Investment bank Cowen Inc. said it’s going to offer crypto custody services to hedge funds and asset managers.
- The New York-based firm is to provide custody services for cryptocurrencies and other digital assets in partnership with Standard Custody & Trust, a unit of digital asset infrastructure firm PolySign, according to an announcement Thursday.
- As part of the agreement, Cowen took a $25 million stake in PolySign as part of the latter's $53 million Series B funding round that Cowen led.
- Cowen was joined in this funding round by London-based crypto wallet provider and exchange Blockchain.com and others.
- As part of Cowen's investment, Dan Charney, Cowen co-president, and John Holmes, Cowen COO, will join PolySign’s board
- Standard Custody & Trust provides PolySign's custody services by virtue of the trust charter granted by the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) earlier this month.
- PolySign's leadership team includes CEO Jack McDonald and President and founder Arthur Britto who previously co-founded Ripple.
- Cowen was founded in 1918 and holds nearly $12 billion in assets under management (AUM).
See also: UK Asset Manager Baillie Gifford Invests $100M in Blockchain.com