Bullish, the institutional-grade digital asset platform, has entered a deal to buy Equiniti, a global shareholder service platform. During this year’s edition of Consensus, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse commented on this $4.2 billion acquisition of Equiniti, saying it’s “the biggest crypto deal ever”.
Opposites Attract: a Massive Deal For Blockchain Adoption
Ripple’s CEO went on to explain that this is a major unlock opportunity for both involved companies. For Equiniti, the global transfer agent & provider of mission-critical shareholder services has barely dipped its toes in crypto prior to this $4.2 billion agreement.
“An amazing example of traditional finance bridging to DeFi crypto”, highlighted Ripple’s Brad Garlinghouse, as Equiniti is getting into activity around digital assets, tokenization & real-world assets (RWAs) for the first time.
Bringing together two firms of completely different corners of the financial world, this deal allows Equiniti to gain direct crypto exposure & tokenization infra – key checkpoints to cover in order to establish oneself in the rapidly-growing Real World Asset (RWA) market.
Ripple’s Brad Garlinghouse has also drawn parallels between the Bullish – Equiniti deal & his own company’s recent acquisitions. Ripple has pursued the acquisitions of companies that have the potential to connect the traditional infrastructure with blockchain tech.
Ripple’s Infrastructure Power-Ups Reveal XRP’s True Role
One of the freshest examples of that is last year’s acquisition of GTreasury & Hidden Road, then rebranding Ripple’s own institutional prime brokerage platform as Ripple Prime. Along with that, Ripple’s own stablecoin RLUSD saw the light of day, surpassing a $1 billion market cap in just two months since inception.
Meanwhile, XRP sits at the centre of Ripple’s infrastructure play as 300 traditional banks & payment providers have tested out XRP as a bridge asset & collateral.
Some of the trials for On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) involve the biggest names in the financial world – SWIFT started a new payment scheme with 60 banks involved, including Santander, HSBC & Deutsche Bank – all partners of Ripple.
Bridging the gap between traditional & digital finance has become a necessity, rather than an option.
The demand for immediate payment settlement between merchants & clients has pushed SWIFT to launch the ISO 20022 gold standard, obligating compliant banks to reduce processing windows & potentially employing blockchain technology for everyday transactions.
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Bullish (the institutional crypto exchange run by former NYSE President Tom Farley) agreed to acquire Equiniti, one of the world’s largest traditional transfer agents that manages shareholder records for over 20 million investors and processes more than $500 billion in annual payments.
Garlinghouse described it as the biggest crypto deal ever because it combines a major crypto-native platform with a legacy financial infrastructure player. This move accelerates real-world asset (RWA) tokenization at institutional scale.
Equiniti is a global shareholder services company. It handles stock registries, dividend payments, proxy voting, and more for big names like Berkshire Hathaway and Moody’s. Bringing this onto blockchain rails is a massive leap for tokenized securities.
