Ripple ditches plan to buy Fortress Trust

Ripple previously announced its intent to acquire Fortress on Sept. 8

September 28, 2023 02:14 pm

Jievani/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

Ripple is abandoning its planned acquisition of Fortress Trust, according to CEO Brad Garlinghouse.

The acquisition was announced in early September, with Ripple saying at the time that it would buy the company in a cash-and-equity deal. Further details of the deal were not disclosed.

“The Fortress team is incredibly talented, and has built products solving real customer problems. While this outcome is different from what was originally planned, we’ll continue to support them and hope to work together in the future!” Garlinghouse said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

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When it announced the potential acquisition, Ripple called Fortress Trust a “financial institution that provides licensed Web3 financial, regulatory and technology infrastructure for blockchain innovators.”

Ripple was an early investor in Fortress, and Garlinghouse’s social media post on Thursday said that, while the acquisition had fallen through, it would retain its stake in the company.

“We’ve had a chance to get to know the team, its vision and technology,” Garlinghouse said when Ripple announced its plans to acquire the company on Sept. 8. “They’ve built an impressive business with recurring revenue and a strong roster of both crypto-native and new-to-crypto customers.”

A few days after the acquisition announcement, Fortress Trust CEO Scott Purcell told Fortune that the firm had lost around $12 million to $15 million worth of bitcoin, USDC and USDT in a hack. However, Purcell said the company “covered it right away.”

Fortress Trust did not immediately return a request for comment.

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