Fireblocks and First Digital said on Wednesday they had reached
a cash and equity deal, without disclosing financial details,
but two sources close to the deal said the purchase price was
$100 million.
Fireblocks last month raised $550 million from institutional
investors, pushing its valuation to $8 billion.
The First Digital acquisition will expand Fireblocks' existing
payment capabilities allowing payment service providers (PSPs)
to accept crypto payments.
PSPs and large merchants are eager to meet customer demand for
crypto and digital currency payments, but offering these
services often entails challenges such as high wallet
integration costs and manual anti-money laundering screening.
Fireblocks said the addition of First Digital will enhance
solutions it already offers to address those issues.
"What First Digital brings is an awesome product and extensive
leadership and know-how in the payments domain," Fireblocks
Chief Executive Michael Shaulov told Reuters in a telephone
interview. "Specifically the product they're bringing to the
market, I think is very applicable to the mass market."
First Digital will also launch a business unit within Fireblocks
that is "purely focused on payments and enabling our customers
to accept and remit using several kinds of cryptocurrencies,"
Shaulov said.
First Digital's payment capabilities include stablecoins,
cryptocurrencies pegged to a fiat currency like the U.S. dollar.
First Digital Chief Executive Ran Goldi said the deal was a
natural fit, given the companies had been partners for two
years. He added that over the past six months First Digital "saw
lot of interest from companies that three years ago said we were
ahead of our time."
Through First Digital, merchants who work with supported
payments service providers can simply add an option to accept
crypto payments, and the funds are settled in either local
currency or crypto.
All First Digital employees will be absorbed by Fireblocks under
the deal.
(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; editing by Jane Wardell)
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