The Benefits of Safeguarding Your Digital Assets with a Qualified Custodian
In the digital asset community, security and credibility have always been top concerns for investors, particularly institutions that must meet stringent security and regulatory standards. This concern has grown due to high-profile cases like the Mt. Gox hack in 2014 that resulted in the theft of over 850,000 Bitcoins, and more recently the FTX collapse, which is causing regulators, lawmakers, financial advisors and more to question the reliability of digital assets.
To help mitigate these concerns and build trust within the community, many investors are turning to digital asset qualified custodians. But what is a qualified custodian and how can they help protect your digital assets?
What is a qualified custodian?
A qualified custodian abides by the Custody Rule as stated in the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, including a comprehensive backup recovery option and the systems, processes, and controls in place needed to properly safeguard client assets. This is particularly important for institutional investors, hedge funds, and exchanges who should be held to high security and regulatory standards.
To ensure the best possible protection, it’s important for investors to carefully research and choose a reputable digital asset custodian to safeguard their investments. Those entities such as Aegis Trust Company provide institutional-grade custody and digital asset services that comply with all relevant laws and regulations; and specifically, design their business to rise to the level of qualified custodian.
Who is Aegis Trust?
Aegis Trust, regulated by the South Dakota Division of Banking, is a licensed and insured digital asset custodian that provides institutional-grade, end-to-end custodial solutions for Web3, including NFTs, staking, liquid staking and DeFi. Through its adherence to the Division’s rules regarding client asset management, Aegis therefore qualifies as a custodian in the State. The recognition of our adherence to these rules and the types of activities Aegis performs deem it a qualified custodian.
Here are some attributes that distinguish Aegis Trust:
- Institutional-grade security with cold storage option - Aegis’ proprietary custody solution consisting of MPC private key management and multi-party approvals using hardware authentication. Requests are initiated on the client side and approved by the custodian with the record on the blockchain to ensure no single party can move funds without the other side knowing. In addition, Aegis enables clients to store their assets in regulated offline storage, making it less vulnerable to potential hacking and cyberattacks.
- Custodian for Web3 - Aegis offers end-to-end custodial solutions tailor fit for institutions conducting on-chain Web3 transactions, including NFTs, staking, liquid staking and DeFi. This is particularly important as Web3 companies operate in a rapidly evolving regulatory environment, and Aegis can help them navigate these requirements while following industry-leading best practices to ensure the safe and secure storage of digital assets.
- Exceptional staking services - Aegis contracts with staking providers to offer staking services to its clients. Aegis assesses its partners’ technical proficiency and commercial terms to ensure the staking services offered are of the utmost quality.
- NFT coverage - in addition to the custody of digital assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, Aegis protects NFTs and Asset Backed Tokens (“ABTs”). The company is one of the few qualified custodians to offer specie insurance for NFTs and all kinds of ABTs, fostering holistic coverage of the entire digital asset ecosystem.
A digital asset qualified custodian such as Aegis Trust can provide investors with added protection and security, as well as professional services to help manage digital assets. If you are interested in working with a qualified custodian, please fill out the Aegis contact form to learn more.