BitGo looks to jumpstart RWA tokenization segment via acquisition

Acquired firm Brassica offers custody and transfer agent services for private securities and alternative investments

article-image

T. Schneider/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Crypto financial services company BitGo has bought a firm focused on investment infrastructure for alternative assets as part of a bid toward advancing a so-far stalled tokenization space. 

Brassica, the company to be acquired, offers back-end infrastructure services for private securities and alternative investments, including multi-asset custody, record-keeping and transfer agent services.

While most traditional finance players have a crypto- or blockchain-related proof-of-concept in the works, the worlds of digital assets and traditional finance currently have “almost no overlap,” argued BitGo CEO Mike Belshe. 

The firm’s latest deal seeks to digitize the alternative asset industry by offering unique support of both traditional private securities and blockchain-based assets, Belshe said.

The two companies are seeking to build infrastructure that allows for alternative assets to transact at scale in a way similar to public equities, noted Brassica CEO Youngro Lee.

“The key difference here is every alternative asset is different,” he told Blockworks. “Bitcoin is very different from real estate, which is very different from company equity, which is very different from wine.” 

Lee added: “But the world wants diversity of assets and diversity of asset types and categories.”

BitGo and Brassica declined to disclose exact terms of the deal.

Tokenizing real-world assets — or issuing a digital representation of assets on a blockchain — has been a popular topic of discussion over the last year.

Read more: TradFi, DeFi convergence continues through tokenizing real-world assets

Various executives have labeled it as one of the most exciting facets within the blockchain space. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink went as far to say in December 2022 that the tokenization of securities was “the next generation for markets.”

BlackRock in October used JPMorgan Chase’s Tokenized Collateral Network to tokenize shares in one of its money market funds. The asset management giant sent the tokenized interests to Barclays as collateral for an over-the-counter derivatives trade between the firms.

“Every custodian, exchange and traditional finance company is exploring how to [tokenize securities], and I think BitGo is putting a big stake in the ground,” Belshe said.

“From a technology perspective…we could put [securities] on a blockchain, but that’s not the hard part,” he added. “The hard part is how do you make that all compliant and fit within the existing system.”

BitGo, founded in 2013, launched its trust company — a qualified custodian designed to store digital assets — in 2018. It raised $100 million in August as part of a Series C funding round that gave the company a $1.75 billion valuation.

BitGo Trust was set to provide qualified custody services and cold storage for assets held by institutional clients of Genesis as part of a deal made last year. It more recently teamed up with bitcoin asset management platform Onramp to introduce a multi-institution custody product.

Brassica is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as a transfer agent — an entity that documents changes of securities ownership changes and keeps the issuer’s security holder records, among other duties. The firm’s trust company subsidiary gained a trust charter from the Wyoming State Banking Board last year.

Brassica’s software-focused approach means end clients — including investment platforms, broker-dealers and asset managers — can use Brassica’s application programming interfaces (APIs) as they see fit, Lee noted.

Once the back-end is built, Belshe said, it is “a small leap” to tokenize securities across asset classes.

“I think you’re going to start to see everything coming into tokenization in some form,” the BitGo CEO said. “This is not going to be an overnight thing; it’s over the next five years, but I think we’ll see a big shift.”


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Nillion_DeSci_Report_Template.png

Research

Nillion’s Monad Integration is poised to catalyze the next phase of DeSci’s evolution by eliminating key privacy bottlenecks. This synergy allows researchers, institutions, and DAOs to exchange sensitive data and insights securely while managing governance and payments onchain.

article-image

Celebrating the wisdom of a diamond-handed Bitcoin Legend

article-image

With the success of RWAs and stablecoins, DePINs could onboard the next wave of crypto users

article-image

Is crypto straying too far from things of value?

article-image

Firedancer and Solana ETFs look less significant than before

article-image

The newly passed House bill amplifies that strategic pivot for the Trump administration, from attempting austerity to running the economy hot

article-image

Unable to secure further funding, the game cycled through three different blockchains and at least five different game engines since 2018