Fireblocks has acquired stablecoin and digital asset payments technology platform First Digital. This new acquisition will help support and grow its payments offering by allowing payment service providers (PSPs) and acquirers to accept payments and make payouts in digital currencies, the company said in a public statement.
Retail payments and services represent one of the fastest growing categories in the digital asset space. According to research from Mastercard, 40% of consumers in the Americas, Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East, and Africa plan to use digital assets to make purchases over the next year. Moreover, 93% of survey respondents are considering using a cutting-edge method of transaction settlement for crypto payments.
Due to this rising consumer demand, payment service providers and merchants are actively seeking ways to support crypto and digital asset payments, but they’re often confronted with high wallet integration costs, manual KYC/AML screening, and the complexity of timely acceptance of new blockchain payment types.
Taking Digital Payments to the Next Level
In the past, Fireblocks teamed with First Digital to facilitate both peer-to-peer and peer-to-merchant transactions, with the goal of lowering overhead costs for financial service providers, merchants, and customers.
By embedding First Digital into the Fireblocks tech stack, the company says it is broadening irts support for B2C, B2B, cross-border, and other forms of payment via USDC, Celo, and other stablecoins and cryptocurrencies as early as Spring 2022. The acquisition of First Digital will significantly expand its payments offering, creating a suite of tools that integrates digital asset treasury operations with day-to-day financial activities.
We’re thrilled to welcome First Digital to the Fireblocks family as we accelerate our expansion plans to help every business become a crypto business. We’re pushing ‘fast forward’ to give PSPs the suite of tools they need to begin accepting crypto payments.
Michael Shaulov CEO and Co-Founder
Fireblocks’ Stephen Richardson will be on stage at Paris Blockchain Week Summit for the panel 2030: What’s next for digital assets?, on the Master Stage.
The panel covers key players in the industry will provide insight to the future of digital assets, at April 13th at 2:50-3:30 PM CEST, with Antoni Trenchev, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Nexo, Stephen Richardson, VP Product Strategy & Business Solutions, Fireblocks, Alexandre Fazel, Chief Product Officer, Swissborg, Boaz Avital, Head of Product, Anchorage, and moderator Jordan French, Executive Editor, Grit Daily & BlockTelegraph.
