Brian Armstrong, the CEO of the San Francisco-headquartered cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, said nearly 70 institutions have joined the custody service his company debuted last year to safeguard digital assets in a manner similar to traditional securities.
Coinbase Custody subscribers are adding $150 million AUM a month, Armstrong said in CoinDesk’s Consensus event, which helped the service to scale further and bring as much as $1 billion in assets under custody.
Coinbase said previously it aims to have up to $20 billion in regulated custody assets for clients, including retail investors. Still, Armstrong revealed that 60 percent of trading volume on its platforms is originated from institutions.
While Coinbase Custody service was initially available for major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash, the company has expanded aggressively to support more coins. It has also signed exchanges and startups to provide the service to their clients, having partnered most recently with TokenSoft.
Coinbase Custody expands beyond the US
The service has been available in the US and Europe since 2018, but the company expanded its reach recently to 11 Latin American, Asian, and overseas territories, including Argentina, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Chile, India, Hong Kong, South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, and New Zealand.
Coinbase Custody is part of Coinbase, which claims over 25 million global customers and also ranked as the largest platform for cryptocurrency trading and other related services in the US.
In simple terms, a custodian is a financial institution that holds assets, in both electronic and physical forms, on behalf of its clients to ensure that they are kept safe and secure. In the blockchain space, a custodian service does the same thing but exclusively for digital currencies and tokens.
Coinbase custody service, which safeguards cryptocurrencies and digital tokens, has also partnered with several broker-dealers to provide its clients with access to its product, which is typically taking on clients with a minimum of $10 million and charges a $100,000 setup fee and ten basis points in monthly fees.
(Photo: Coinbase)
