Message To Our Valued Partners and Prospective Clients:
The events of the last few days, and in fact those of the last few months, have made it more evident than ever that client cryptocurrency assets should be held in regulated financial institutions. Many participants in the crypto industry still do not understand that crypto exchanges - which often behave like banks in that they hold large balances of client assets - are not regulated in the same manner as banks.
The risk management failures of many of these crypto exchanges, crypto lending platforms, and other less or unregulated firms compounded by the lack of transparency in how those entities use, pledge, or hypothecate client assets, has and will continue to cause harm. Technological ability is a necessary but not sufficient component for firms that wish to provide digital financial services. That technological acumen must be combined with transparency and regulatory oversight.
Protego Trust Bank is, upon final approval by the OCC, the national bank within which institutional clients can custody their assets safely and securely. As a fully-reserved, agency-only trust bank, Protego's purpose is to provide the lowest risk environment for institutional clients to be able to engage with digital assets throughout their lifecycle. Clients will be able to custody, trade, borrow, lend, and issue digital assets - all within a safe and sound national bank.
This is precisely why Protego has spent more than five years working with regulators to obtain our bank charter, rather than launching as a technology vendor or money services business. We are building the bank for the digital asset future.
The promise and potential of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets is enormous, and is still largely untapped, and will transform the financial services industry.
If you are an institutional client interested in learning why so many of the leading crypto and fintech firms, along with premier venture firms are partners with Protego please reach out to Doug Mehne at doug.mehne@protegotrust.com.
