Ripple (XRP) bulls are struggling to regain momentum after media reports on June 30 claimed Citigroup might be reconsidering its partnership with Metaco — a company Ripple Labs recently acquired for $250 million.
Bulls lose momentum
Ripple's native token XRP had been on a steady pump for almost two months. It hit a high of $0.54 because of multiple positive developments and industry expectations that its case with the SEC would end favorably.
However, the momentum began sputtering out by mid-June, and the token fell as low as $0.31 on June 14 following the SEC's crackdown on the crypto industry in the U.S. via lawsuits against Binance.US and Coinbase.
Bulls managed to regain some of the momentum last week and were on track to reclaim the previous high of $0.54 before the Citigroup news led to a sharp sell-off — causing the price to crash to $0.42, based on CryptoSlate data.
Since then, the token has somewhat recovered to $0.47, as of press time, but is struggling to push further as bears are now firmly in control.
Citigroup will likely drop Metaco
Bloomberg News reported June 30 that Citigroup has launched a review of its partnership with crypto custodian Metaco and could potentially replace the firm as its provider.
People familiar with the matter told the newswire that the Wall Street giant had already begun the hunt for a new provider. According to the report, it is unclear whether the review is linked to Ripple.
Citigroup entered a partnership with Switzerland-based Metaco in June 2022 and said the latter would help it “develop and pilot” digital asset custody capabilities.
The lender said at the time that it intended to integrate Metaco's Harmonize platform within its own services to offer its customers digital asset custody and settlement services.
The partnership also aimed to develop tokenization and custody solutions for traditional assets like securities.
Metaco also counts major European banks among its partners, including Societe Generale and BNP Paribas. The latter confirmed that its partnership with Metaco remains “operational.”
Metaco, Ripple and Citigroup did not respond to a request for comment as of press time.
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