Crypto trading platform CoinDCX picks BitGo as its custodian

Cryptocurrency trading platform CoinDCX has chosen Palo Alto headquartered digital asset trust and security company BitGo as its custodian.

Custodians are third-party storage and security service providers for cryptocurrencies. 

Cryptocurrencies on the CoinDCX exchange will be secured on the omnibus, and segregated into hot and cold wallets, with a two-factor authentication service, according to a statement. Wallets allow users to send and receive tokens -- while hot wallets are connected to the internet, cold ones are available offline.

BitGo will extend its services to deposits on lending service DCXLend as well, it said.

Additionally, the crypto trading platform will be protected with a $100 million insurance policy, which will be provided by a syndicate of insurers from Lloyd’s of London, as per the statement. 

“With the custodial services of BitGo, we want to make cryptocurrency utilisation in India safe and secure,” Sumit Gupta, CEO and co-founder, CoinDCX, said. The RBI had earlier banned any entity it regulates from dealing with cryptocurrencies, citing security as one of the reasons. However, the Supreme Court quashed the ban in March.

Mumbai headquartered CoinDCX was founded in 2018 by IIT Bombay alumni Sumit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal. It provides liquidity aggregation and is integrated with global exchanges including Binance, Huobi and OKEx. In March, the firm raised $3 million in a Series A round of funding, led by San Francisco headquartered crypto venture capital firm Polychain Capital.

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“With the recent uptick in trading volumes on Indian exchanges, the need of the hour is for professionalisation in the form of fund security in the crypto market. As the custodian of CoinDCX, BitGo will provide users with added value and assurance when investing in cryptocurrencies,” Pete Najarian, chief revenue officer of BitGo, said.

Founded in 2013 by Ben Davenport, Mike Belshe and Will O'Brien, BitGo supports over 250 coins and tokens, and claims to process over 20% of all global on-chain bitcoin transactions.  The company has raised a total $69.5 million in funding so far, according to data on Crunchbase.