FCA regulated digital asset exchange to offer institutional custody services underpinned by Tier 1 bank-grade technology
Archax, a global, regulated, digital asset exchange, brokerage and custodian based in London, has selected METACO, the market-leading provider of digital asset custody and orchestration technology to global financial institutions, to underpin and expand its institutional custody solutions for digital assets. Archax is deploying its technology on IBM Cloud in order to leverage the confidential computing capabilities of IBM’s digital asset infrastructure.
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Archax is the UK’s first digital securities exchange, brokerage and custodian licensed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), supporting institutional investors to trade in a variety of digital assets such as digital securities and cryptocurrencies, as well as traditional securities too.
To expand and enrich its offering, Archax will fully integrate METACO’s bank-grade digital asset custody, issuance and orchestration platform, Harmonize, enabling clients to securely store, trade, issue and settle cryptocurrencies and digital securities. Harmonize was built in partnership with the largest Tier 1 custodian banks globally and is trusted by leading institutions such as Citigroup, Societe Generale – FORGE and BBVA Switzerland, offering the highest standards of security and compliance for Archax to operate in the digital asset sector.
Archax will deploy Harmonize which utilizes IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services. This setup will allow Archax to scale to billions of wallets while maintaining control over their private keys for risk management. IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Crypto Services is designed to enable METACO Vaults to store encrypted keys externally in a database while affording the protections of IBM’s FIPS 140-2 Level 4 rated hardware security modules (HSM). Irrespective of how Harmonize is consumed, custodians retain physical control of the root of trust of the assets and the policies that govern the management of the assets, through the IBM HSM Smartcards.
Graham Rodford, CEO and Co-Founder of Archax, commented, “We see the digital asset market as a long-term investment opportunity, and at Archax we make investments in technology and processes to reflect that vision. We provide regulated, institutional-grade services and through working with METACO and IBM Cloud, we further establish our commitment to bring the highest levels of security and compliance to our clients and ecosystem.”
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Led by capital markets experts, Archax offers a credible bridge between traditional finance and the blockchain-enabled digital asset economy. Its solutions are built using existing, proven, resilient, scalable, high-performance infrastructure, integrated into the existing institutional trading workflow. As well as listing global digital issuances, Archax is also developing its own range of liquid digital structured products that will trade on its exchange.
Seamus Donoghue, VP of Strategic Alliances at METACO, commented: “As one of the world’s leading traditional financial centres, the UK has a key role to play in bridging traditional finance and digital assets–recently outlined by the UK Treasury. The first FCA regulated digital securities brokerage, exchange and custodian, Archax is at the vanguard of this transition, enabling seamless institutional access to the sector.
Donoghue added:
“We’re thrilled to partner with Archax, and provide a platform that offers bank-grade security and compliance for the custody, issuance and management of digital assets, as well as a flexible governance policy framework that can be applied to any type of digital asset transaction, a no-single-point-of-failure model, and the optionality to expand and offer any type of digital asset services.”
A leading technology provider to top tier, regulated financial institutions in the digital asset ecosystem, METACO’s infrastructure is supporting key live implementations, in various regulatory jurisdictions, including Switzerland, Germany, United Kingdom, and Singapore, with other notable projects in progress in jurisdictions such as the United States, France, Australia and Hong Kong.
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