Trading platform eToro has agreed to acquire Zengo, an Israeli provider of self-custodial crypto wallets. Bloomberg reported the deal is worth about $70 million, mostly in cash. CEO Yoni Assia announced the details at Paris Blockchain Week 2026 and added that Bitcoin will eventually climb above $250,000.
What Is Zengo and Why eToro Paid $70M
Zengo is an Israeli startup that rebuilt crypto storage from scratch. The core idea: remove the traditional private key and seed phrase, both of which are easy to steal or lose. Instead, the system uses MPC cryptography - key material is split between the user's device and company servers. Neither side holds the full key on its own.
Result: no single point of failure. Most crypto losses trace back to that exact problem - a phished seed phrase or a leaked private key, and the funds are gone. Zengo closes that gap at the architecture level. The approach differs from hardware wallets like Ledger but achieves a similar security model with a smoother experience for new users.
eToro gets the technology, the team, and an existing user base. The platform plans to deploy Zengo's wallet infrastructure for tokenized assets, prediction markets, perpetual contracts, and yield products - the areas where crypto platform competition is sharpest right now.
Paris Blockchain Week: One Forum, Two Announcements
Assia spoke in a fireside chat and described the deal as part of a strategy to attract crypto-native users - those already comfortable in onchain environments who want more than a standard brokerage interface. eToro spent years building a platform for retail beginners. This move signals the company is going further.
Tom Lee, Societe Generale representatives, and EU regulators also spoke at the Paris event this week. The forum served as an informal check-in for the industry after a turbulent start to 2026.
The Case for $250,000 Bitcoin
Assia said he expects one more quarter of slow price action before Bitcoin enters an accumulation phase and then pushes toward $250,000, $500,000, "and beyond." His exact words: "Bitcoin on the path eventually to $250,000, $500,000 and beyond."
Bitcoin at $250,000 implies a $5 trillion market cap, which would make it the world's second-largest asset after gold - up from 12th place today according to CompaniesMarketCap. That is a 3.3x gain from current levels around $74,500. Assia joins Arthur Hayes of BitMEX and Robert Kiyosaki in calling for this target.
Not Everyone Shares This View
Galaxy Digital labeled 2026 "too chaotic to predict" and urged caution. The firm cited the US midterm elections, shifting monetary policy, and doubts about the four-year Bitcoin cycle theory. Spot ETFs have brought institutional-scale capital into the market and changed who the participants are. How that affects traditional cyclicality, nobody knows for certain.
Bitcoin is currently trading around $74,000-75,000. After a brief spike in early April the price settled. Most analysts want more macro data before calling the correction over.
Self-Custody Is Now a Product Feature
eToro's acquisition fits a clear pattern: major centralized platforms are adding self-custody wallet options rather than ignoring them. After the FTX collapse, "not your keys, not your coins" moved from ideology to a real competitive factor. Platforms that do not offer self-custody face a growing trust disadvantage.
$70 million is less than 0.5% of eToro's annual revenue. Small check. But the move signals that eToro is building infrastructure, not just patching a product gap. If Assia's $250,000 call plays out even partially, this acquisition will look like one of the better bets the company made in 2026.
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