Digital Asset Custodian

A digital asset custodian is responsible to look after digital assets on behalf of an investor or client.

An asset custodian is a person or entity that has the responsibility to look after assets of value on behalf of an investor or client. In this case the custodian is responsible for looking after digital assets like BTC and ETH. 

Unlike traditional assets, custody of digital assets requires sophisticated security and internal control processes to ensure that the clients’ assets are stored safely and securely. Unlike traditional assets, digital assets have an added set of risks. For example, if a person loses their private key, then they will be unable to access those assets. This poses a very high key man risk in the long term. 

As a result, institutions often appoint a third party custodian to manage and store their digital assets. Digital asset custodians usually require a license from a regulator within their jurisdiction to ensure safety measures and security are up to standard.

Author:

Varit Bulakul is the president of investment banking and digital assets at The Brooker Group, a publicly listed financial consultancy and capital management company based in Thailand. Varit was instrumental in the Brooker Group’s move to digital assets and drives the company’s vision to bring the digital asset ecosystem to the traditional financial services sector. The Brooker Group was the first publicly listed company to invest directly into DeFi and DApps projects. 

Prior to joining the Brooker Group, Varit was an auditor at Deloitte in Bangkok and received a BA in science in accounting and finance from Lehigh University and a master’s degree in accounting from Boston College.