Crypto Custody – Do you know about Crypto Custody ?

Actually the answer to ‘Crypto Custody – Do you know about Crypto Custody? is a term which is used, so as to define the process of keeping the assets safe from theft. Custodians are the third party which could be hired for taking care of your crypto, thereby acting as safeguard of your money, may be cash, securities virtual assets or gold bars. The custodians are there since 1960s and are amongst the pillars of old banking system.

Talking in terms of crypto custody, it tends to work differently. The digital assets custodians are not able to save technically any of the assets as each data and transactions tend to survive on a public ledger named as blockchain. Rather whatever they are guarding are the users private keys (necessary portion of crypto wallet which provides access to the funds which are stored in it).

The crypto custodians are necessary for the adoption of digital assets. Till date, most of the institutional investors remain aloft from purchase of digital assets cause of the lack of security. The institutions which tend to manage huge amount of money as hedge funds, investment banking, pension funds and family offices, should, as per regulation, have a custody partner, so as to keep client’s money safe from theft.

With add on institutional investors shifting their interest in digital assets and companies as MicroStrategy begun to put huge amounts of cryptocurrency on their balance sheets, the demand for crypto custody services has boomed. Where report from Blockdata reveals the size of digital assets under the custody grown sevenfolded from January 2019 to January 202, from about $32 billion to $223billion. 

Working Of Crypto Custody

Crypto Custody explains saving the private key which provides proof of your own funds which are there in your crypto wallet. Where in old banking each and every custodian are financial institutions, as it is desired by law. Holders having crypto are having the facility to become their own custodian. With the use of gold bars as an analog, one can either store them underneath their bed for its security or go for paying the third-party custodian, so as to lock them in a vault which is guarded by the safety guards.

There are basically two sorts of crypto custody and those are:

• Self Custody: The self-custody is where one holds their own private key for their own crypto wallet. This explains that you are the one holding the ownership of your funds and having the access to your holdings as well. No doubt with huge power- huge responsibility arise and to be your own custodian is directly linked with holding wholesale control over your wallet, but it also shows that each risk is being undergone and in case the access to physical device is being lost or in case you forget the private key then your crypto is going to be lost.
  
• Third-party Custody: As few of the people are not interested in holding the responsibility of taking care of their own account, then in this case the tech would look forward to a third-party custodian. Such custodians are regulated, registered financial institutions which have taking hold of the state level or national license for acting as custodian. Such a sort of crypto custodian avails client’s private keys into their wallets in a safer way and thereby assure security of their holdings. On the other hand, from the user’s view, it is very much same to having a check with the bank’s account. In case you register for opening an account, you should first cover up know-your-customer and anti-money laundering checks. In case you are making your crypto hold with a third-party custodian, then you are been thought off to move ahead accomplishing the similar ways of checking to rest assure that your cryptocurrency was taken by illegal means.
  
  
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There are three sorts of third party crypto custodians as:

• Exchanges: Every centralised cryptocurrency exchanges manage their client’s crypto custody. Some of the crypto exchanges and base tend to outsource their safety requirements to some external custody giver who secures the assets. Also keep in mind that in case one is setting up an account and keeping the assets on a centralised exchange, you aren’t keeping the private keys at your exchange wallet. This makes you prone to loss if in case the exchange is being hacked or not visible with funds of it’s users.
  
• The Digital Asset Managers: The cryptocurrencies have been matured cause of their own asset class have been an upcoming of digital asset manager who perform the role of banks for its crypto holders. Such institutions are the banks which are licensed for providing crypto custody. The important thing is that the native crypto custodians involve NYDIG, Anchorage and Paxos.
  
• The Custodial Banks: With the wake of July 2020, each custodial bank in U.S. could custody the cryptocurrencies, after office of Comptroller of the currency(OCC) have allowed all national chartered banks for giving crypto custody services. This has thereby allowed the custody giants as BNY Mellon, Citibank and Fidelity to make a way in the crypto market. Where few of the third-party custody providers as Fidelity, BitGo, Bakkt are the ones who are there for the institutional investors. Others might have a need of minimum balance which is so high that it removes from consideration maximum of daily holders from getting access to their services. For instance, Coinbase dedicated crypto custody service, Coinbase Trust demand a loud minimum balance as $500,000 in digital assets for qualifying its custody system.
  

The services of custody providers are made available to the retail clients as well as, Blockchain.com, Gemini, Casa and Nuri.

Costing Of Third Party Crypto Custody

Nominal fees is being charged by the service providers, against keeping your money safe, in the similar way as banks do in the case you are holding a savings account with them. Also shifting crypto in and out of your account also accounts to payment of fees. Following three sorts of fees have to be paid by the service receivers:

1. Custody Fee: The custodians desire for some percentage point being dependent on the value of assets under the custody each year, generally below 1%.
2. Setup Fee: Flat rate to open a custodial account. It is of no value as some of the crypto custodians let the fee free and allow its users for opening an account free of cost.
3. Withdrawal Fee: Fees could be paid each time crypto is being moved from the account. This could be some percentage point of value being taken out.
   

For instance, the U.S. dependant Gemini is having a 0.4% annual custody fee. The company tends to free the setup fees, so that for opening of an account, you are not going to pay any fee, but any sort of withdrawal from the account is going to charge you some amount. Also the situation is not the same in case with the self-custody as the it’s not free for the user for managing the wallet and purchasing a storage product so as to keep the private key secure.

Advantages and Risks associated with Crypto Custody

As per your requirements, the crypto custody should be selected.

Self-custody

Benefits– The main benefit with this custody is that only you could have the access to your account, with your keys and coins. There is no risk from the counterparty.
Risks– In case the keys are misplaced, the access to your coins would be lost. Also your assets in such a custody are not insured, and last but not the least there is fear in case of being hacked, to loose the holdings for lifetime.

Third- party Custody

Benefits– Here the custodian is taking care of each and every aspect and for the starters, it’s an easy access. Also the custodians are insured on the assets been taken care off. In addition to this, interest could be earned from crypto which is deposited by lending through the third-party custodian.
Risks– Here the custodian could be hacked or bankrupted and fees would also be there in operating through such a custody. Not only this, the most peculiar risk is that your coins are controlled by the custodian, thereby freezing your assets and blocking access to one’s wallet.