Ripple has made yet another move in its long-running campaign to reshape global payments, this time acquiring Palisade, a digital asset custody infrastructure company. The deal marks the company’s fourth acquisition in recent months and is a clear escalation in what many describe as the company’s competition with SWIFT, the dominant global payments messaging network.
Ripple Makes Another Major Acquisition
Palisade announced the acquisition on X, noting that its wallet-as-a-service technology will now form part of Ripple’s next-generation payments and custody infrastructure. The startup noted that its platform will help power the firm’s next-gen custody and payments infrastructure in order to bring its technology to businesses worldwide.
Ripple also confirmed the news with a corresponding statement, describing the acquisition as a major step in advancing institutional-grade digital asset custody.
Ripple said Palisade’s scalable wallet solution is ideal for on-and off-ramps and corporate payments, adding that the integration accelerates value transfer across Ripple Payments and Custody.
The company’s post ended with a bold statement that noted the importance of secure custody to the on-chain economy, linking the acquisition to its broader goal of building what it calls the Internet of Value.
XRP analysts and crypto market commentators have described the acquisition news as bullish for XRP. XRP, on the other hand, is witnessing an ongoing price crash alongside the rest of the crypto market.
The Battle Against SWIFT Rages On
The Palisade purchase is only the latest in a string of aggressive acquisitions by Ripple in 2025. In April, Ripple announced its acquisition of the prime brokerage firm Hidden Road for $1.25 billion and rebranding to Ripple Prime, a deal that significantly expanded its reach in institutional liquidity and trading services.
Just months later, it finalized the acquisition of stablecoin platform Rail for $200 million. This was followed by its $1 billion acquisition of GTreasury, a treasury management firm, in October.
Altogether, the payment firm says it has deployed approximately $4 billion into the crypto ecosystem through a mix of mergers, acquisitions, and strategic investments. Each of these moves strengthens its infrastructure to handle every aspect of value transfer from custody and liquidity to stablecoin issuance and institutional settlements, forming the backbone of its long-term plan to challenge SWIFT’s global dominance in cross-border transactions.
As the firm continues to scale its infrastructure with acquisitions like Palisade, analysts view these moves as part of a broader strategy to build a vertically integrated financial ecosystem that can rival SWIFT’s legacy dominance.
Meanwhile, Ripple’s highly anticipated SWELL 2025 event is already underway after kicking off yesterday, bringing together key partners, regulators, and financial executives from around the world to discuss the company’s vision for the next era of blockchain-based finance. For the first time ever, the event is going to include a representative from the White House.
Featured image from iStock, chart from Tradingview.com
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