Paxos, the veteran stablecoin and blockchain infrastructure firm, is leaning further into DeFi. On Tuesday, the company announced that it had acquired Fordefi, a New York-based startup that helps customers store their digital assets. The acquisition was for more than $100 million, according to a Paxos spokesperson, who declined to specify deal terms.
Paxos helps companies like the payments giant PayPal and the neobank Nubank offer crypto trading to their customers. It’s also a major player in stablecoins, or cryptocurrencies pegged to underlying assets like the U.S. dollar. Paxos issues, for example, PayPal’s stablecoin, which has a market capitalization of more than $3.6 billion.
Its acquisition of Fordefi, which specializes in crypto wallets designed for DeFi, signals that Paxos’ customers are clamoring to expand into a realm of crypto that large companies once deemed untouchable.
“We have customers that want to be able to access DeFi and have the right capacity to do that,” Charles Cascarilla, cofounder and CEO of Paxos, told Fortune.
A bet on DeFi
