Ben Strack

As bankruptcies continue plaguing the crypto segment, New York’s Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) is urging crypto custodians to separate corporate and customer assets, among other measures.



New <a href="https://www.dfs.ny.gov/industry_guidance/industry_letters/il20230123_guidance_custodial_structures" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">guidance</a> from NYDFS Superintendent Adrienne Harris published Monday states that custodians of digital assets should “separately account for, and segregate” a customer’s assets from those owned by the company — both on-chain and on the custodian’s internal ledger accounts.  



The latest guidance also expects that crypto custodians should only receive customer assets “for the limited purpose of carrying out custody and safekeeping services, and that it will not thereby establish a debtor-creditor relationship with the customer.”&nbsp;



The suggestions are meant to better protect customers in the event of an insolvency, or a similar proceeding, the regulator said.&nbsp;



FTX, which filed for bankruptcy in November, allegedly co-mingled funds with affiliated trading firm Alameda Research. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried earlier this month <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sam-bankman-fried-issues-not-guilty-plea">pleaded not guilty</a> to charges that include wire fraud, money laundering and violating campaign finance laws.&nbsp;



New York’s virtual currency regulation already requires entities to protect customer assets, maintain comprehensive books and records, properly disclose custody service terms and refrain from misleading customers.



“DFS’s virtual currency regulation has protected New Yorkers since 2015,” Harris said in a statement. “Today’s guidance reminds DFS-regulated virtual currency companies of our expectations regarding the safekeeping of customer assets.”&nbsp;



The New York regulator last month <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/new-york-banks-now-need-approval-before-engaging-with-crypto-regulator-says">began requiring</a> state-regulated banks to apply for approval before engaging in digital-asset related activities.



More recently, the NYDFS earlier this month found Coinbase <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-stock-up-after-settlement">violated anti-money laundering</a> laws in 2018 and 2019. The exchange agreed to pay a $50 million fine and $50 million more to go toward its compliance practices.



A day later, New York Attorney General Letitia James <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/celsius-founder-defrauded-thousands-nyag">filed a civil lawsuit</a> alleging that ex-Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky made false and misleading statements about the company’s safety to encourage investors to deposit digital assets onto the platform.&nbsp;



Celsius initiated <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/celsius-to-file-for-bankruptcy-imminently-report">bankruptcy proceedings</a> in July, about a month after it halted <a href="https://blockworks.co/celsius-lending-platform-suspends-withdrawals-and-transfers">withdrawals</a>, citing “extreme market conditions.”



BlockFi <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/blockfi-files-for-bankruptcy">filed for bankruptcy</a> just days after FTX’s collapse. Filings <a href="https://pacer-documents.s3.amazonaws.com/109/1094078/118164199368.pdf">revealed</a> that BlockFi has roughly 100,000 creditors with $1 billion to $10 billion in liabilities and assets.&nbsp;



Genesis became the latest crypto company to go the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/genesis-in-chapter-11-wont-insulate-silbert-winklevoss-says">bankruptcy</a> route, doing so last week. The firm had <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/genesis-halts-lending">halted customer withdrawals</a> in November after the unraveling of FTX, where it had <a href="https://twitter.com/GenesisTrading/status/1590836594382032896" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$175 million</a> in locked assets.



Genesis was Gemini’s partner for its recently-terminated Earn program, which allowed rewards of up to 8% to customers who lent cryptoassets to Genesis. Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss has said Genesis is owed $1.675 billion by parent company Digital Currency Group — a point DCG CEO Barry Silbert has denied.



Tyler Winklevoss <a href="https://forum.makerdao.com/t/gusd-makerdao-partnership-update/19428" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a> last week that the NYDFS, which supervises Gemini, would be the trustee of Gemini’s bankruptcy estate in such a case. Assets in the Gemini stablecoin (GUSD) reserve are held in accounts separate from Gemini’s business and are not “property” of the company.



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Crypto Custodians Must Separate Customer, Corporate Assets: NY Regulator

Sebastian Sinclair

<div id="highlights-block_623157da34aae" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The crypto custodian said it has raised tens of millions of dollars to scale operations and obtain additional licenses</li>
 <li>While Animoca Brands and Liberty City Ventures co-led, the round also saw participation from Ripple, Terra and Morgan Creek, among others</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Hong Kong-based crypto custodian Hex Trust said it has raised tens of millions of dollars in fresh capital to scale its operations to the Middle East and Europe, according to a <a href="https://hextrust.com/resources-collection/hex-trust-raises-88-million-series-b-funding-scale-asias-leading-digital-asset-custodian" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a> on Tuesday.



The Series B funding round, co-led by Animoca Brands and Liberty City Ventures, garnered $88 million in capital, which saw its valuation rise to $300 million.



