Ripple took a minority stake in cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp in the first quarter of 2023. Digital investment firm Galaxy Digital advised on the deal, according to the minutes of the Galaxy shareholder meeting. May 9th.
Ripple has acquired shares formerly owned by Pantera Capital, a US-based digital asset investment firm. Pantera was one of Bitstamp’s largest shareholders until 2018, when the exchange was acquired by Belgium-based investment firm NXMH in an “all-cash deal.” At the time, the company was valued at $60 million.
Pantera, which invested $10 million in the exchange in 2014, also sold part of its stake in Bitstamp to NXMH.
“More broadly in our global marketplace business, after a record year for our investment banking team, we consulted with Pantera, a blockchain asset management company. leading, on the sale of its stake in European digital asset exchange Bitstamp to Ripple Labs in Q1,” said Galaxy president and chief information officer, Chris Ferraro.
It is unclear how much Ripple paid for the acquisition or how the deal was structured.
Founded in 2011, Bitstamp was one of the first cryptocurrency exchanges to offer digital asset transactions. The company provides services to customers in more than 100 countries from its headquarters in Luxembourg. According to CoinMarketCap, Bitstamp currently ranks among the top 10 crypto exchanges in terms of trading volume, with over $164 million in token value traded in the last 24 hours.