custodian

Anchorage Digital announced the expansion of its custody and listing arrangements with the Latin American cryptocurrency platform Bitso, extending its custody layer to cover both ends of the stablecoin corridor between the United States and Mexico. According to the agreement announced on Tuesday, the Mexican peso stablecoin MXNB issued by Bitso is now being custodied by this federally chartered crypto bank across six blockchains: Arbitrum, Base, Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche, and Arc.Meanwhile, Bitso has launched the USD stablecoins USDPT and USAT, which are issued and custodied by Anchorage, with the former coming from Western Union and the latter from Tether. The financial terms were not disclosed by either party. This collaboration targets one of the largest cross-border payment flows in the world, the U.S.-Mexico remittance corridor, which transfers billions of dollars annually, with approximately 15% currently operating through Bitso's infrastructure.Nathan McCauley, CEO and co-founder of Anchorage, stated that the U.S.-Mexico corridor is where stablecoins transition from theory to large-scale real money flows, and the company has now become the institutional custody layer at both ends of that flow. Ben Reid, head of stablecoins at Bitso, mentioned that customers can now access the complete dollar-peso corridor through a fully on-chain method supported by a federally chartered bank. This move also continues the trend of Circle's recent expansion of Latin American stablecoins with the launch of a USDC settlement pilot in Colombia.

Russia has registered the first batch of cryptocurrency exchange operators and digital asset custodians based on the new regulations that took effect on September 1. The Bank of Russia announced the list of the first authorized operators, which includes 4 exchange operators and 5 custodians.Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, has been included in the list of custodians, alongside Atomyze, Voltari, and Cloud Infrastructure. Sberbank stated that it has applied for the qualification of a digital asset custodian and plans to launch its first cryptocurrency products on December 1 through the SberBank Online, SberInvestments, and SberBusiness platforms, initially supporting Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and USDt (USDT).T-Invest Lab, Zefir, and Sistema-Crypto have been included in the list of exchange operators, with VTB Bank appearing on both lists. The relevant registration is based on the cryptocurrency bill signed by President Vladimir Putin in August, which brings exchanges, custodians, brokers, and investors under the supervision of the Bank of Russia and maintains the prohibition on using cryptocurrencies to pay for goods and services.

Bitcoin News posted on platform X that the SEC plans to propose new rules under the 1940 Act, allowing investment advisors to directly hold related assets when no qualified custodian is willing to custody Bitcoin and other digital assets.The SEC stated that traditional custodians typically refuse to custody such assets, creating a compliance gap in the existing custody framework. The proposal will initiate a 60-day public comment period after its publication in the Federal Register.

The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) will conduct on-site inspections and off-site reviews of authorized crypto asset service providers from the second half of 2026 to the first half of 2027, with a focus on institutions providing digital asset custody services.This action is part of the 2026 joint supervisory action coordinated by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), which aims to assess areas such as institutional governance and control frameworks, key and storage management, private key security, wallet storage, and access controls.The review will also cover trading controls, monitoring and incident response, smart contract security, and third-party risk management. CySEC stated that the relevant standards are mandatory, and the institutions' compliance readiness will be used as a selection criterion for subsequent inspections.

According to DigitalAsset, Upbit operator Dunamu has been selected as the first priority candidate for the "Management of Seized Digital Asset Custody Business" by the Korean National Police Agency. According to data from the Korean government procurement portal (KONEPS), Dunamu ranked first with a comprehensive score of 94.73 (technical score 84.73, bid price score 10), surpassing the Korea Digital Asset Custody Company (KDAC, 91.29) and Hecto Wallet One (87.27).The project budget is 267 million won, with a contract period of 1 year, aimed at entrusting the digital assets seized by the police during investigations to external professional institutions for secure custody. Previously, there were cases in the Korean judicial system where seized bitcoins were lost, raising concerns about the need for external custody of digital assets.

According to The Block, the cryptocurrency custody company Taurus has obtained a MiFID II investment license granted by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, allowing it to provide MiFID-regulated investment services for tokenized financial instruments to banks and asset management companies across the EU, as well as secondary trading of tokenized bonds, fund shares, stocks, and structured products.

According to market news, Grayscale has submitted a revised Hyperliquid ETF application to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), replacing Coinbase with Anchorage Digital Bank as the fund custodian.Anchorage is the first federally chartered crypto bank in the U.S. and has recently rapidly expanded its services in stablecoins, wealth management, and token lifecycle management, becoming the first institution in the U.S. to support Tron. If approved, this ETF will trade on Nasdaq under the code "GHYP," with the staking feature still pending regulatory approval.

According to CoinDesk, Morgan Stanley has submitted an S-1 form to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), disclosing that its planned Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust will use Coinbase Custody and Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon) as Bitcoin custodians.According to the submitted documents, the trust will primarily use offline cold storage to safeguard Bitcoin, with private keys disconnected from the internet to reduce the risk of hacking. BNY Mellon will also serve as the fund administrator, transfer agent, and cash custodian, responsible for handling accounting, shareholder records, and cash flow related to ETF transactions.

