The Canadian digital asset custodian Balance has announced that, because of the current uptick in cryptocurrency markets, it has once again reached $2 billion in AUC.
Balance said in a recent press release that its crypto assets have seen a renaissance, with customers now exploring new products and offers, thanks to the more than doubling of Bitcoin’s (BTC) value over the previous year and its crossing over $1 trillion in market cap.
The CEO of Balance, George Bordianu, said that the firm had a tough time during the 2022 weak market, when their AUC fell from $2.5 billion to $500 million.
Building back up to $2 billion in AUC is a result of our team’s perseverance and dedication to our customers, and I’m thankful for that, he said.
Balance, which has been around since 2017, asserts itself as being the biggest and oldest Canadian custodian of digital assets.
Many organizations in Canada, a few US states, the BVI, and the Cayman Islands use the firm’s cryptocurrency storage services.
Among its customers are private funds, neobanks, and cryptocurrency exchanges. Balance passed a critical industry standard in the cryptocurrency space—the Systems and Organization Controls (SOC) 2 Type I audit—during the 2022 market crisis.
Despite the market slump, Balance was able to assist investment dealers, mutual fund dealers, and managers of investment and portfolio funds with their audits.
Balance moved its headquarters from Toronto to Calgary in January, stating that the regulatory structure in Alberta was a major factor in the decision.
Bordianu said that the regulatory framework in Alberta provides Balance with the framework it needs to become a certified custodian, free from the constraints of regulations that are irrelevant to its business activities, such deposit-taking.
Not only has Balance seen a surge in assets under custody, but so have other digital asset custody services.
One example is the tremendous increase in the number of crypto assets held by Korea Digital Asset (KODA), the leading South Korean institutional crypto custody provider.
The value of the cryptocurrency assets held by the firm increased by almost 248% in the second half of 2023, as the business has recently disclosed.
The value of the assets held by KODA—a joint venture between KB Bank, a large Korean bank, and Hashed, a crypto venture capital company, and Haechi Labs, a blockchain technology startup—reached almost 8 trillion Korean won ($6 billion) at the end of last year.
Up from 2.3 trillion won at the end of June 2023, this was a significant rise. At the same time, US institutional investors are seeking exposure to the booming cryptocurrency market via spot Bitcoin ETFs.
Just last week, the daily volume of spot Bitcoin ETF trades hit approximately $2 billion, the highest level since January 11th, when trading began.
According to prior reports, spot Bitcoin ETFs had a significant infusion of almost $2.3 billion last week, almost double the flood of $1.2 billion the week before.
Also Read: Blueberry DeFI Protocol Stops Operations Following Exploit February 23, 2024
Wallets