Elrond continues its acquisition spree, buys crypto payment provider Utrust
Malta-based blockchain infrastructure startup Elrond has acquired crypto payment provider Utrust as it continues buying companies of varying sizes with myriad capabilities.
Elrond, the creator of the internet-scale blockchain, said the deal would allow it make payments faster, cheaper and more secure by using blockchain technology. The takeover of Utrust also aims to transform payment processing services from a cost for merchants into an income stream.
Utrust serves as a cross-border payment gateway through which merchants can accept cryptocurrencies, without conversion fees and in a secure manner. The crux of the entire Utrust payment system is to bridge the gap between digital currencies, traditional e-commerce and retail merchants.
Specifically, Utrust allows customers to make purchases with cryptocurrencies, while merchants get paid in their preferred fiat money in their bank accounts. The system currently supports payments with Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT, Utrust, dash, and many others. It also provides merchants with instant crypto-to-fiat settlements and allows their stores to apply for custom payment apps.
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Elrond acquired EMI Twispay
“At their best, payments should happen near-instantly, globally, and at a trivial cost. Enabling this for merchants worldwide is our primary goal. The second product we will be working on together with the newest member of the Elrond family is Merchant Yield, a DeFi-first payment processing solution that will provide yield for merchants, instead of requiring them to pay a percentage of the transacted value. The implications are hard to overstate,” said Elrond Network CEO Beniamin Mincu.
“The idea of payments turning from a cost into a revenue stream sounded as crazy to us as it does to anyone thinking about it for the first time. After exploring this together with Elrond, we not only realized that this is possible, but also that it is the inevitable future of payments. So we decided to join forces and accelerate the implementation of DeFi payments,” added Utrust CEO Sanja Kon.
This acquisition comes barely three months after Elrond acquired Twispay, a company licensed to operate an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) in the European Economic Area. Being a principal member of Visa and Mastercard, the newly-acquired firm offers payment processing services to more than 300 merchants, including companies such as Romania’s largest airline Blue Air.
These transactions help fulfil Elrond’s mission to tackle the blockchain’s inherent obstacles such as speed, scalability, cost, and the degree to which they can be configured
Meanwhile, the soaring punishing transaction costs, known as gas fees, and delayed transaction processing times on Ethereum sent traders and developers to Elrond and other rival blockchains. This happened after many projects and investors were priced out and became unable to participate in decentralized finance or NFT activities.
