Bitcoin Startup BitGo Acquires $12 Billion Asset Custodian Kingdom Trust
Digital currency startup BitGo has entered into an agreement to acquire Kingdom Trust, a digital asset custodian that currently serves more than 100,000 clients and manages more than $12 billion in assets. BitGo Acquires $12 Billion Asset Manager Kingdom TrustThe acquisition, which was announced on Thursday and is subject to regulatory approval, follows BitGo’s $43 million Series B funding round, which was concluded in November. The terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed. The South Dakota-based Kingdom Trust is one of the few regulated custodians to offer digital asset custodial services to institutional investors, and it also offers self-direct individual retirement accounts (IRAs) which allow investors to hold cryptoassets, precious metals, real estate, and other assets in tax-advantaged accounts.”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,” said Mike Belshe, CEO of BitGo. BitGo and Kingdom are building products for the future – marrying the new technology with the safety and controls all investors require.”Prior to the acquisition, the two firms had engaged in a multi-year partnership related to Kingdom Trust’s custodial service. Fintech Firms Make Moves as Davos LoomsBitGo’s acquisition of Kingdom Trust is one of a flurry of fintech developments that have been announced this week, coincidentally at the same time that legacy financial services providers are meeting in Davos for the World Economic Forum. As CCN reported, wildly-popular stock trading app Robinhood announced that it will add support for zero-fee cryptocurrency trading in February. Though just announced on Thursday, nearly 400,000 people had pre-registered for the service at the time of writing. Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange bitFlyer, meanwhile, opened a branch in Europe, adding to its current operations in Japan and the US. Finally, Canada-based cryptocurrency exchange CoinSquare announced that it plans to raise $150 million CAD (~$120 million) through an initial public offering (IPO) in September, funds it will use to help finance expansions into the US and UK. Featured image from Shutterstock