A leading American multinational investment bank, Citigroup (C) is currently conducting a thorough review of its digital-assets custody partnership with Metaco, a Swiss fintech firm.
This evaluation comes shortly after Ripple Labs made public its acquisition deal to purchase the crypto custody firm for a substantial sum of $250 million. As per Bloomberg’s report, Citigroup is now reviewing its existing partnership in light of this recent development.
According to the insiders familiar with the situation, Citigroup has initiated informal discussions with alternative providers in this domain.
In May, Ripple made a notable announcement regarding its acquisition of Metaco. This acquisition was made amidst Ripple’s ongoing legal dispute with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a legal battle that is projected to result in substantial financial implications for the blockchain company, estimated at around $200 million.
In June of the previous year, Citigroup initially chose Metaco as its custody partner with the intention of broadening its offerings to include tokenized securities and other blockchain-based products.
The reasons behind the review were not explicitly tied to Ripple’s acquisition of Metaco. Ripple had stated during the announcement of the deal that Metaco would maintain its independence as a brand and continue to be led by its CEO, Adrien Treccani.
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