According to the 760-page proposal, the SEC will allow for self-custody by advisers seeking to hold their clients’ funds. The agency is using the term “self-custody” as an asset management firm practice, not how crypto companies typically use the term. It would first require that an adviser can’t find a qualified custodian ready to take the assets, which would likely be an unusual circumstance after the rule is implemented, and it also requires certain expertise for the investment firm to hold crypto assets. Additionally, that ability to hold their own clients assets would have to be reviewed every quarter to see if a custodian has become available, an SEC official said.
The official granted that the circumstance for self-custody — which stems from an industry request to the Crypto Task Force — would likely be unusual, though it could apply to a newly launched token that custodians didn’t yet support.
Atkins said that existing custody rules “were designed to protect the assets of advisory clients and regulated funds from loss, theft, misuse, and misappropriation,” but they only consider “the custody and safekeeping only of traditional assets — an untenable situation in the 21st century.”
The newly proposed rule, open for a 60-day public comment period, would also permit the use of state-chartered trusts as custodians.