Hardware Wallet Ledger Opens New York Office to Develop Institutional Custody Offering
According to a press release shared with cointelegraph, cryptocurrency hardware wallet manufacturer ledger declared that it is expanding to New York as part of its development of institutional custody offering ledger vault.
Ledger was launched for pre-access for Vault in May and they have appointed previous Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) executive Demetrios Skalkotos to lead the global business unit operations for the project.
Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier commented in the release that: “New York City is the center of the financial world, hence having our Ledger Vault operations based in the region was a natural fit.”
The tradition of the business is to serve institutional investors; ledger joins non-cryptocurrency operators including ICE in preparing the foundation for what seems to be an increasing demand from corporate clients.
Even though there was an approximate 6-week delay, ICE’s bakkt platform will gain regulatory approval to provide physically delivered bitcoin futures starting by the end of January.
Ledger Vault is a type of custody solution enabling many members of a corporate entity like a hedge fund to access the same cold storage wallet. Months ago, ledger declared that it had sold more than one million hard wallets last year, claiming that they were intending to bring in big tech companies like Samsung and Google’s venture arm GV for more funding rounds.
As indicated by Skalkotos, would-be clients are already demanding alternatives for security custody management for enterprises.
He said that: “Secure storage of large multi-cryptocurrency funds is a highly complex challenge that cannot be solved by just implementing procedures,” including: “Institutions are looking for safer storage options along with integrated governance policies, but don’t want to sacrifice convenience.”
Square, a payment network took the step of open sourcing its own cold storage tool, while another hardware manufacturer trezor warned that scammers were already targeting the industry with an influx of almost one-for-one counterfeit wallets.
