US’ Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has signed a “definitive agreement” to acquire blockchain-based fintech firm Securrency. The firm has revealed in a press release that the acquisition is a step towards encouraging the acceptance and adoption of digital assets. According to a Bloomberg report (paywalled), the sale is a USD50 million deal.
DTCC is expecting the acquisition to fast-track the development of its enterprise digital asset platform, potentially speeding up its approach to institutional decentralised finance (DeFi). The firm has plans to “embed digital assets within its existing products and services, develop new, regulatory-compliant blockchain-based offerings and explore use cases with the industry, including buyside asset managers, broker-dealers and custodians, to collaborate on new DTCC blockchain-based solutions”.
A digital future
As part of its ambition to lead the industry into a digital future, DTCC intends to license the Securrency technology. Citing WisdomTree, which has licensed Securrency’s software to offer tokenised assets and funds via digital wallets as an example, DTCC’s press release states that “firms will be able to leverage the technology to transform and evolve their operating models and to create innovative, new digital asset services alone or in collaboration with other market participants”.
In addition, the technology provided by Securrency can act as a “DLT-agnostic harmonisation layer that promotes interoperability, liquidity, transparency, and security”, addressing the issue of fragmentation that occurs with different digital technologies and standards. This feeds into DTCC’s larger ambition to “provide global leadership” and “foster industry-wide collaboration”.
The acquisition is expected to close in “the next several weeks”. Following that, Securrency will become a fully-owned subsidiary of DTCC, and will operate under the name DTCC Digital Assets.