It marks the company&#8217;s first significant raise and is consistent with growing interest from outside parties seeking to invest in platforms and technology used in the safekeeping of digital assets.



Participants in the round also included Ripple, Terra, Morgan Creek, Primavera Venture Partners, LeadBlock Partners, Eterna Capital, Sino Global Capital, Topaz and real estate giant New World Development&#8217;s CEO Adrian Cheng, among others.



Funding will also be used to obtain additional licenses and expand Hex Trust&#8217;s business services as well as continue the development of its &#8220;bank-grade&#8221; custody platform HexSafe.



Provider of licensed and insured bank-grade custody solutions for crypto, Hex Trust has continued to lure investment from venture capitalists and crypto firms looking to take a punt on the four-year-old company.



Last year, Hex Trust nabbed $6 million via Series A funding and a further $10 million in an extended round led by Animoca in a bid to further branch out across South-East Asia. The company also tapped the <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/custodian-hex-trust-launches-digital-assets-pilot-with-philippines-union-bank/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Union Bank of the Philippines</a> to assist in the expansion of its custody services in that country.



Hex Trust currently employs 100 people across offices based in Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam.



&#8220;It was a tremendous year of growth for Hex Trust and this funding round enables us to continue scaling,&#8221; said Hex Trust CEO Alessio Quaglini.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">&#8220;As large institutions continue adopting digital assets at an increased pace, they need fully licensed custody services to meet compliance and regulatory standards.&#8221;</blockquote>



Digital asset custodians continue to attract large investors, oftentimes accompanying significant capital raises. In January, crypto custodian Fireblocks&nbsp;raised a staggering $550 million in a Series E round co-led by D1 Capital Partners and Spark Capital, which saw the company valued at $8 billion.



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Hex Trust Raises $88M in Series B To Expand into Europe, Middle East

<div id="highlights-block_61ef166f4f7f9" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Venture capital firm Seven Seven Six and crypto platform Gemini participated in EarlyBird’s $4 million funding round in November</li>
 <li>Users can now more easily set recurring investments, gift bitcoin and ether to kids, co-founders say</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Childhood investment specialist EarlyBird has tapped digital asset platform <a href="https://www.gemini.com/?utm_source=google&amp;utm_campaignID=13567832040&amp;utm_adgroupID=126782346954&amp;utm_creativeID=547717427706&amp;utm_medium=cpc&amp;utm_content=e&amp;utm_term=gemini&amp;gclid=CjwKCAiA0KmPBhBqEiwAJqKK41gYRHSKzWVjGWPiwR_-QydPscMazebDyPHW0rMYU2F-XT1ECkKB1xoCwP8QAvD_BwE" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Gemini</a> to add crypto to its available asset classes.&nbsp;



EarlyBird — a registered investment advisor that until now focused on stocks and bonds — told Blockworks Tuesday that it’s launching its first crypto option. Gemini, an investor in EarlyBird, is set to provide custody for the digital assets.&nbsp;



The startup offers custodial accounts opened by a parent, relative or friend on behalf of a minor. The idea behind the accounts, which offer no tax advantages like a 529 plan for college savings, is to give children a jump-start on investing.&nbsp;



Additions to the <a href="https://www.getearlybird.io/crypto" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">EarlyBird Crypto</a> waitlist will get early access to the offering later this year, the company announced.



“We want to ensure that all American families have access to the future of wealth creation,” EarlyBird Co-founder and CEO Jordan Wexler told Blockworks. “They will live in a world that is deeply ingrained in blockchain technology, Web3 and of course cryptocurrency, and we want to ensure that these kids have exposure to all of those digital assets as part of their core portfolio.”



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignleft size-large is-resized"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/crypto-screens-hero-01-1024x535-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-15968" width="357" height="186" srcset="https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/crypto-screens-hero-01-1024x535-1.jpg 1024w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/crypto-screens-hero-01-300x157-1.jpg 300w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/crypto-screens-hero-01-768x401-1.jpg 768w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/crypto-screens-hero-01-1536x802-1.jpg 1536w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/crypto-screens-hero-01.jpg 2048w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/crypto-screens-hero-01-428x224-1.jpg 428w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/crypto-screens-hero-01-470x246-1.jpg 470w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/crypto-screens-hero-01-389x203-1.jpg 389w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/crypto-screens-hero-01-80x42-1.jpg 80w, https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/crypto-screens-hero-01-50x26.png 50w" sizes="(max-width: 357px) 100vw, 357px" /></figure></div>



Crypto investments for now will be limited to bitcoin and ether, but the company said that could change in the future — including when it comes to NFTs.



