Crypto Trading Platform Abra Taps Valkyrie’s Private Trusts For Acquisition

Cryptocurrency trading platform Abra announced that it had purchased multiple private cryptocurrency trusts from Valkyrie Investments. According to Bloomberg, the deal comes at a time when Abra is in the process of reaching a settlement with 25 US state financial regulators for operating without the proper licenses.

Abra To Acquire Valkyrie’s Private Trusts

According to Marissa Kim, Abra’s head of asset management, the company acquired many active trusts from Valkyrie in May. She made this statement in an email response to questions to Bloomberg News on Friday. According to Kim, the sale comprised several trusts that haven’t been released yet in addition to Valkyrie’s Tron and Zilliqa trusts.

Abra’s Regulatory Issues

The deal to acquire Valkyrie’s private trusts comes at a time when Abra is indulging in a lot of regulatory battles. The Texas state regulators had previously charged Abra with securities fraud and insolvency in 2023. In June of 2023, the Texas State Securities Board issued a cease and desist order against the exchange, claiming the corporation had been insolvent since March of that same year.

In January of 2024, Abra struck a contract with the Texas State Securities Board. Abra committed to notifying all investors with balances over $10 that their funds should be removed as part of the agreement to wind down operations. Any money left over would be converted to fiat and given back to Texas investors. Bill Barhydt, the founder of Abra, insisted at the time that the trading platform had never prohibited withdrawals from the US and reaffirmed the company’s intention to close down retail activities within the US.

Valkyrie Business Divestment

It is also interesting to note that Valkyrie has been offloading its assets and divesting its business for a while now, which makes this deal a little in line with the firm’s pre-existing actions. Since 2024, Valkyrie has gradually divested parts of its operations, such as its main exchange-traded fund division, which was sold to CoinShares International Ltd. earlier this year. Previous SEC filings indicate that funds associated with cryptocurrencies such as Algorand, Avalanche, BitTorrent, Dash, Polkadot, and Bitcoin were part of its private trust business.