New York-based cryptocurrency exchange Gemini is launching Gemini Custody™, a qualified custodian for digital assets that handles complex and high-stakes requirements of large financial institutions.
Licensed by the New York State Department of Financial Services, Gemini aims to give investors “instant liquidity.” According to the announcement, users can seamlessly trade their crypto without having to wait several hours to transfer funds out of their offline cold storage wallets. Built from the ground up to meet the complex and high-stakes needs of modern financial institutions, Gemini Custody™ supports 18 cryptocurrencies including popular Bitcoin and Ether alongside more niche offerings like Bread and Enjin, and plans to provide custody solutions for other assets in the foreseeable future.
“The maturation of crypto as an asset class depends heavily on the safety and soundness of the custodians that hold individual and institutional funds,” said Tyler Winklevoss, CEO of Gemini. And Jeanine Hightower-Sellitto, Managing Director of Operations at Gemini said: “Institutional investors have demonstrated a clear and growing demand for crypto, but they’ve struggled to find a solution that fully meets their complex regulatory and security requirements.”
Gemini Custody™ now supports 18 cryptos for custody: Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether, Litecoin, Zcash, and the following ERC-20 tokens: 0x (ZRX), Augur (REP), Basic Attention (BAT), Bread (BRD), Dai (DAI), Decentraland (MANA), Enjin (ENJ), Flexacoin (FXC), Gemini dollar (GUSD), Kyber Network (KNC), Loom Network (LOOM), Maker (MKR), and OmiseGo (OMG). Custody support for more cryptos will be coming soon. It stores customer crypto offline using hardware security modules (HSMs), multisignature technology, and geographically distributed, access-controlled facilities. In addition, customers can secure their accounts with hardware security keys and restrict crypto withdrawals to crypto addresses they whitelist. A new interface will allow customers to check balances, download account statements and initiate withdrawals. Customers can also grant auditors view-only access to confirm balances and transactions.
Jeanine Hightower-Sellitto states in a phone interview: “At the end of the day, to simplify things, it’s sort of like putting your assets in a vault. You want to make sure when you want your assets, they’ll be there.”
Source: Gemini press release
