Ric Edelman.
"We have solved the custody problem in the crypto industry," Ric Edelman, founder of the RIA Digital Assets Council, said Monday during a virtual SALT Talk. "There are now very major players dealing with custody in the exact way I believe the SEC would want to see it."
Edelman, who's also founder of Edelman Financial Engines, reiterated the Securities and Exchange Commission's objections to allowing a Bitcoin ETF: concerns about custody, volatility, price transparency and validity.
"You've got major players engaged here" in the custody of digital assets, Edelman said. "Fidelity, first and foremost. At Fidelity Digital Assets, they're providing these services for the institutional marketplace; they will eventually roll it out for the retail marketplace. You've got companies like Kingdom Trust, which manages $19 billion in assets that's a qualified custodian — you can use them to buy Bitcoin in your IRA."
Edelman also noted Grayscale, with its Bitcoin and Ethereum trust products, and noted the launch on Dec. 9 of the Bitwise Asset Management Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund (BITW), an open-ended publicly traded statutory trust.