The crypto offering follows EarlyBird’s third round of funding in the fourth quarter last year, with venture capital firm Seven Seven Six leading the $4 million round. Gemini also participated.&nbsp;



Founded in December 2020, EarlyBird currently offers five investment portfolios.&nbsp;



Gemini backed EarlyBird via its <a href="https://www.gemini.com/frontier-fund" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Frontier Fund</a>, the company’s venture arm. Launched in the second quarter of 2021, the fund has about 30 portfolio companies, according to Marshall Beard, Gemini’s head of strategy and corporate development.



“When I think about investing through the fund, I think about how does this support Gemini?” Beard said. “Does this lead to a partnership, does this lead to an acquisition? Are they working on technology that we don’t have expertise in? Are they working on technology that we don’t have the bandwidth to do?”



Gemini has been focused on expanding its institutional business. The company <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/gemini-now-a-one-stop-shop-for-advisors-after-bitria-buy/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced its buy</a> of digital asset portfolio management platform BITRIA earlier this month and <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/gemini-acquires-crypto-trading-tech-platform-omniex/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">revealed its purchase</a> of trading technology platform Omniex.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Gemini’s partnership with EarlyBird fills a gap for the company by offering crypto access to children, Beard explained.



“In the future, as we expand wealth management, as we expand investment management, as we expand family planning, we’re going to work with EarlyBird,” he said.



EarlyBird made several hires following the latest fundraise, COO and Co-founder Caleb Frankel told Blockworks, including Will Steiner, its head of content and literacy.



Users on the EarlyBird Crypto waitlist will receive a six-part course via email about crypto and blockchain technology. The idea, Frankel said, is to showcase to parents crypto’s potential as a long-term asset.



“What our customers were really asking for was the opportunity to be able to not just gift generalized crypto or a crypto ETF, but the ability to gift a specific asset to tell the story about the technology,” Frankel said.&nbsp;



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Parents Can Invest in Crypto for Their Kids Via Startup

Casey Wagner

<div id="highlights-block_61ef13fbf21c2" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Copper’s Glenn Barber made the switch from banking to crypto after he said innovation in finance started to stall</li>
 <li>Barber worked at Voyager and FalconX prior to joining Copper last fall</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Longtime equities trader Glenn Barber made his move into crypto when he sensed innovation slowing in traditional finance.&nbsp;



Barber, then working for Deutsche Bank, told Blockworks that the feeling he was improving the fortunes of his institutional clients was dwindling.&nbsp;



“By around 2013, 2014, it just morphed into a situation where you might be excited about your product, you might be excited about your clients, but you&#8217;re not sure if any of it mattered anymore,” Barber said. “I was questioning how any of this was going to materialize in terms of personal satisfaction and intellectual stimulation — that was a crucial turning point for me.” 



Now head of sales for the Americas for crypto custodian Copper, Barber said he felt a “turning point” at the time that coincided with the rise of bitcoin. He started to read more about the asset class and became hooked.&nbsp;



Voyager Digital CEO and co-founder Stephen Ehrlich sensed an opportunity and pushed Barber to make the career move in 2018.



“He was building out the Voyager platform and was getting a lot of unsolicited inquiries from institutions,” Barber said. “He didn&#8217;t have anyone running its institutional business, so he asked me to come on board and be their chief institutional officer.”&nbsp;



The crypto shift stunned Barber’s colleagues in the banking world, most of whom did not understand digital assets. Turns out Barber had a lot to learn, as well.



“Being new to crypto at that point, I still had a lot to get my head around at that time,” he said. “I looked at it from my own perspective as almost like going back to school and getting a completely new education.”&nbsp;



Barber worked at Lehman Brothers until 2008 and then moved to Barclays before joining Deutsche.&nbsp;



“I think it&#8217;s widely known that up until 2008, financial institutions, particularly the investment banks, were really innovators in finance and responsible for generating new and interesting products,” Barber said.&nbsp;



It didn’t take Barber long to see the value of digital assets, feeling that the technology <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/former-us-sec-chairman-digital-assets-will-change-global-financial-infrastructure/">would one day change markets worldwide.&nbsp;</a>



“I was trying to be as forward-thinking as possible, I figured that I might have to grind it out for the next two or three years working for a startup, working in this entrepreneurial situation, this fledgling crypto industry,” Barber said. “But I was fairly sure that on a risk-reward basis, if I stuck it out, there was really going to be something at the end of this journey.”&nbsp;



Even now, Barber thinks the industry has a long way to go in terms of institutional infrastructure, but he’s optimistic.



“I think that infrastructure, in terms of custody, trading, clearing and settlement, trade analytics, and all the other great stuff that we need in crypto that mirrors the investment management lifecycle in traditional finance, is being built out,” Barber said. “We&#8217;re not quite there yet, but we are significantly ahead of where we were two or three years ago.”



Barber stayed at Voyager for eight months before moving to FalconX to head up sales efforts for about two years. He started at Copper in August 2021, where he focuses on institutional investors for the firm’s business development team.&nbsp;



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