Stablecoin issuer Paxos to acquire wallet startup Fordefi for more than $100 million
Paxos, a stablecoin and blockchain infrastructure company, is leaning more heavily into decentralized finance. The company announced Tuesday that it has acquired Fordefi, a New York-based startup that helps customers store their digital assets. The acquisition was worth more than $100 million, according to a Paxos spokesman, who declined to specify the terms of the deal.
Paxos helps companies like payments giant PayPal and neobank Nubank offer cryptocurrency trading to their customers. It is also a major player in stablecoins, or cryptocurrencies tied to underlying assets such as the US dollar. Paxos, for example, issues the stablecoin PayPal, which has a market cap of more than $3.6 billion.
Its acquisition of Fordefi, which specializes in cryptocurrency wallets designed for DeFi, signals that Paxos clients are demanding expansion into a crypto world that big companies once considered untouchable.
“We have customers who want to be able to access DeFi and have the right capacity to do so,” said Charles Cascarella, co-founder and CEO of Paxos. luck.
Betting on DeFi
DeFi has long been considered a risky part of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Users can get high returns, for example, on decentralized lending networks, but these same protocols are also vulnerable to hacking and exploitation.
However, over the past year, larger companies have begun to enter the ecosystem. In September, US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase launched a feature to allow its customers to borrow funds from DeFi lending network Morpho. Banks have begun tokenizing money market funds, or placing money market funds in them, which investors see as a stepping stone toward greater institutional participation in decentralized finance.
“We definitely hear that all the time,” Cascarilla said, referring to Paxos clients who want more access to the DeFi ecosystem. He refused to say any.
Fordivi, founded in 2021, has about 40 employees and serves about 300 clients, Cascarella said. The startup’s portfolio was valued at $83 million as of its latest fundraising round, according to data from Pitchbook. Fordefi will continue to operate independently for the time being, but Paxos plans to integrate the startup’s technology into its own infrastructure.
Fordefi is Paxos’ second acquisition within the past year. In February, the blockchain infrastructure company concluded a deal for Membrane Finance, a stablecoin issuer in Finland. The acquisition made Paxos, which has a fiduciary charter in New York, compliant with MiCA, the European Union’s cryptocurrency regulatory system.
2025-11-25 13:30:00
