Metaco acquisition brings Ripple and banks closer together, raising expectations for the XRP army | CoinDesk JAPAN

Metaco, the Swiss-based crypto custody technology provider acquired by blockchain company Ripple earlier this year, is partnering with HSBC, one of the world’s largest banks. The news came as a bright spot for many Ripple supporters, known as the “XRP Army.”

Named after the crypto asset (virtual currency) XRP, designed to move liquidity around the XRP Ledger network used by Ripple, its avid supporters say HSBC has chosen Metaco as its technology partner for custody. We interpret that this selection means there is no doubt that this financial institution will adopt the XRP Ledger and XRP.

The crypto space is brutally tribal, with token holders wanting to believe that their chosen blockchain will rise and bring in big bucks. For example, the hypothesis that the Ripple acquisition had a positive effect on HSBC’s decision is based on the fact that Metaco had been approaching HSBC for over 18 months, according to Metaco CEO Adrien Treccani. Ignoring it.

However, Torekani says there is indeed an indirect relationship between Ripple’s protocol and Metaco’s bank customers.

“There is an indirect link that the adoption of Ripple and Metaco’s solution will further drive the adoption of the XRP Ledger as a protocol,” Torekani said in an interview. “The success of Ripple is also the success of the XRP Ledger.”

Ripple has focused its efforts on lobbying banks, focusing on ways to reduce friction in areas like cross-border payments. That makes the XRP Ledger one of the longest-running examples of a private tokenized blockchain, Treccani said.

“The XRP Ledger is designed for both public and private use and has better scalability than market competitors like the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chain,” he said. “The XRP Ledger natively supports tokenized assets without going through smart contracts, and allows for on-chain transactions with other blockchain-based exchanges and AMMs.” AMM stands for automated market maker.

The combination of Metaco and Ripple will provide a complete vertical stack consisting of infrastructure and service layers, Torekani said.

“We can provide banks with not just the infrastructure, but the tokenization lifecycle, payment primitives, and liquidity management all from a single vendor, allowing us to properly separate infrastructure and value-added services,” he said. Ta.

But after Metaco’s acquisition, rumors and reports began to emerge that some bank customers were becoming nervous and considering taking their business elsewhere. The reason for this is probably Ripple’s dispute with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Trecani said some of the speculation was “frankly a little crazy,” adding that post-acquisition discussions and customer reassessments are to be expected, and that many of the contracts with banks are subject to change of control clauses. He added that it has become.

“There have certainly been those discussions and we have spent the last few months clarifying the situation with the banks,” Trecani said. “We believe we have been successful. We will be announcing partnerships with more leading banks in Europe, the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Africa.”

Like many major banks, HSBC is joining the trend of tokenization, the process of handling ownership and transfer of real-world assets on the blockchain.

But Trecani makes no secret that crypto assets and their libertarian mindset drive him. He believes that many banks will eventually want to offer crypto-related services, and that by building the environment for tokenization now, they will have everything they need to get into crypto when the time comes. He thinks he can get it.

“If it was just for tokenization, I wouldn’t be in this game,” he said.

｜Translation: CoinDesk JAPAN
｜Edited by: Toshihiko Inoue
｜Image: Jesse Hamilton/CoinDesk
｜Original text: Ripple Excites XRP Army as Metaco Acquisition Brings Banks Closer