BitGo withdraws from Prime Trust acquisition deal
BitGo, a wallet infrastructure provider and digital asset custodian, has terminated its preliminary agreement to acquire rival cryptocurrency infrastructure provider Prime Trust.
BitGo said the decision was made after extensive efforts and negotiations to find a viable path forward with Prime Trust. The company took to Twitter on Thursday to share this update, highlighting the considerable effort and work invested in the acquisition process.
After considerable effort and work to find a path forward with Prime Trust, BitGo has made the hard decision to terminate its acquisition of Prime Trust. This decision was not made lightly and BitGo remains committed to our mission to deliver trust in digital assets.
— BitGo (@BitGo) June 22, 2023
While the specific reasons for the termination were not disclosed in the tweet, this development comes after a US federal judge dismissed the lawsuit filed by BitGo against Galaxy Digital over the cancellation of their $1.2 billion acquisition deal.
Prime Trust counts some of the world’s largest crypto brands such as Swan, Abra, Dapper Labs and Binance US as clients. It also offers services to other crypto exchanges, NFT creators, digital wallets, OTC desks, RIAs, broker-dealers, banks, and neobanks.
The Las Vegas-based firm offers a portfolio of APIs and plug-and-play widgets as it seeks to be the one-stop shop for financial infrastructure of Fintechs including firms in the cryptocurrency sector. Prime Trust is already famous in the blockchain space thanks to its back-office solutions. The SEC-regulated company began its Bitcoin storage service in 2020, and then added support for Ethereum and ERC-20 tokens.
Prime Trust also serves as a custodian and trustee for personal and corporate trusts, as well as for crowdfunding platforms. The firm claims to have crossed $100 million in annual revenue last year, as well as 250 million API calls per month from its B2B customers.
The cancelled agreement, made public on June 8, would have granted BitGo the control of Prime Trust’s payment rails and cryptocurrency Individual Retirement Account (IRA) fund. This deal was also expected to expand BitGo’s wealth management offerings, providing a broader range of services to its customers.
At the time, BitGo said the transaction not only brings Prime Trust’s regulated business in Nevada into its network of trust companies, but it will also leverage its fintech API infrastructure and exchange network to strengthen BitGo’s Wallet Services (BWS) and Go Network. This collaboration was supposed to enhance BitGo’s capabilities in custody, liquidity, settlement, and compliance by mapping them over a 1:1 ratio.
