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**December 13, 2021 **- Genesis, a digital asset services company and digital currency prime brokerage, has announced that Genesis Custody Limited (Genesis Custody) has received approval by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as a registered cryptoasset business. The approval signifies that Genesis possesses strong controls, governance and a compliance framework committed to countering financial crime, and that the firm meets the same anti-money laundering standards as other financial institutions under the FCA’s purview.
Genesis Custody is now one of a handful of UK-based crypto custodians who are approved to continue offering their services in the UK market.
Genesis Custody provides segregated multi-asset cold storage for full custody of client assets. Genesis Custody customers have access to portfolio management and execution through Genesis Global Trading, as well as yield generation opportunities through Genesis Global Capital. Clients’ private keys are fully segregated and held in Hardware Security Models (HSMs) in deep cold storage in repurposed nuclear bunkers at multiple sites around the world. In addition, client assets are protected by an industry-leading insurance policy.
"This is an important milestone in our strategy to deliver to institutional clients cryptocurrency services that are compliant with the regulatory framework,” said Arianna Pretto-Sakmann, General Counsel at Genesis. “This approval also reflects our commitment to working with regulators ー at the FCA and elsewhere ー as this asset class evolves. We will continue to do so as we expand our services in the coming months.”
This news marks another key step forward in Genesis’ custody roadmap, following the firm’s May 2020 acquisition of Vo1t, a London-based digital custody service provider. Genesis and Vo1t worked closely through 2020 and the beginning of 2021 to integrate VO1t’s proprietary technology into the broader Genesis ecosystem, with the custody solution broadly rolled out in May of 2021. Genesis’ custody solution has seen continued growth since then, with nearly 100 custody customers onboarded. Genesis Custody also saw a quarter-over-quarter growth of 50% in Q3 of 2021.
The full up to date list of Digital Asset firms registered and approved by the FCA can be viewed here.
