FinanceMagnets
Published on 2026-04-15 | 2 hours ago
eToro Buys Self-Custody Wallet Zengo as Brokers Race to Own Crypto Stack
eToro is
buying Zengo, an Israeli self-custodial crypto wallet provider, in a move that
takes the Nasdaq-listed broker further into on-chain infrastructure and puts it
in step with rivals such as Robinhood and Crypto.com that have spent the past
two years buying their way into the digital asset stack.Singapore Summit: Meet the largest
APAC brokers you know (and those you still don't!)eToro Agrees to Buy Crypto
Wallet Maker ZengoFinancial
terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The transaction is subject to
customary closing conditions, the company said in a statement today (Wednesday).
Zengo, founded in 2018 and backed by Insight Partners and Tether, says it has
more than 2 million users across 180 countries, and is built on multi-party
computation, or MPC, cryptography that does away with the seed phrase that has
historically been the weakest link in self-custodial wallets.eToro framed the deal as a way to support emerging
digital asset use cases, including tokenized assets and decentralized trading
models such as prediction markets and perpetuals. The company
said the wallet would continue to operate as a separate product from its
regulated exchange services, with Zengo users interacting directly with
third-party protocols when accessing decentralized applications, swaps, and
staking.Ouriel
Ohayon, Zengo's co-founder and CEO, said in the statement that joining eToro
would allow the company to "accelerate that mission at a global
scale" and connect self-custody "to a broader investing ecosystem
that bridges traditional and on-chain finance."[#highlighted-links#] A Second Acquisition Since
the Nasdaq DebutThe Zengo
deal is eToro's second announced acquisition since its Nasdaq IPO last May, which valued the company at $4.2
billion and raised $620 million. Co-founder Ronen Assia told Bloomberg in
September that eToro was sitting on roughly $988 million in cash without debt
and had a "robust M&A pipeline," signaling more deals to come.
The company subsequently agreed to buy Australian investing app Spaceship
for up to $55 million,
targeting the long-term savings segment.CEO Yoni
Assia used Wednesday’s announcement to flag what he called diversified trading
momentum in early 2026. He said commodity trading accounted for 60% of trading
commissions by asset class in the first quarter, with commodities volume
running nearly four times higher year over year, a shift the company linked to
macroeconomic conditions and its expansion of 24/7 trading on instruments
including gold and oil. Assia said
in the statement that "we believe the future of finance will be
increasingly digital, decentralized and user-controlled, with self-custody
playing an important role in that evolution," adding that "crypto
downtimes are the time to build."Brokers Are Buying Their
Way Into Crypto InfrastructureThe
acquisition lands at a moment when retail trading platforms are increasingly
looking to control the underlying crypto plumbing rather than simply offer
exposure. Robinhood closed its $200 million
purchase of crypto exchange Bitstamp in June 2025, giving the US trading app more
than 50 active licenses, an institutional crypto business, and an order book it
has since used to underpin tokenized stock trading in the European Union. That
deal pushed Robinhood for the first time into institutional crypto, a segment
historically dominated by specialists such as Coinbase Custody and BitGo.Crypto-native
firms have been moving in the opposite direction. Crypto.com partnered with
self-custody provider Exodus to act as the wallet maker's digital asset custodian, while Ripple
completed its $1.25 billion acquisition of prime broker Hidden Road in 2025 and
rebranded the unit as Ripple Prime, layering custody, payments, and its RLUSD
stablecoin onto an existing multi-asset brokerage business. Ripple has also
filed trademarks suggesting it may launch its own wallet product.Neither
side disclosed retention terms, integration timelines, or whether Zengo would
remain a standalone brand under eToro ownership. The companies did not indicate
when they expect the deal to close.
This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.
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