State Street Partners With Gemini On A Digital Assets Reporting Pilot
- The initial trial will track a reporting process for BTC and ETH.
- The new partnership comes only a week after State Street revealed that 38% of their clients plan to increase their digital assets holdings in 2020.
State Street Corporation headquarters in Boston. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff/File
Financial services firm State Street Corporation has partnered up with the Winklevoss twins’ Gemini cryptocurrency exchange on a new pilot for reporting cryptocurrency holdings under custody, the company said in a press release on 17 December.
According to the announcement, the new pilot will combine the Winklevoss’ Gemini Custody with the State Street’s back-office reporting, which will allow users to consolidate their digital assets reporting process with their traditional assets serviced by State Street.
The Gemini CEO, Tyler Winklevoss, commented:
“With trillions of dollars in assets under management, State Street will never compromise on security – and neither will we. Traditional investors will more seamlessly be able to allocate capital in their portfolio to digital assets through trusted and regulated financial institutions — helping us build a better bridge to the future of money.”
Initially, the trial will track a reporting process for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), held in Gemini’s custody service. According to the press release, ETH and BTC were chosen for liquidity reasons, but other digital assets can still be added to the system, even including tokenized securities.
The news comes only a week after State Street revealed that 38 percent of its clients plan to increase their digital assets holdings in 2020, while 45 percent think that a Bitcoin ETF will receive regulatory approval and launch in 2020.
Ralph Achkar, managing director of Digital Product Development and Innovation at State Street, commented on the new development:
“There is small, but growing demand from our clients for solutions of this type and many technical, operational, regulatory, and legal considerations to be addressed. That is why we have opted for an open model, and started a pilot with Gemini as an established, regulated player in the digital asset space.”
The Winklevoss twins launched the Gemini Custody service in September, enabling their customers to trade assets instantly, without having to wait for them to be transferred from cold storage.
The custody service is reportedly highly secured, ensuring that its customers’ cryptocurrency holdings can only be withdrawn to certain addresses, and supports 18 cryptocurrencies.
- An investigation from the New York Attorney General’s office has allegedly found that Gemini was aware of Genesis’ weak financial position, but still lied to investors.
- The lawsuit is looking to ban DCG, Genesis, and Gemini from the New York financial industry, seek restitutions for investments, and the return of “ill-gotten gains”.
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- Cameron Winklevoss, co-founder of crypto exchange Gemini, proposed a plan that would see Digital Currency Group pay close to $1.5 billion over the next five years.
- The Winklevoss twin said that if the “final offer” is not accepted by the end of the week, Gemini would file a lawsuit against DCG and CEO Barry Silbert.
- Called Coinbase International Exchange (CIE), the new platform will allow institutional users outside of the U.S. to bet on the price of crypto via perpetual futures.
- The platform will not be available to retail customers “at this time”, and will initially provide trading of only BTC and ETH perpetual futures, settled in the USDC stablecoin.