GCEX is pushing the boundaries of trading innovation, and this strategic partnership with Trustology will not only improve liquidity on exchanges, enabling customers to complete transactions at speed, but with added security improvements and access to secure custody, helping GCEX facilitate a thriving ecosystem of OTC brokers, institutions, and custodians.

"We're delighted GCEX selected Trustology as their custody provider," said Alex Batlin, CEO and founder of Trustology. "We’re looking forward to helping GCEX support their institutional investors across the entire spectrum of the crypto industry, be that safekeeping assets, transacting on-chain, on-exchange, facilitating settlement or when using DeFi protocols. Excitingly, this also opens up broker access to DeFi liquidity and loans, where Trustology can help them navigate DeFi lending and staking platforms to maximise their earnings potential and capitalise on profits in their brokerage accounts, often removed due to fear of counterparty risk.”

Lars Holst, founder and CEO of GCEX is well known in traditional financial markets, following stints at Saxo Bank and Dresdner Kleinwort. Holst founded prime brokerage CFH Clearing in 2009, where he spent close to a decade as the firm’s CEO before selling to TradeTech in 2019.

Holst says: “This partnership couldn’t come at a better time as we move toward building a liquidity network for the broader cryptocurrency markets and institutional activity in De-Fi has started to increase. Trustology’s commitment and unique approach to safeguarding assets, and enabling fast custody across chains and protocols without compromising on security or access make it the perfect custody partner for our burgeoning ecosystem.”

Trustology’s enterprise-grade private key and transaction management security protocols are delivered through TrustVault, their fully-automated infrastructure comprising of best-in-class biometrics, built-in compliance controls, hardware security modules and multiple levels of encryption. Transactions can be executed at subsecond speed through a number of interfaces including mobile devices, desktops and APIs. The GCEX integration will occur via API integration, enabling users to make the most of Trustology's margin call alerts and other safeguarding transaction controls such as multisig and whitelists or ‘walled gardens’.

As a custodian with escrow capabilities, Trustology is working to integrate a settlement architecture as well, to act as a settlement agent facilitating settlements with GCEX and other institutional brokers, and on the other side dealing with the clearing element. Harnessing Trustvault’s API capabilities and walled garden controls, this process becomes even safer, enabling funds to be routed via a permitted set of addresses, guaranteeing secure settlement.

As demand for staking and governance directly in-wallet or on-exchange grows, GCEX’s clients will soon be able to stake ETH right from the Trustvault dashboard. As soon as ETH 2.0 launches Trustology will extend support to staking, enabling users to earn interest on passive funds. So instead of profits sitting on a brokerage, investors can benefit from interest accrued via staking.