Although the outcome is different than what was initially anticipated, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse remarked, “We’ll continue to support them and hope to work together in the future.”
The outright acquisition of Nevada-based chartered trust company Fortress Trust by Ripple has been cancelled, the company stated.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced the decision to forego an outright acquisition of Fortress Trust on social media network X (previously Twitter). “We signed a letter of intent to acquire Fortress Trust a few weeks ago. We’ve subsequently decided not to move forward with an outright acquisition, while Ripple will remain an investor.
On September 8, Ripple announced that it would be purchasing Fortress for an undisclosed sum. A source with knowledge of the situation at the time claimed that the cost was lower than the $250 million Ripple spent for the custodial business Metaco in May.
The previous day, Fortress Trust reported a theft of cryptocurrencies from consumers that later turned out to be worth close to $15 million. It assigned responsibility to an anonymous third-party provider who had been the target of a phishing scam. Later, some sources identified the seller as Retool, a Fortune 500 company with headquarters in San Francisco, which had created a site for a small number of Fortress users to access their funds. The heist, according to Ripple, hastened acquisition talks that had already been in the works.
Scott Purcell, who has a significant track record in the sector, founded Fortress Trust, which offers financial and regulatory infrastructure for blockchain businesses. Up until 2020, he served as Prime Trust’s CEO. Years after he had left Prime Trust, the business had been put into receivership when fellow custodian BitGo had cancelled its plan to buy it.
