Thursday, August 20, 2026

The bank custody race: who holds America’s Bitcoin

Wall Street did not wake up one morning and decide it liked Bitcoin. It woke up and realized the custody fees were too large to leave on someone else’s balance sheet. For most of the

  • Major traditional banks like BNY Mellon, State Street, and Citigroup are increasingly offering Bitcoin custody services, driven by regulatory changes and the potential for significant fee revenue.
  • This shift poses a structural threat to crypto-native custodians such as Coinbase and BitGo, who previously dominated the market due to banks' inability to hold digital assets.
  • Key challenges remain, including the significant insurance gap for digital assets and the competition between banks offering bundled services and crypto-native firms specializing in digital asset infrastructure.

Topics: Institutional adoption, Banks bankingsystems, Legal regulatory, Banking depository pilots, Custody asset servicing, Securities law classification

Tags: #bitcoincustody #institutionalinvestors #regulatorychanges #sab121 #occ #bnymellon #statestreet #citigroup #coinbase #bitgo

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