17 October 2022 - Crypto-assets and custodial services

As more investors look to acquire crypto assets, both regulators and custodians are responding.

In October 2021, ASIC released guidance on crypto-asset related investment products. It also announced that it had introduced a new ‘crypto-asset’ category in the licensing application for responsible entities, following public consultation on crypto-assets as underlying assets for ETPs and other investment products.

Elsewhere, in October 2022 BNY Mellon announced it had launched its Digital Asset Custody Platform for institutional clients in the US. The world’s largest custodian said a recent survey it had sponsored found almost all institutional investors (91%) are interested in investing in tokenized products. Additionally, 41% of institutional investors hold cryptocurrency in their portfolio today, with an additional 15% planning to hold digital assets in their portfolios within the next two to five years.

BNY Mellon joins Nasdaq and BlackRock, who had both opened crypto custody services for institutional clients only months earlier.