The blockchain industry market size will exceed $17.57 billion in 2023. It is estimated to increase to $469.49 billion at the decade’s end.
Blockchain firms often collaborate or execute acquisitions when the synergy aligns.
To date, the largest blockchain merger and acquisition involved SPAC Blue Safari Group purchasing the crypto mining firm Bitdeer for $4 billion.
Concord Acquisition Group worked on a deal with Circle International Financial, hoping to acquire the USDC stablecoin issuer for $9 billion, but the deal fell apart later.
But what about the rest of the blockchain acquisition landscape? This list presents the 13 top blockchain company acquisitions in 2024.
1. Genesis Global Capital (Acquired by KaJ Labs)
KaJ Labs acquired Genesis Global Capital to gain access to its clients and provide services to institutional clients.
- 5-Year Search Growth: 0%
- Search Growth Status: Rekt
- Year Founded: 2018
- Location: Jersey City, NJ, United States
- Latest Round: $200M (Series C)
- Acquisition Cost: $1.5B
- Acquisition date: January 2023
What Does Genesis Global Capital Do: Genesis Global Capital is a digital asset custody and lending platform for institutions and high-profile clients. The firm invests user assets through trading crypto and backing promising projects that can yield high ROI.
Strategic Implications: KaJ Labs acquired Genesis Global Capital to access its assets and investors in a bid to expand on its AI and blockchain development. Genesis Global Capital filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2023 after the FTX collapse.
2. Palm NFT Studio (Acquired by Candy Digital)
Brand engagement platform Candy Digital bought Palm NFT Studio to tap into the direct NFT artists-fan engagement market.
- 5-Year Search Growth: 0%
- Search Growth Status: When Moon.
- Year Founded: 2021
- Location: Jersey City, NJ, United States
- Latest Round: $27M (Series B)
- Acquisition Cost: $610M
- Acquisition date: June, 2023
What Does Palm NFT Studio Do: Palm NFT Studio is a launchpad for artists and content creators looking to enter the NFT arena. The platform gives creators a friction-free engagement with their fans through digital collectibles – eventually creating communities that help foster the artists’ work.
Strategic Implications: Candy Digital is known for working with some of the biggest names (Netflix, NASCAR, WWE, etc.) to launch digital NFT collectibles. With Palm NFT Studio, Candy Digital gains access to more fan engagement collectibles.
3. Metaco (Acquired by Ripple)
Ripple bought out Metaco to strengthen its institutional-level decentralized financial handling and payment services.
- 5-Year Search Growth: 250%
- Search Growth Status: Rugged
- Year Founded: 2015
- Location: Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland
- Latest Round: $984K (Seed)
- Acquisition Cost: $250M
- Acquisition date: May, 2023
- Method of Payment: Cash and equity in Ripple
What Does Metaco Do: Using its flagship product, Harmonize, Metaco gives firms of all industries access to the digital tokenization world. Metaco helps create digital assets and associated services such as staking, smart contracts, and other decentralized applications.
Strategic Implications: Diversification of Ripple services. A means of cross-border banking and financial transactions, Ripple’s acquisition gives it access to custody, issuance, and settlement of tokenized assets.
4. Apex Crypto (Acquired by Bakkt)
Bakkt bought turnkey crypto investing platform Apex Crypto to further its plans to become the industry’s leading B2B2C crypto service.
- 5-Year Search Growth: 0%
- Search Growth Status: Rekt
- Year Founded: 2019
- Location: Chicago, Illinois, United States
- Latest Round: N/A
- Acquisition Cost: $200M
- Acquisition date: April, 2023
- Method of Payment: $55M in Cash, $145M in equity
What Does Apex Crypto Do: Apex Crypto offers an accounts and funding solutions provider for investors interested in shifting to trading cryptos from equities. It offers a secure environment with deep liquidity.
Strategic Implications: As a digital asset management firm, Bakkt’s acquisition aligns with Apex Crypto’s trading services, unifying their services to their existing customers.
