With the €4 million ($4.3 million) acquisition, the Estonia-based crypto exchange Coinmetro intends to broaden its securities market offerings and develop tools for small businesses to raise funds directly from their communities using non-fungible tokens.

Crypto exchange Coinmetro announced Tuesday that it will acquire Ignium, a blockchain-based social fundraising platform, according to a Coinmetro press release.

Coinmetro purchased 71% of Ignium’s shares as of Feb. 3 and plans to buy the remaining stake by the end of April, statement said. The acquistion’s value is €4 million ($4.3 million), Coinmetro disclosed.

Based in Estonia, Coinmetro is a digital asset exchange licensed in the European Union and registered in Australia, Canada, and the U.S. Ignium offers a platform for micro and small enterprises to raise funds from their communities by minting non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and issuing securities.

With the acquisition, Coinmetro intends to broaden its services to regulated securities offerings. This comes at a time when U.S. regulators are cracking down on exchanges such as Kraken and Paxos for offering products the regulators claim to be unregistered securities.

Coinmetro estimated that there are some 60 million small enterprises that are unbanked because traditional financial services are unable to cater to their needs. The exchange plans to craft a product that helps these underserved businesses gain access to funding directly from their communities.

“This offering is the first of its kind in the crypto market, enabling participants in the crypto community to become even more engaged with the businesses they are most loyal to,” Coinmetro said.

The two firms already had an established relationship, as Coinmetro was one Ignium’s first customers and raised $2.5 million using the platform in 2021, the press release reads.

By closing the transaction, Ignium’s assets as well as its 4,000 users will be transferred to Coinmetro, the press release said.

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