Weeks after its first victory against the SEC, Ripple is making strategic moves aimed at expanding its sphere of influence and recently announced the acquisition of Fortress Trust. This news comes shortly after the company's previously announced acquisition of Metaco for approximately $250 million. This latest move makes it one of the biggest acquisitions in WEB3. So how do these acquisitions affect Ripple's grand plan?
Metaco provides crypto custody services, while Fortress Trust provides infrastructure for the institutional crypto market. Based on this alone, we can see that Ripple is poised to become one of the biggest WEB3 players contributing to institutional crypto adoption, hence the acquisition of custody services.
The company also recognizes the need to have the right infrastructure in place to encourage corporate participation. Ripple's CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the following about the acquisition:
“We are excited to add this team and its technology to accelerate our business and maintain our advantage in areas critical to crypto infrastructure.”
How will Ripple's move affect the XRP price?
Ripple's acquisition of Fortress Trust essentially allowed it to expand its portfolio of regulatory licenses. The acquisitions elevate Ripple's readiness to support a wave of institutional liquidity into the crypto market with a custody-based approach. If this strategy works, it could put XRP in the crosshairs of institutional demand.
While XRP's prospects have improved, price action remains in low-volatility uncertainty after losing July gains.
Despite the lack of enthusiasm on XRP's price front, on-chain data has revealed that the market is responding to purchases. Ripple's social dominance has seen a slight uptick over the past 24 hours, likely in response to news of recent acquisitions.
We also observed an increase in investor sentiment in the first week of September. However, the improved sentiment did not translate into bullish momentum. This was likely because it failed to stimulate enough demand and volume to support a significant price change.
Additionally, address activity fell to its lowest levels in the last four weeks. Meanwhile, on-chain volume remained relatively stable, indicating that acquisition news did not trigger a short-term impact on the XRP price and demand dynamics.
