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.

Newsletter

Subscribe to The Breakdown

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.

Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

The Breakdown: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.
0xResearch: Alpha in your inbox. Think like an analyst.

Tags

Newsletter

The Breakdown

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Digital Asset Summit 2026

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 24 - 26, 2026

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

buy tickets learn more

recent research

Research

Kinetiq Protocol: From LST Infrastructure to HIP-3 Deployer

Kinetiq has established itself as Hyperliquid's dominant liquid staking protocol, holding 82.5% of LST market share with $610M in TVL. The protocol is now expanding beyond its kHYPE staking core into higher take-rate verticals: iHYPE for institutional custody rails, Launch for HIP-3 capital formation, and Markets for builder-deployed perpetuals. We view Markets, launching Jan. 12, as the highest-potential product line given its mechanically scalable, activity-linked unit economics. Near-term revenue remains anchored by kHYPE's KIP-2 fee schedule (~$1.6M annualized), while Markets provides embedded optionality if HIP-3 economics normalize post-Growth Mode. KNTQ's setup is relatively clean: zero insider unlocks until November 2026, 6.2% buyback yield from staking revenue, and cleared airdrop overhang. Risks center on unproven Markets execution, declining kHYPE TVL despite ongoing incentives, and competition from Hyperliquid's native initiatives.

by Research Team