Blockchain payments company Ripple Labs has reportedly expressed interest in buying insolvent crypto lender Celsius‘ assets.
According to a Reuters report, Ripple “is actively looking for M&A opportunities to strategically scale the company,” in spite of the market downturn.
“We are interested in learning about Celsius and its assets, and whether any could be relevant to our business,”
said a Ripple spokesperson.
The spokesperson declined to comment when asked about an outright acquisition.
In June, US-based Celsius froze withdrawals citing “extreme market conditions” and filed for bankruptcy in the following month with a $1.19 billion account deficit.
The filings revealed that the company still had some remaining assets, including cryptos, cash, and its native CEL tokens.
Ripple is not among one of Celsius’ creditors, yet the company sought to be part of the bankruptcy proceedings, which the court approved.
Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse had expressed the company’s interest in carrying out mergers and acquisitions at the Davos World Economic Forum (WEF) event. The executive had stated:
“I think there’ll be an uptick in M&A in the blockchain and crypto space. We’re now at a stage of growth where I think we’re more likely to be the buyer versus the … seller.”
Following the news, the price of CEL rose more than 20%, according to Coingecko data.