5. One River Digital (Acquired by Coinbase)
Coinbase expands services beyond retail trading. Enters the institutional world with One River Digital.
- 5-Year Search Growth: -750%
- Search Growth Status: When Moon
- Year Founded: 2013
- Location: Stamford, Connecticut, United States
- Latest Round: N/A
- Acquisition Cost: $186M
- Acquisition date: March, 2023
What Does One River Digital Do: One River Digital gives traditional institutions a foothold in the crypto economy by exposing them to digital assets. One River Digital is one of the few SECV-compliant firms, making it a go-to service for institutions and companies seeking to enter the crypto market.
Strategic Implications: Coinbase strengthens its already established institutional asset management services by absorbing the clients and services of One River Digital.
6. LedgerX (Acquired by MIAX)
Options trading platform MIAX enters the crypto Options and Futures field by buying LedgerX platform.
- Search Growth Status: Rekt
- Year Founded: 2014
- Location: New York City, NY, United States
- Latest Round: $11.4M (Series B)
- Acquisition Cost: $50M
- Acquisition date: May, 2023
- Method of Payment: Cash
What Does LedgerX Do: LedgerX is a regulated derivatives exchange and clearing house that offers Options and Futures for Bitcoin and Ethereum. LedgerX’s unique position lies in its compliance with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as a Derivatives Clearing Organization, Designated Contracts Market, and Swap Execution Facility.
Strategic Implications: MIAX now offers its customers crypto derivatives, increasing its users’ trading offerings.
7. BitKeep (Acquired by Bitget)
Crypto copy trading platform Bitget became the controlling stakeholder in multi-asset wallet BitKeep.
- 5-Year Search Growth: 0%
- Search Growth Status: Moon
- Year Founded: 2018
- Location: Grand Cayman, Midland, Cayman Islands
- Latest Round: $15M (Series A)
- Acquisition Cost: $30M
- Acquisition date: March, 2023
- Method of Payment: N/A
What Does BitKeep Do: BitKeep is a non-custodial crypto wallet supporting over 90 different assets. Users can store and transfer these assets through their BitKeep wallet and swap and access different NFT marketplaces, giving them a complete DeFi experience.
Strategic Implications: Bitget acquisition of BitKeep wallet means it now offers DeFi services to its customers. This helps Bitget connect its CeFi operations with the DeFi world.
8. Digimental Studio (Acquired by Vertex Labs)
Vertex Labs continues to lead the Web3 innovation by acquiring metaverse and NFT platform Digitmental.
- 5-Year Search Growth: 0%
- Search Growth Status: When Moon
- Year Founded: 2011
- Location: London, UK
- Latest Round: N/A
- Acquisition Cost: $12M
- Acquisition date: March, 2023
- Method of Payment: N/A
What Does Digimental Studio Do: Digimental Studio builds and launches NFT collections for brands, artists, and content creators. Its HAPE NFT collection is already famous for partnering with fashion giants like Diesel. This way, Digimental Studios bridges the gap between the Web2 and Web3 world for fashion brands.
Strategic Implications: Vertex Labs opens Digimental Studio collections to a larger audience. Digimental offerings are now powered by Vertex’s metaverse and digital 3D products.
9. Ignium (Acquired by Coinmetro)
Crypto exchange Coinmetro purchased Ignium to enter the small and micro-enterprise NFT/securities token offering niche.
- 5-Year Search Growth: 0%
- Search Growth Status: When Moon.
- Year Founded: 2019
- Location: Tallinn, Harjumaa, Estonia
- Latest Round: $0.984M (Seed)
- Acquisition Cost: $4.3M
- Acquisition date: February, 2023
What Does Ignium Do: Ignium offers fundraising means to small-scale businesses that cannot gain through traditional means. Providing a platform to launch security tokens and NFT collectibles helps these businesses gain funds through community engagements.
