Bitgo Strikes Deal To Acquire South Dakota-based firm Kingdom Trust
Blockchain security startup Bitgo has announced that it recently signed a deal that will allow it to acquire cryptocurrency custodian called Kingdom Trust which is based in South Dakota.
Bitgo made the announcement on Wednesday revealing that the new deal has set in motion its plan to acquire the South Dakota-based company. Kingdom Trust is a fully regulated trust firm with a portfolio worth more than $12 billion. According to its website, the company has a clientele base of roughly 100,000 customers and it mostly deals with institutional-oriented custody and also self-directed individual retirement accounts (IRAs). The acquisition is reportedly pending regulatory approval and it comes after Bitgo’s Series B funding which took place in December last year.
Kingdom Trust is 100 percent compliant with the regulatory requirements of the Internal Revenue Code 408 of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 thus allowing it to serve as a custodian. Once the acquisition is complete, its custodian services will be combined with the cryptocurrency security protection services offered by Bitgo. This will allow the company to become the first full-stack and provider of online and onsite protection for cryptocurrency assets owned by institutional investors.
Bitgo CEO Mike Belshe released a statement regarding its plans: “Global financial markets have longed for an end-to-end solution offering both the technology to secure digital currencies as well as the legal and compliance controls necessary to integrate into mainstream financial portfolios,”
Belshe also pointed out that Bitgo has grown to become an industry leader in security while Kingdom Trust has been serving as a qualified and compliant custodian for almost 10 years. It, therefore, has a lot of experience in the industry and is thus a good fit for Bitgo. The two companies are working towards creating products for the future, especially ones that will ensure the security of assets and money.
Bitgo aim is to attract more institutional investors to solve the problem of custody for them. The terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed though the deal is expected to benefit from the fact that the two firms have previously worked together for years. Kingdom Trust previously got cold storage services for cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum and Bitcoin from Bitgo. The two have also teamed up with BitcoinIRA in the past to come up with products revolving around cryptocurrency. The new acquisition also highlights efforts to put in place stronger security measures for cryptocurrency.