eToro, the leading multi-asset investment platform, has acquired blockchain-powered startup Firmo to act as an internal innovation unit tasked with bringing to life the goal of tokenizing all assets on eToro.
The firm, which enables smart contracts for derivatives to be securely enabled on any major blockchain, will start its research and development of infrastructure for the representation of assets and the execution of trade processes on blockchain infrastructure.
Yoni Assia, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of eToro, said: “The acquisition of Firmo will enable eToro to accelerate the growth of our tokenized assets offering. Blockchain and the tokenization of assets will play a major role in the future of finance. We believe that in time all investible assets will be tokenized and that we will see the greatest transfer of wealth ever onto the blockchain. “While our expansion has been largely organic to date, as the eToro business continues to grow we are on the lookout to acquire businesses which will help us stay at the forefront of fintech innovation. We believe that the market is particularly exciting at the moment.
“The Firmo team has done ground-breaking work in developing practical applications for blockchain technology which will facilitate friction-less global trading. The adoption of smart contracts on the blockchain increases trust and transparency in financial services. We are incredibly proud and excited that they will be joining the eToro family. We believe that together we have a very bright future and look forward to pursuing our shared goal to become the first truly global service provider allowing people to trade, invest and save.”
Omri Ross, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Firmo, commented: “The advent of crypto and the blockchain technology that underpins it has driven an explosion in finanial innovation, however, a number of challenges are preventing mass adoption and integration into legacy infrastructure. Our goal is to enable our users to trade any asset globally with instant settlement by tokenizing assets and executing all essential trade processes on the blockchain.”
Firmo, which was acquired by eToro for an undisclosed amount, is capable of providing a platform to securely deploy financial contracts and work with any blockchain. Its domain-specific contract language ‘FirmoLang’ can be translated onto a number of blockchain platforms such as Ethereum, EOS or NEO.
eToro has rapidly moved into the cryptocurrency space and now offers crypto wallet and trading services in 32 US states as the broker responds to a global survey which found that 69 percentof US investors are interested in cryptocurrencies.
