Paxos to acquire DeFi wallet startup Fordefi in $100 million deal

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Paxos has announced that it is acquiring the DeFi wallet startup Fordefi. Paxos will pay over $100 million to acquire Fordefi and then gradually integrate Fordefi’s wallet into its own infrastructure. 

Paxos, the veteran blockchain infrastructure company that is best known for its regulated stablecoins, announced on November 25, 2025, that it is acquiring the New York–based startup Fordefi for more than $100 million.  

Paxos enters DeFi with wallet developer acquisition

Paxos has been making moves to expand into on-chain finance and give its enterprise customers access to safer and more flexible DeFi access. 

Charles Cascarilla, the co-founder and CEO of Paxos, said that there’s a demand for better DeFi access within a regulated, secure environment among its clients. 

Fordefi’s team and technology will continue to operate independently for now, while Paxos gradually integrates its wallet stack into its own infrastructure. 

Fordefi acquisition 

Fordefi was founded in 2021 with about 40 to 50 employees and has offices in New York and Tel Aviv. It specializes in institutional-grade custody and multi-party computation (MPC) wallets, which are designed to combine traditional finance with decentralized finance. 

According to its own filings, Fordefi supports nearly 300 institutions and boasts of more than $120 billion in monthly transaction volume. 

Fordefi appeals to Paxos because it already connects well with many DeFi apps and has a system that controls and approves transactions safely. It also offers strong wallet security that works for both traditional and decentralized systems. 

Josh Schwartz, Fordefi’s CEO, said the acquisition will allow the company’s technology to reach a broader audience while keeping its core focus on security and innovation. 

Earlier in 2025, Paxos acquired Membrane Finance, a Finnish e-money institution. The acquisition helped Paxos increase its officially approved operations in Europe under MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets) rules. Paxos also recently launched Paxos Labs, which helps partners embed DeFi products such as stablecoins, yield strategies and tokenized assets into their platforms.

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