State Street is conducting a trial on measures to enable investors to consolidate reporting of digital assets held in custody by cryptoexchange Gemini, alongside traditional holdings serviced by the Boston-based bank.
The project will seek to combine Gemini Custody with State Street’s back office reporting. The initial tests will concentrate on unspecified liquid assets, but could over time be extended to cover more esoteric products, such as security tokens.
“The digital asset space is still nascent, yet it promises opportunities that could fundamentally impact how we do things in the future,” says Ralph Achkar, managing director, Digital Product Development & Innovation at State Street. “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 initiative comes after State Street's recent move to dispense with 100 staff working on blockchain technology, in favour of pouring more cash into the cryptoasset space. The bank says that recent client research indicateas that some 38% of its customers plan to increase their holdings of digital assets in 2020.