The enterprise crypto and blockchain market continues to grow and is predicted to reach nearly $250 billion by 2030 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 54.5%. As more financial institutions and enterprises adopt crypto and blockchain technology, licensed financial, regulatory and technology infrastructure is critical for these organizations to join the Web3 world.
Ripple Forges Ties with Fortress Trust
Ripple is excited to announce it has agreed to acquire Fortress Trust. Fortress Trust is a financial institution that 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. Fortress is 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 provides critical infrastructure to address the growing enterprise crypto market that complements Ripple’s business and product roadmap. Ripple became a minority investor in Fortress Blockchain Technologies in 2022 as part of its seed funding, and continues to be an active investor in the blockchain and digital asset space, including its recent acquisition of Metaco for $250M — one of the largest deals in the space.
Following the closure of the Fortress Trust deal, Ripple plans to invest in parent company, Fortress Blockchain Technologies and its FortressPay services, which will leverage Ripple’s global technology to deliver new and innovative payment solutions to B2B customers around the world.
“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,” says Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple. “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.”
Enabling Regulatory Compliance for Blockchain Innovators
With this acquisition, Ripple’s growing portfolio of regulatory licenses expands, as Fortress Trust holds a Nevada Trust license. Ripple and its other subsidiaries collectively hold 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.
“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,” said Monica Long, President at Ripple. “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.”
Enterprise Blockchain Solutions for Finance: Paving a Path Forward
From cross-border payments and CBDCs to liquidity management and tokenization, Ripple's products and solutions have continued to innovate and evolve over the past decade.
The company’s growing global network of partners and customers are its north star, and being able to further enhance the customer experience via critical infrastructure as part of Ripple’s core business offerings is a natural and exciting next step.
Whether companies are looking for faster, more transparent payment rails, asset tokenization, or wallet services, regulatory compliance is a key component. By leveraging a regulated partner like Fortress, financial institutions and enterprises can focus on building their blockchain strategy rather than worrying about compliance requirements.
“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. Contact Ripple today to learn more.
