BitGo receives approval to custody digital assets for institutional customers

BitGo announced late last week that the South Dakota Division of Banking granted the company approval to custody (securely store) digital assets for institutional customers. The company has been working on the approval for more than a year. Many companies are reported to be working on similar solutions. According to BitGo CEO Mike Belshe, “Custody has been the missing piece of cryptocurrency market infrastructure, and this gap has kept institutional investors out of the market."

Many market observers expect that allowing institutional investors to securely custody cryptocurrencies will lead to a significant increase in demand for the digital assets. At the beginning of 2018, inflow of institutional money was often cited as the leading likely factor for continued cryptocurrency price appreciation throughout the year. Those inflows and that price appreciation has not materialized yet due to a lack of institutional custody solution. Perhaps the tide is about to turn with this first major approval for BitGo. (Source: Business Wire)