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas disclosed that Canary has updated its spot Trump Coin ETF application documents, adding multiple pieces of information, including the confirmation that BitGo will act as the custodian. Currently, the ETF has not announced a trading symbol.

Gemini's Director of Institutional Business, Patrick Liou, released five predictions for 2026.The 4-year Bitcoin cycle is dead; ETFs and institutional adoption have made the market more mature, with volatility dropping from a historical 80% to 25-40%, and drawdowns only 30% instead of the past 75-90%.Crypto will become a bipartisan issue in the 2026 U.S. midterm elections, with the CLARITY Act expected to break through.The crypto prediction market will expand significantly, with Polymarket's growth attracting players like Coinbase.Digital asset reserve companies will merge to survive; MicroStrategy's massive losses in Q4 last year and a 60% drop in MSTR's stock price show the pressure.At least one country will sell part of its gold reserves to buy Bitcoin; Germany, Sweden, and the Czech Republic have publicly discussed BTC as a reserve asset. Liou believes that 2026 will be driven by institutions, policies, and sovereign capital, rather than speculative cycles.

Ethena Labs announced that Anchorage Digital Bank has officially become one of the custodians supporting the assets behind USDe, joining Copper and Ceffu in the custody lineup. Anchorage Digital Bank is the first federally chartered crypto-native bank in the United States, regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).The agreement has currently enabled addresses starting with 0xAFBb and 0xF270 (both storing Ethereum) as isolated wallets, and they will be included in the weekly published proof of reserves. Starting from January 2026, Anchorage will provide monthly signed and publicly available custody proofs. Additionally, this custody solution will be integrated into the USDe minting and burning smart contracts, allowing users to instantly exchange USDe for stablecoins on demand.

According to The Block, Monad announced that its Layer 1 blockchain and native token MON will launch at 9 AM EST on November 24, and has designated Anchorage Digital as its preferred custodian.Institutional users can securely hold and stake MON through Anchorage's custody platform or the self-custody wallet Porto. MON will be the first project to launch on Coinbase's new public offering platform, with an initial circulating supply lock-up ratio of 50.6%.

ChainCatcher news, on October 22, Nevada regulators issued a cease-and-desist order against the cryptocurrency custody company Fortress Trust (now renamed Elemental Financial Technologies Inc.).According to court documents, the company is currently on the brink of bankruptcy, facing a significant mismatch between assets and liabilities. The regulators explicitly stated in the order that Fortress's liquidity situation is "completely insufficient to meet customer obligations."

ChainCatcher news, according to Businesswire, the crypto-friendly digital bank Anchorage Digital Bank announced that Bank of America has become its reserve custodian for payment stablecoins. It is reported that Anchorage Digital Bank is currently the only federally chartered crypto-native bank operating under the direct supervision of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in the United States.

ChainCatcher news, according to FinanceFeeds, the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has released updated guidelines for licensed virtual currency custodial entities (VCEs).The core requirement of the guidelines is that the custodial structure must ensure that the beneficial ownership of digital assets always belongs to the customers, especially in the event that the custodial entity faces bankruptcy, customer assets must also be protected.NYDFS stated that this update is in response to the surge in demand for virtual asset custody from institutional and retail clients, as well as the increasingly complex "sub-custodial" relationships within the industry. The new guidelines explicitly prohibit custodians from using customer assets for activities such as re-hypothecation or unsecured lending that could harm customer ownership without explicit permission and informed consent.At the same time, stricter due diligence, contractual terms, and disclosure requirements have been imposed on custodians using sub-custodial institutions. The guidelines aim to provide greater clarity and confidence to customers and encourage licensed entities to review their custodial structures and customer agreements. This updated guideline effective in 2025 replaces the previous version from January 2023.

ChainCatcher news, cryptocurrency custodian BitGo today submitted its IPO application documents in the U.S., showing that revenue in the first half of 2025 is expected to reach $4.19 billion, nearly quadrupling compared to the same period last year.The company plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "BTGO," with Goldman Sachs and Citigroup serving as the lead underwriters. As one of the largest crypto custodians in the U.S., BitGo's valuation reached $1.75 billion in 2023 financing.

ChainCatcher news, the UK Bitcoin treasury company The Smarter Web Company announced the introduction of Coinbase Institutional as the custodian for its Bitcoin assets. According to the company's latest disclosed data, its current Bitcoin holdings amount to 2,470 coins, with an average purchase price of £82,421, totaling a value of £203,580,051.

ChainCatcher news, State Street, the world's largest ETF service provider, announced that it has become the first third-party custodian to access JPMorgan's digital debt services, providing institutional clients with blockchain-based debt securities custody services.JPMorgan's digital debt services support the issuance, settlement, and lifecycle management of bonds through the Kinexys digital asset platform, utilizing blockchain technology to achieve precise T+0 settlement and automated operations. The first transaction was completed by State Street's investment management division, purchasing $100 million in commercial paper, marking the modernization of the short-term debt market.

ChainCatcher message, according to Whale Alert monitoring, about 9 minutes ago, 690 BTC (worth approximately $82.47 million) was transferred from Binance to the cryptocurrency custody service provider Ceffu.