Benzinga | Dec 2, 2021 12:25PM EST

Buying CBD Products With Cryptocurrencies Now Possible Via OLB Groups' New Acquisition

A fintech merchant services provider The OLB Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:OLB) announced Thursday that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire a portfolio of cannabidiol (CBD) merchants that will utilize the company's SecurePay Payment Gateway to process payments. The acquired merchant portfolio has demonstrated a historical annual transaction run rate where it is anticipated to achieve an annual transaction volume of approximately $400 million in 2022.

The OLB Group anticipates, based on the historical performance of the group of merchants, an additional $20 million in annual revenue and $5 million in EBITDA for the company's payment processing business.

By providing the merchant portfolio with the proprietary and customizable "SecurePay" system, OLB will be able to address many of the payment concerns relating to the increase in activity in the CBD sector.

SecurePay provides an integrated support platform for traditional card-based payments, major digital wallets including Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) Apple Pay and Alphabet's (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google Pay, PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL), and cryptocurrency wallets. The cloud-based platform also includes integrations with multiple back-office systems including QuickBooks and other business software applications.

"OLB is very pleased to have successfully closed this transaction resulting in this substantial addition to our payment processing business in a market sector that has been growing rapidly over the past several years. This portfolio acquisition of successful merchants in a market that is forecasted to continue its very healthy growth rate in both profitability and revenue provides OLB with a new growth engine," Ronny Yakov, CEO of The OLB Group stated. "The revenue contribution to our top line is anticipated to represent an increase of revenue of approximately 200% percent in 2022 when compared to 2020 revenue."

According to a recent market analysis by Grandview Research, the CBD market was valued at around $2.8B in 2020 and is projected to increase at an annual rate of 21.2% through 2028.

Price Action

The OLB Group's shares traded 3.12% higher at $3.97 per share at the time of writing Thursday morning.

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