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There was a sharp decline in the number of crypto mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in Q2 2023, with intra-sector deals experiencing a 50% fall-off.<\/p>\n
While deal activity had hit an all-time quarterly high<\/a> in the first three months of 2023 \u2014 54 transactions \u2014 that figure dropped to 32 between April and June, according to crypto advisory firm Architect Partners. <\/p>\n The quarter-over-quarter decline was driven by a drop in intra-crypto deals, which fell 50% from 36 to 18, Architect Partners Head of Growth Dan Wang told Blockworks. <\/p>\n \u201cBridge\u201d transactions \u2014 deals between crypto and non-crypto companies \u2014 saw less of a decrease, dropping from 18 to 14.<\/p>\n \u201cCrypto companies are being more prudent and selective on where and how they choose to allocate time and resources,\u201d Wang said. <\/p>\n Ten of the 32 M&A deals during the second quarter disclosed what the acquirer paid, amounting to $370 million, according to Wang. This compared to roughly $400 million of disclosed transaction volume last quarter \u2014 a marked difference from when that number peaked during the first quarter of 2022 at $1.6 billion. <\/p>\n The 86 crypto M&A transactions in the first half of 2023 are behind the record pace set in 2022<\/a> \u2014 a year that saw 204 transactions, a 13% increase from 2021. <\/p>\n Among the latest, and more significant transactions, was Laser Digital’s buy of Elysium Technology Group, a post-trade solutions provider for FX and digital assets. The company made the acquisition for an undisclosed amount.<\/p>\n Laser Digital is the digital asset business of Japan-based financial services firm Nomura. <\/p>\n Read more: <\/strong>TradFi participation, clear rules crucial for crypto adoption: Laser Digital CEO<\/a><\/p>\n Elysium offers “air traffic control” for its capital markets business \u2014 comprising trade settlement, real-time position reporting, and a securities database with digital asset symbology, Architect Partners’ Michael Klena said in a June 30 notes<\/a>,<\/p>\n Institutional-grade, cross-asset functionality is set to drive client decision-making in the crypto space, he added. <\/p>\n \u201cAs the roles market participants play in digital asset markets continue to evolve, Laser Digital is positioned as a key FX and digital asset post-trade infrastructure provider with traditional financial institution roots, which is the counterparty profile that institutions want to do business with, Klena wrote. <\/p>\n Another particularly notable transaction during the second quarter was Ripple’s buy of crypto custody tech provider Metaco for $250 million in mid-May, Wang told Blockworks. <\/p>\n Citibank and BNP Paribas are among the users of Metaco’s Harmonize-branded product lineup, which allows institutions to trade, settle, transfer and custody digital assets.<\/p>\n The acquirer, a specialist in blockchain-based international payments, seeks to “transform” the $156 [trillion] cross-border payment market\u201d and help issue and settle tokenized assets \u2014 capabilities for which security are critical, Klena wrote in a May 17 note. <\/p>\n \u201cMetaco’s custody technology and related products allow Ripple to protect client assets, control the evolution of the technology and related services as needs dictate and represent a potentially attractive new revenue stream as assets under custody scale,\u201d Klena added. <\/p>\n These transactions join other significant deals done earlier this year, such as Coinbase’s buy of One River Digital Asset Management<\/a> in March and ConsenSys’s purchase<\/a> of blockchain development tooling platform HAL.<\/p>\n Wang also pointed to the merger between Hut 8 Mining and US Bitcoin Corp., first revealed in February<\/a>, as a notable 2023 transaction. That combination, set to give the company a hash rate capacity of 7.5 exahashes per second (EH\/s), is still pending<\/a>,<\/p>\n Get the day’s top crypto news and insights delivered to your email every evening. Subscribe to Blockworks’ free newsletter<\/a> now.<\/strong><\/p>\n Want alpha sent directly to your inbox? Get degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance, can’t-miss tweets and more from Blockworks Research’s Daily Debrief<\/a>,<\/strong><\/p>\n Can’t wait? Get our news the fastest way possible. Join us on Telegram<\/a> and follow us on google news<\/a>,<\/strong><\/p>\n There was a sharp decline in the number of crypto mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in Q2 2023, with intra-sector deals experiencing a 50% fall-off. While deal activity had hit an all-time quarterly high in the first three months of 2023 \u2014 54 transactions \u2014 that figure dropped to 32 between April and June, according to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[230,225,221,227,226,228,229,60,223,224,222],"class_list":["post-118504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency","tag-brave","tag-coinbase","tag-crypto","tag-decentralised","tag-decentralized","tag-decentralized-exchange","tag-erc-20","tag-featured","tag-meme-coin","tag-robinhood","tag-solana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118504"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118506,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118504\/revisions\/118506"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Notable deals<\/h2>\n
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