The National Bank of Romania has given the green light to an acquisition in the blockchain industry and authorizes blockchain startup Elrond to acquire a payment processing platform.
Elrond, a blockchain company focused on distributed applications, has received approval to acquire the electronic money institution Capital Financial Services, which trades under the Twispay brand, according to an announcement released Thursday.
Twispay offers an international payment solution that supports multiple fiat currencies and integrates different payment methods. The company is one of the main members of Visa and Mastercard, meaning it participates directly in card issuance and is allowed to acquire merchants.
The company is also licensed to provide payment services and issue electronic money in accordance with the authorization of the National Bank of Romania and can operate throughout the European Economic Area.
By acquiring Twispay, Elrond is taking a strategic step to establish itself as a bridge between traditional finance and the cryptocurrency industry. The acquisition also places Elrond in a strategic position to provide an infrastructure for faster and cheaper payment solutions.
Other potential use cases include new stablecoins, crypto-enabled debit cards, as well as benefits from DeFi, NFTs and other Web3 technologies that will increase the trust and efficiency of existing financial systems. An Elrond spokesperson told Coin-Crypto that the issuance of stablecoins is one of the biggest goals behind the new acquisition, stating:
“The main purpose is to use Twispay’s e-money license to issue stablecoins that can be used in the EU, for both personal and business use for payments and value transfer, and possibly also for official use at the institutional level.”
“This landmark decision by the Romanian Central Bank opens the door for EU citizens, and soon for everyone everywhere, to significantly benefit from value streams with near-instant settlement times, at 100x less costs, with complete transparency and greater reliability,” Elrond Founder and CEO Beniamin Mincu said.
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Elrond initially announced plans to take over the e-money service in October 2021. The latest acquisition news comes shortly after Elrond acquired Utrust, a major crypto payment provider, in January 2022.
The latest acquisition, along with the recent Utrust acquisition, aims to play a key role in the digitization of European finance and serve as the “carbon negative, fully decentralized, low cost and near instantaneous rails for a wealth of new financial services” . noted the company representative.