BitGo Pushes Beyond Custody, Aims for Prime Brokerage to Generate 100% of Revenue

BitGo, the U.S. digital-asset custodian, plans to make prime brokerage its main growth engine as it moves beyond simple asset safekeeping into trading, lending and settlement.

Bloomberg reported on October 6 that BitGo co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Mike Belshe, in an interview in Singapore, said he ultimately wants prime brokerage to account for 100% of the company’s revenue.

Prime brokerage allows clients to keep assets with a custodian while trading on the same platform, borrowing against those holdings and settling transactions. BitGo’s strategy is to build on custody and add financial services to create new revenue streams.

“We want to be a place that helps customers make money, not a place that charges them fees,” Belshe said.

Competition is intensifying as traditional financial institutions expand into digital-asset custody. BNY Mellon, DBS Bank and U.S. Bank already offer crypto custody services, while Deutsche Bank is also preparing to launch related services.

BitGo now has more than 6,000 clients. It launched BitGo Prime in 2020, and this year expanded its financial services while adding a feature that gives users single-point access to liquidity from exchanges and market makers.

Custodying assets, lending against them and offering trading is a natural progression, Belshe said. The company is now trying to shift clients from a custody-fee model to a prime-brokerage pricing model.

He added that some customers may still need standalone custody services, such as exchange-traded funds that simply hold Bitcoin. Belshe did not provide a specific timeline for reaching the company’s prime-brokerage expansion goal.