UK-based cryptocurrency firm Archax announced on Tuesday that it has acquired Globacap Private Markets.
Archax, which operates as an exchange, broker-dealer, and custodial services provider, will rename the entity Archax Markets US.
The primary aim of the deal seems to have been to simplify Archax’s entrance to the US market, by taking on the regulatory permissions and approvals that Globacap had.
Globacap’s US entity had approvals to operate as a broker-dealer from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
Perhaps more significantly, it also had approval to operate an alternative trading system (‘ATS’) for primary and secondary market trading.
The company can thus be used as a venue for Archax to offer US clients access to a similar set of products that it currently provides in the UK.
Alongside regular cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin and ethereum, Archax also offers trading in ‘tokenised’ real-world assets.
For example, companies can trade digital assets, which have their price derived from underlyings like money market funds, commodities, and corporate bonds. The crypto exchange operator says it plans on expanding that to include UK government bonds and stocks.
“The acquisition of Globacap PMI in the US builds on the strong partnership we already have with them in the UK, and is a part of that global strategy,” said Archax CEO and Founder Graham Rodford.
“In particular, we want to help support institutional market participants transition from traditional to digital assets and give them the regulated tools and services they need to do that. The US is an enormous and important global market – and with the recent change of government and new, clearer and more open regulated landscape, it is important for firms in our space to have a clear US strategy – and this transaction gives us just that.”
The deal to acquire Globacap is the second major acquistion that Archax has made in the last six months.
At the end of October last year, the company announced that it would acquire Spanish firm KSCM, allowing it to expand into the European Union.
