Canada gets first qualified custodian for cryptocurrency assets

Tetra Trust launches and closes financing from consortium of investors

CALGARY, AB–The financial institution Tetra Trust received its Certificate of Registration on July 5, 2021, making it the first Canadian regulated custodian for cryptocurrency assets. Tetra Trust also completed multiple financing rounds led by a group of strategic investors which includes Coinbase Ventures, Mogo, Canadian Securities Exchange and Coinsquare, among others.

A regulated financial institution, Tetra Trust launched as Canada’s first qualified custodian for cryptocurrency assets. Tetra Trust received its Certificate of Registration from the Government of Alberta on July 5, 2021 and qualified to act as a custodian under National Instrument 31-103 Registration Requirements, Exemptions, and Ongoing Registrant Obligations and National Instrument 81-102 Investment Funds.

Tetra Trust’s core business is the custody and storage of cryptocurrency assets including bitcoin, ether and a variety of other digital assets and tokenized securities. Prior to Tetra’s launch, the Canadian market for cryptocurrency custody was limited to U.S. providers and unregulated Canadian custodians.

“We’re thrilled to launch Tetra Trust as Canada’s first qualified custodian for cryptocurrency assets and bring a Canadian-based solution to the market,” said Eric Richmond, CEO, Tetra Trust Company. “Canada has become a hot spot for cryptocurrency-related public companies, ETFs and trading platforms and there is a pressing need for a regulated custody provider in Canada.”

Tetra Trust also announces the closing of multiple financing rounds that includes Coinsquare, Canada’s premier crypto exchange digital asset trading platform; Coinbase Ventures, an investment arm of Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN), the largest publicly traded crypto exchange in the world; the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE); Mogo Inc. (NASDAQ: MOGO; TSX: MOGO), a leading Canadian publicly traded digital payments and financial technology company; Urbana Corporation (TSX: URB, URB.A); Caldwell Growth Opportunities Fund and others.

“Over the past six months, we have seen a monumental shift in the popularity of digital assets. When we think about the future, we know it is digital and we understand the importance of regulation in increasing capital markets’ confidence in this space,” said Jenna Kaye, CEO, Odyssey Trust Company and Board Chair of Tetra Trust. “What’s so unique about Tetra is the idea of a consortium leading the way on this initiative and prioritizing a custody solution that’s made for the Canadian market.”

Tetra Trust estimates that the current market for crypto custodial services is in the tens of billions of dollars and it aims to have more than a billion dollars’ worth of assets under management by the end of 2021.