Ripple’s investment arm and tech incubator Xpring has invested in Swedish cryptocurrency self-custody startup Towo Labs to build hardware wallet firmware.
Xpring announced the news in a blog post on Oct. 16, stating that the startup plans to develop a new version of the XRP Toolkit and hardware wallet firmware supporting all XRP Ledger transaction types, as well as a non-custodial web interface.
In a parallel announcement, Towo Labs said that the firmware will support signing cross-currency payments, escrows, orders, and trust lines, among other things. It will also enable users to prepare transactions from untrusted devices prior to auditing and signing them in a hardware wallet.
Xpring widens support for XRP
Earlier in October, Xpring invested in cryptocurrency wallet BRD to enable users to hold, purchase, sell and spend XRP tokens through the wallet.
The announcement suggested that this could result in new kinds of decentralized financial services, including banking, lending and peer-to-peer transactions that require no intermediaries.
Also this month, major cryptocurrency payment processor BitPay entered a partnership with Xpring to support payments with XRP. Xpring said that global companies are now able to accept XRP through BitPay without the need for integration and enhancements.
Ripple recently announced an expansion into Iceland with its acquisition of crypto trading firm Algrim. With the acquisition, Iceland will now serve as one of the company’s engineering hubs, joining London as another European base.