San Francisco-based crypto company Ripple Labs Inc. has expressed interest in purchasing insolvent crypto lender Celsius Network’s assets, a Ripple spokesperson told Reuters early Wednesday.
The spokesperson also noted Ripple “is actively looking for M&A opportunities to strategically scale the company” as it continues “to grow exponentially” through the market downturn. The spokesperson declined to comment on whether Ripple is looking to purchase Celsius Network outright, however.
Ripple Labs, which owns Ripple payments network and maintains the XRP ledger, is the latest company to weigh an acquisition of what, at one time, was one of the crypto industry’s largest lenders with $25 billion in assets; lending rival Nexo made a similar overture in June. FTX was also in the running for a time.
Ripple did not immediately comment.
Ripple is currently fighting a lawsuit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The regulator alleged that Ripple’s sale of XRP violated federal securities law.
