BitGo Abandons Acquisition of Prime Trust

BitGo Terminates Acquisition of Prime Trust

On June 22, BitGo, a provider of wallet infrastructure and digital asset custodian, declared on Twitter that it had chosen to terminate its acquisition of Prime Trust, a fintech infrastructure provider. BitGo stated that “this decision was not taken lightly”. The entire announcement read:

BitGo’s decision to call off the deal arrives just two weeks after they presented a non-binding letter of intent to acquire Prime Trust. The specifics of the agreement were not revealed, but the potential merger between BitGo and Prime Trust could have provided BitGo with access to Prime Trust’s payment systems and cryptocurrency IRA fund, and the chance to widen its wealth management services.

By integrating Prime Trust’s Nevada Trust Company into BitGo’s network of regulated trust companies across multiple jurisdictions, the company would have experienced a major growth.

Rumors circulating on Twitter suggested that the transaction had been cancelled due to a cease and desist notice purportedly received by Prime Trust from Nevada State authorities. However, these rumors have yet to be confirmed.

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On June 13, court records showed that Banq, the payments arm of Prime Trust, had filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. The bankruptcy filing revealed Banq had assets of $17.72 million and liabilities of $5.4 million. This news came shortly after BitGo declared their plan to buy Prime Trust on June 8. It is yet to be seen if the bankruptcy filing had a detrimental effect on BitGo’s attempt to acquire Banq’s parent company.

Prime Trust has encountered major issues as of late, including accounts of cutting a third of its personnel in January. Moreover, in 2020, Prime Trust was embroiled in a controversy in Oregon. It was discovered to be the origin of a $500,000 donation to the Oregon Democratic Party, which was eventually tracked to ex-FTX executive Nishad Singh.

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