Dutch multinational banking and financial services company ING Group has decided to sell its digital asset business Pyctor to multi-asset trading infrastructure company GMEX.
Announced today: GMEX Group has acquired Pyctor, a #digitalasset #posttrade network and #MPC custodial technology, from ING. Pyctor will be integral to the MultiHub and our position as the first end-to-end #HyFi solution, bridging the #TradFi and #DeFi gaphttps://t.co/WtjPtuVbGW
— GMEX (@GMEX_Group) July 11, 2022
According to a press release shared by GMEX, the multi-million dollar deal between GMEX and ING will make Pyctor a service offering within the former. Moreover, the company is working on appointing senior executives in the coming days and has appointed CEO Hirander Misra as the Chairman of the newly-acquired service. Notably, ING will continue its relationship with Pyctor via its digital assets team.
Pyctor product complements GMEX’s MultiHub service
The digital post-trade market infrastructure solution from Pyctor is intended for businesses operating in regulated settings. It delivers interoperability across public blockchains and offers highly secure digital custody and transactional network services for a variety of digital assets. In cooperation with significant financial institutions and authorities, Pyctor was developed in ING Neo’s innovation lab in Amsterdam. Its product complements GMEX’s MultiHub service, a cross-platform institution business that was established last year with the goal of bridging the gap between CeFi and DeFi.
Pyctor is also intended to facilitate regulatory compliance, particularly the Travel Rule Anti-Money Laundering framework established by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). GMEX CEO Misra stated:
“There is a market need for this type of offering built by a bank for banks, asset managers, and corporate clients, which can now operate in a neutral environment for institutional participants.”
Incorporating digital asset trading and settlement into existing CeFi systems and asset classes is something that institutions are increasingly seeking to do. He continued:
“This calls for the need for hybrid finance, or HyFi, which delivers a hybrid digital market infrastructure solution with interoperability of multiple blockchains and API integration into traditional systems to ensure a cohesive approach.”
As TheCoinRise reported in 2019, ING’s chief economist had predicted “fully-fledged” CBDC launch by different central banks by 2022.
