If the digital-asset industry had a global scoreboard for “most urgently needed infrastructure,” independent assurance would sit near the top. Whether you’re talking about crypto exchanges, tokenized funds, stablecoin issuers, or soon-to-be tokenized everything, institutions want one thing above all: proof. Proof of reserves, proof of solvency, proof that the numbers actually add up.

Bridgepoint—the heavyweight mid-market private equity investor with decades of experience scaling professional-services and tech platforms—appears to agree. The firm has acquired a majority stake in ht.digital, the London-based company rapidly becoming the default “transparency layer” for digital assets worldwide.

The deal comes through Bridgepoint Development Capital V, the lower-mid-market fund focused on high-growth European businesses. Financial terms remain undisclosed, but the strategic intention is crystal clear: build ht.digital into the global leader of an assurance category the blockchain economy desperately needs.

Why This Deal Matters Now

Digital assets aren’t fringe anymore. Tokenization, stablecoins, programmable payments, digital treasuries, and crypto-native platforms are all converging toward mainstream use—and regulators have finally caught up to the fact that transparency can’t be optional.

The world’s largest supervisors (FCA, MAS, ESMA, and U.S. regulators alike) have been tightening expectations around:

• Proof-of-reserves reporting
• Attestations and verifiable on-chain auditability
• Stablecoin reserve standards
• Independent oversight for tokenized products
• Robust accounting and reconciliation for digital-asset workflows

That demand has produced a surge in institutional clients looking for third-party verification—not from “crypto influencers,” but from rigorous auditors and technologists capable of marrying blockchain analytics with old-school accounting discipline.

This is precisely the territory ht.digital has carved out.

The Rise of ht.digital: From Carve-Out to Category Leader

Spun out of Harris & Trotter LLP in 2023, ht.digital has grown at a staggering clip—nearly 100% organic revenue CAGR over two years—and claims more than 700 clients worldwide.

Those clients include exchanges, blockchain platforms, token issuers, corporates dealing with digital assets, and institutions stepping into tokenization. In other words: the broad base of global players who need their numbers independently verified.

ht.digital’s platform blends:

• Blockchain forensics and on-chain verification
• Accounting-grade reconciliation tools
• Audit, attestations, and proof-of-reserves methodologies
• Reporting automation built for institutional standards

This combination of technology + professional-services rigor is unusual in the still-young crypto assurance space. It’s also a big part of why Bridgepoint is moving in now: the category is still taking shape, and ht.digital is early enough—and fast-growing enough—to define it.

The Institutional Stakes: Assurance Becomes the New Competitive Differentiator

As the digital-asset ecosystem professionalizes, assurance moves from “nice-to-have” to “non-negotiable.” Tokenized funds won’t get mandates without it. Exchanges can’t operate at scale without it. Custodians lose clients without it.

Just look at the global trends:

• Stablecoin legislation in the U.S., EU, Singapore, and UAE is converging on mandatory, frequent reserve attestations.
• Tokenization platforms used by banks and asset managers are pushing for audit-friendly reporting.
• Institutional investors increasingly require independent verification before deploying capital.
• Board-level finance teams evaluating digital-asset exposure expect the same assurance they’d demand from traditional markets.

The missing link has been a provider capable of bridging institutional-grade accounting with crypto-native complexity. According to Bridgepoint, ht.digital is exactly that bridge.

Bridgepoint’s Strategy: Scale the Platform, Expand Globally

Bridgepoint isn’t merely buying growth—it’s buying a strategic early position in a market projected to expand at blistering speed.

Its plans include:

• Scaling ht.digital’s international footprint, building on recent European expansion
• Investing in platform and data innovation, likely accelerating automation and on-chain analytics capabilities
• Recruiting more specialist auditors, technologists, and crypto-native talent
• Professionalising the firm’s infrastructure to match the expectations of global institutions and regulators

Bridgepoint Partner Matt Legg positioned ht.digital as sitting at “the intersection of two powerful, long-term trends—the institutional adoption of digital assets and the growing regulatory demand for independent audit and assurance.”

That’s private-equity speak for: this category is about to explode, and ht.digital is ideally placed to lead it.

Industry Implications: A Signal That Digital-Asset Assurance Is Institutionalizing

This acquisition is a watershed moment for the broader market. If a global investor like Bridgepoint is entering this space with a majority stake, it signals:

• Digital-asset assurance is evolving into a formal industry, not an ad-hoc service.
• Institutional infrastructure layers are attracting serious capital.
• The audit and attestation space is likely to consolidate, with competition rising from traditional professional-services firms and crypto-native specialists alike.
• Tokenization markets will further embrace audit standardization, which could accelerate institutional entry.

Expect rivals—big accounting firms, analytics providers, custody platforms, and compliance vendors—to respond, either through acquisitions or accelerated product builds.

For now, ht.digital has the head start, and Bridgepoint has the capital to turn that head start into dominance.

What ht.digital’s CEO Says About the Next Chapter

Founder and CEO Nick Newman described the deal as a “milestone,” praising the team, early clients, and the carve-out heritage from Harris & Trotter.

But importantly, Newman underscored why Bridgepoint fit the growth ambitions:
They “understand how to scale professional services and technology firms”—a capability vital for a company trying to become the global assurance layer for digital assets.

The expansion plans focus on platform investment, product innovation, and international reach—all critical as regulators introduce increasingly uniform reporting and reserve-verification requirements.

Advisors and Timeline

The full cast of advisors reads like a who’s who of global M&A:

Bridgepoint advisors:

• Bain (Commercial)
• Cleary Gottlieb (Legal)
• EY (Financial & Tax)
• Areta (M&A)
• Achilles (ESG)

ht.digital advisors:

• Arrowpoint Advisory (Corporate Finance)
• Roland Berger (Commercial)
• Dentons (Legal)

The transaction is expected to close in H1 2026, subject to regulatory approval.

The Bottom Line

Bridgepoint’s majority acquisition of ht.digital marks a turning point for digital-asset assurance. The deal is less about rolling up a niche provider and more about institutionalizing one of the most strategically important layers of the emerging digital-asset economy.

ht.digital already leads a fast-growing category; with Bridgepoint’s capital and global scaling expertise, it now has a clear runway to become the international standard for on-chain auditability, financial reconciliation, and digital-asset transparency.

As tokenization accelerates, as regulators tighten requirements, and as institutional adoption becomes mainstream, assurance will shift from a compliance checkbox to a core market infrastructure pillar.

This deal suggests one thing clearly: the race to build that infrastructure has begun—and ht.digital just got the kind of backer that changes the competitive landscape.