Crypto Custodian BitGo Acquired Harbor

Two days ago, the crypto custodian BitGo made an important announcement. According to this announcement, BitGo bought Harbor, a security token platform.

The deal also includes the subsidiaries of Harbor. One of the subsidiaries is a broker-dealer regulated by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Another one is a transfer agent supervised by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Both of them are included in the acquisition.

Importantly, this move allows BitGo to expand its services from custody; as a result, BitGo will become the first “full-stack” services provider in the digital securities space. However, the terms of the deal will remain secret as companies do not want to disclose the details.

Thanks to this acquisition, BitGo will have the opportunity to recreate all parts of the traditional financial system, according to CEO Mike Belshe. Interestingly, BitGo is a licensed custodian through the South Dakota Division of Banking.

A significant milestone for the crypto industry

For the first time in history, a single entity in the cryptocurrency space holds broker-dealer, transfer agent, and qualified custodian licenses.

However, the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as FINBA, should approve the broker-dealer and transfer agent transfers to BitGo. Crypto custodian’s CEO stated that the process is already underway.

Mike Belshe did not provide the details regarding the assets under management. However, he said BitGo conducts some $15 billion in transactions each month.

This deal will have a huge impact on Harbor. The initial purpose of this security token platform was to help other companies issue security tokens. However, later on, the primary focus of the company was to facilitate the tokenization of existing securities.

In less than a year ago, the firm created Ethereum tokens representing shares of four different real estate funds.

Harbor received its broker-dealer license and transfer agent registration in the autumn of 2019.