Mogo (MOGO.T) announced a new investment in Tetra Trust Company upon its launch today as Canada’s first qualified crypto custodian, according to a press release.

For individuals looking for a place to buy, sell or trade in cryptocurrency, there are exchanges available, both regulated and unregulated, and each carry their own benefits and detriments. I’m a big proponent of not dealing with either for long for security purposes. If we’ve learned anything from the history of cryptocurrency, and more specifically the fortunes of Mount Gox, and Vancouver’s own blunders in Quadriga CX and Einstein, it’s that if you’re going to deal in crypto, you get in, do your business, and pull it off. Don’t leave your cryptocurrency on an exchange or you risk losing it.

Granted, times may be changing with the demand for insured crypto on the rise and some unregulated exchanges even offering limited insurance. As many of the major coins are starting to move away from Proof-of-Work as a means of coin propagation, and settle into staking, then there had best be boosts in both security measures and insurance being offered.

At the institutional level, we’ve seen this demand made manifest and quite recently.

Unlike you and I in the retail crowd, no company in their right mind is going to put their cryptocurrency holdings onto an unregulated exchange. Let’s put that out there right now. As more companies get involved in the crypto-space, either through offering direct access to the asset or through one of the ancillary products like non-fungible tokens or other tokenized securities, we’re starting to see the creation of an entirely new market niche—the regulated crypto custodian.

This is what Tetra offers.

Tetra holds bitcoin, ether and a few other assets. Before their launch, companies dealing in crypto had to go to one of the unregulated custodians or south of the border. Now that’s no longer required. This company is regulated, audited, and insured. They’re also backed by some of the bigger names in the industry, including Coinsquare—Mogo’s own subsidiary and one of Canada’s larger exchanges—but also Coinbase Ventures, the investment arm of Coinbase (COIN.Q). Also, curiously enough, the Canadian Securities Exchange, of which their CEO, Richard Carelton, sits on their board.

This represents a significant step towards widespread adoption of cryptoassets. The first step of which was likely Coinbase’s direct listing earlier this year, and over the course of the next six to eighteen months, we’re going to start seeing more companies moving into this market. If you’re looking for something specific to watch for—we have Brane Capital—itself doing business with DMG Blockchain Solutions (DMGI.V) and BIGG Digital Assets (BIGG.C) and making rumblings about going public in the fall.

Here’s Reza with some more information.

—Joseph Morton