On Tuesday, June 11, Ripple revealed that it has wound up the acquisition formalities pertaining to its Standard Custody deal. All the required regulatory approvals have been granted and the deal has been officially sealed.

The official announcement pointed out,

“This is an exciting new chapter for Ripple to strengthen its existing product offerings and explore new, complementary products like stablecoins—underpinned by a commitment to regulatory compliance.”

The completion of this deal comes on the heels of the blockchain company unveiling its plans to launch a USD-backed stablecoin, in a quest to bridge the gap between blockchain and TradFi.

The asset will be issued on the XRP Ledger. In retrospect, this will help flush-in liquidity to XRPL’s native DEX. The blockchain company will use both in-house assets - XRP and the stablecoin - in its payments solution.

Ripple has appointed Jack McDonald as the Senior Vice President of Stablecoins. The executive will also continue to serve his current role as CEO of Standard Custody.

Posting about the latest development on X, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said:

Here, it is worth noting that Standard Chartered holds a New York Limited Purpose Trust Charter. Interestingly, it possesses one of the only nine New York licensed crypto trust charters. Other companies that hold the charter include Paxos, Fidelity Digital, and Coinbase.

Standard Custody is a subsidiary of PolySign - a digital asset infrastructure company that was put to sea by Ripple co-founder Arthur Britto. Ripple’s CTO, David Schwartz, also has a seat on the table at PolySign.

The acquisition of Standard Custody succeeds the blockchain firm’s acquisition of Metaco last year. With this acquisition, Ripple expanded its international presence and widened its service range. Ripple shelled out roughly $250 million from its balance sheet to wrap up this deal.

Going forward, Ripple will continue to acquire companies, in a bid to cement its leadership within the enterprise blockchain arena.