Israel business news site Globes is reporting that the acquisition of crypto wallet and custody tech company Zengo by online broker eToro (NASDAQ:ETOR) was done based on a $70 million valuation for Zengo, paid mainly in cash.

The parties did not officially disclose the price paid for Zengo.

Zengo was founded in 2018 and, as we reported yesterday, had most recently raised a $20 million Series A financing round five years ago. (Globes reports that the company has raised a total of $24 million since founding, which likely includes some earlier seed / early stage funding). We understand from industry sources that the $70 million sale price was fairly close to the valuation of the Series A round in 2021, such that the investors in Zengo basically broke even on their investment, or made at best a single-digit-percent IRR return, depending on how the Series A round was structured.

eToro CEO Yoni Assia, who announced the acquisition of Zengo live on stage yesterday in an appearance at Paris Blockchain Week 2006, shed some more light on the reasons for the acquisition in a post on his LinkedIn page.

Exciting news from Paris Blockchain Week! eToro has officially acquired Zengo.

Having known Ouriel Ohayon and the Zengo Wallet team for years, I can confidently say that their innovative approach to self-custody in crypto is remarkable.

The future of finance is digital and user-controlled, and self-custody is at the heart of this transformation.

This acquisition marks a significant step in bridging traditional finance and the crypto-native world, all within a single app.