the Trustology acquisition as part of a larger effort towards transforming the Bitpanda Pro platform into a fully-fledged functional brokerage business.
“This is a great step for us as a company and especially for Bitpanda Pro. Recently, we have invested a lot in upgrading Bitpanda Pro exchange as well as boosting our liquidity partnerships, so that we can compete with the largest exchanges on execution capabilities. Now we are looking to massively increase our footprint and bring lots more clients to our venues,” explained Barraclough.
Bitpanda’s co-founder and chief executive officer Eric Demuth touched on the development between the two platforms. According to Demuth, launching a custody firm will bring Bitpanda “one step closer to building a leading, fully regulated and secure digital investment platform for everyone, new investors and professionals alike.”
Trustology founder Alex Batlin also weighed in on the acquisition saying:
“We are really excited to press the Bitpanda turbo button in its mission to make institutional crypto custody safer, faster, and easier.”
Bitpanda became the first tech unicorn in Austria after concluding a $170 million Series B funding round in March 2021. Additionally, the multifaceted trading platform followed that up with a $263 million Series C round. The round, occuring months late in August, resulted in a hefty valuation of $4.1 billion.
Trustology also stayed busy before the acquisition. Back in December 2018, the crypto custodian raised $8 million in a funding round led by Two Sigma Ventures. Additionally, Ethereum developer ConsenSys played a participatory role.
Tolu is a cryptocurrency and blockchain enthusiast based in Lagos. He likes to demystify crypto stories to the bare basics so that anyone anywhere can understand without too much background knowledge.
When he’s not neck-deep in crypto stories, Tolu enjoys music, loves to sing and is an avid movie lover.
