Ripple has acquired Iceland-based crypto trading firm Algrim to tap into its talent pool, paving the way to expand its operations in the country, the firm announced today.
The six-engineer team of Algrim will join the San Francisco-headquartered firm and contribute to the ongoing development of Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) product which utilizes XRP for cross-border production Payments .
Commenting on the acquihire, Christopher Kanaan, SVP of engineering at Ripple, said: “With built-in expertise in trading and exchanges, the addition of Algrim’s engineering talent to our team will be instrumental in continuing the momentum we’re already experiencing with On-Demand Liquidity."
To date, Ripple has added over 200 partners on RippleNet and is planning to make Iceland its regional base. The company also has another European office in London, along with its presence in New York, Singapore, Mumbai, São Paulo, and Sydney.
“We’ve been committed to sourcing expert crypto and trading talent in key global markets since day one, and the acquisition of the Algrim engineering team is a successful example of doing just that,” Kanaan added.
Before Ripple’s acquisition, the Icelandic company developed a crypto trading platform integrating over 30 markets on which it had been working for the last two years.
A company on an acquisition spree
Ripple is also on an investment spree and made headlines after investing $30 million in MoneyGram earlier this year. In July, Finance Magnates reported that the incubation arm of Ripple had invested $500 million in various XRP-related projects since its launch in May 2018.
Last week, the company made a similar acquisition of Logos, adding eight members of the company to its team.
“The decision to join the Ripple team was a natural fit — both companies share a vision to enable widespread adoption of digital assets and Blockchain technology, which aligns directly with what we’ve been working towards for the past several years,” Dadi Armannsson, chief executive at Algrim, said.