Strategic Implications: The acquisition gives Coinmetro a regulatory-compliant doorway into the small and micro fundraising market through NFTs and security tokens in the U.S. and other markets.
10. Transpose (Acquired by Chainalysis)
Data analyst firm Chainalysis purchased Transpose, expanding operations for an all-around blockchain data service.
- 5-Year Search Growth: 7%
- Search Growth Status: When moon.
- Year Founded: 2021
- Location: New York City, NY, United States
- Latest Round: $3M (Seed)
- Acquisition Cost: N/A
- Acquisition date: May 2023
- Method of Payment: N/A
What Does Transpose Do: Transpose offers Web3 and blockchain firms on-chain data indexing in real-time. It gives developers insights into blockchain network operations such as DeFi activities, tracing transactions, swaps, and even NFT sales as they happen – enabling developers to make easy strategic decisions for their projects.
Strategic Implications: Chainalysis’ acquisition of Transpose will enhance data insights. Working in real-time, Chainalysis will provide more in-depth analysis to its clients.
11. Refinable (Acquired by Artifact Labs)
History-preserving Artifact Labs bought Refinable to access its creator tools and no-code programming.
- 5-Year Search Growth: 0%
- Search Growth Status: Rekt.
- Year Founded: 2021
- Location: Hong Kong
- Latest Round: N/A
- Acquisition Cost: N/A
- Acquisition date: April, 2023
- Method of Payment: N/A
What Does Refinable Do: Refinable makes it easy for anyone to enter the NFT world through its no-code solutions. This allows individuals and firms to build on-chain assets at blinding speeds. It also offers white-label NFT marketplace creation, helping instant scaling within the NFT industry.
Strategic Implications: Refinable opens up Artifact Labs users to quickly digitize history as NFTs without requiring programmers or coders.
12. Vortex Protocol (Acquired by SushiSwap)
DEX SushiSwap enters the decentralized derivatives world through the Vortex Protocol.
- 5-Year Search Growth: 0%
- Search Growth Status: Rekt
- Year Founded: 2022
- Location: Wilmington, Delaware, United States
- Latest Round: N/A
- Acquisition Cost: N/A
- Acquisition date: February, 2023
What Does Vortex Protocol Do: Vortex is a next-generation DEX that offers derivatives, including up to 10x leverage. Built on the Cosmos network, it taps into the blockchain’s speed and offers up to 10,000 TPS and > 1-second confirmation for a hitch-free trading experience.
Strategic Implications: SushiSwap, with Vortex Protocol integrated into its services, expands its offering from simple swaps to derivatives in a decentralized manner.
13. Nightshift (Acquired by MoonPay)
Crypto payment service MoonPay recreates itself as an end-to-end Web3 service by adding Nightshift into its folds.
- Year Founded: 2018
- Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Latest Round: N/A
- Acquisition Cost: N/A
- Acquisition date: January, 2023
What Does Nightshift Do: A Web2 and Web3 creative agency, Nightshift helps brands achieve their recognition goals through a blend of creativity, explosive ideas, and technology. Nightshift helps in website/app design, user experience, marketing, animation, and artist management.
Strategic Implications: MoonPay now offers legacy brands access to the Web3 world, including tokenization.
Conclusion
Regardless of the slower activity in the crypto market, it is clear that crypto firms are more geared towards aligning with other firms that will help them grow.
Is the market cooling down, or will we see a higher velocity of acquisitions in the coming years?
One thing is for sure: Teaming up is better than operating alone!
Susan Oh
Susan Oh is a leading figure in the integration of AI and blockchain for social good, serving as the CMO for BeOmni by Beyond Imagination and a civic technologist dedicated to creating scalable solutions. She is a board member of the Blockchain Commission For Sustainable Development supported by the UN GA Office of Partnerships, and a member of the Global Sustainability Network, a joint initiative by the Vatican and the Church of England to combat human trafficking. Recognized with the...
