TP Icap Adds Two to Digital Assets Custody Network

TP Icap continues to build its digital assets platform; just a week after Hudson River Trading was unveiled, the firm now says it has added cryptoasset custodians BitGo and Komainu.

The firm says the addition of the firms will provide clients with a greater choice of credible, trusted custodians, which is fundamental to both its model and the continued growth and adoption of the asset class. It adds that the segregated model – which enables clients to access liquidity whilst their assets remain under custody at their preferred custodian – provides a robust and secure solution that institutional investors require to access the asset class.

Pending UK registrations, the platform will provide OTC cryptoasset trading as well as post-trade infrastructure that provides straight through processing and payment netting services for executed trades into a network of digital asset custodians. To drive common standards across custodians and to facilitate settlement interoperability between members, TP Icap established an Inter-Custodial Settlement Protocol Working Group that has been active since October 2020.  BitGo and Komainu have both joined this group alongside initial custodians Fidelity Digital AssetsSM and Zodia Custody. Tp Icap says the goal of this working group is to enable it to match trades between customers who use different custodians and settle in an automated manner between the different participant custodians.

“Developing a robust and automated post-trade custody network, whilst providing our clients with choice over where they store their assets, has always been a core feature of our spot platform and a key differentiator for our market model,” says Duncan Trenholme, co-head of digital assets at TP Icap. “Adding established cryptoasset custodians of BitGo and Komainu’s calibre marks another big step forward for our cryptoasset platform.  Both market-leading custodians share our vision for the future of financial market infrastructure, and we look forward to working with them as we prepare the platform to go live.”

Sebastian Widmann, head of strategy at Komainu, adds, “Whilst we are seeing increased interest in digital assets, there are still various challenges limiting institutional adoption, including in the way new market entrants gain initial exposure and source liquidity of digital assets, which TP Icap is addressing. We look forward to collaborating with the entire working group to enable a next-generation custodial settlement network, allowing our clients to seamlessly trade and settle directly out of custody.”

Meanwhile, Darren Jordan, managing director at BitGo, says, “We believe to further the adoption of this asset class, there needs to be industry collaboration to establish the trading and settlement network for the future of finance. We look forward to building and growing this network with TP Icap and other network participants.”