Crypto financial institution Anchorage Digital has expanded its stablecoin choices with the acquisition of Mountain Protocol, a stablecoin issuer that claims it would start winding down its fundamental stablecoin, Mountain USD (USDM).
The acquisition, which is topic to customary closing situations and regulatory approval, will combine the Mountain Protocol staff, tech stack and licensing framework into Anchorage’s current choices, Anchorage said in a Might 12 assertion.
Whereas phrases of the deal weren’t disclosed, it displays an accelerating number of acquisitions between crypto and TradFi companies in latest months.
Explaining the acquisition, Anchorage CEO Nathan McCauley mentioned stablecoins have gotten the spine of the crypto economic system, whereas anticipating that “each enterprise” will finally use stablecoins as a part of their operations.
Mountain Protocol CEO Martin Carrica said its stablecoin expertise and Anchorage’s crypto infrastructure positions the merging companies to fulfill the rising international demand for stablecoin providers.
Anchorage is the one federally chartered digital asset financial institution within the US, whereas Mountain Protocol’s stablecoin providers are regulated by the Bermuda Financial Authority.
It comes round 9 months after Anchorage introduced a stablecoin rewards program for establishments holding the PayPal USD (PYUSD) stablecoin.
Mountain Protocol’s USDM to wind down
As a part of the acquisition, Mountain Protocol mentioned it might start an “orderly wind-down course of” for USDM, which operates as a yield-bearing stablecoin.
Mountain Protocol mentioned it ceased minting the stablecoin on Might 12 however famous that USDM rewards will stay lively for one more 30 days. After that, the reward fee will likely be set to 0% APY.
The stablecoin issuer’s clients can redeem their USDM by way of the agency’s platform, whereas different USDM holders are inspired to swap the stablecoin for different tokens on exchanges.
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Mountain Protocol’s Ethereum-based USDM is to not be confused with Mehen Finance’s USDM stablecoin, which runs on the Cardano community.
Mountain Protocol’s USDM noticed appreciable success shortly after launching in late 2023, rising to a $155 million market cap by March 2024, in keeping with RWA.xyz. Nevertheless, its market cap has since fallen beneath $50 million.
RWA.xyz estimates there are round 10,820 USDM holders.
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