Crypto Custodians: Methodology
This page explains how Counterparty Catalogue builds the Crypto Custodians table and where every number on it comes from. A product is listed here when the provider, not the client, holds the keys to client assets.
Every fact on a record starts as a claim: from the provider's own website or trust center, a regulator's register, or a public comparison sheet. A claim becomes a published fact only when we can point to a public page that states it. We store the page address, the exact words on that page, and the date we read them. If we cannot find the words, the cell stays empty and says so. We never estimate or scale a missing value. Answers a provider gave us directly show as provider-stated, with the date they gave them, until a public page confirms them.
Licenses are checked on the regulator's own register, never on the provider's site or in a press release. A license shows as verified only when the register lists the entity under that regime; we keep the register link, the entity name exactly as the register prints it, and the date of the check. A license the register no longer shows is marked lapsed: it stays visible, but it does not count.
The line above the table counts how many custodians hold at least one register-verified license. It counts active products only. A company that has stopped operating is shown with the date it stopped and is left out of the table and the count.
Anyone can dispute a fact from its row. A person reviews every dispute. A correction or removal is recorded with its reason and source and applied on the next data load, so the trail stays public.
What we record
- Custodian type (enum): The kind of licensed entity that holds the assets.
- Qualified custodian (boolean): Whether the custodian meets the US SEC's definition of a qualified custodian under the Advisers Act custody rule.
- Asset segregation (enum): Whether each client's assets sit in their own wallets or are pooled with other clients.
- Bankruptcy remote (boolean): Whether client assets are held so that the custodian's creditors cannot reach them if the custodian fails.
- Key control model (set): Who holds the key shares. A product can offer more than one model.
- Key type (set): How the private keys are stored and used to sign. A product can use more than one.
- Signing policy (text): How many of the key holders must approve a transaction, for example 2 of 3.
- Policy controls (set): The kinds of rules a client can set on transactions. A product can offer more than one.
- Key recovery (text): Who can rebuild the keys if the provider or the client loses them, and the named recovery partner if any.
- Networks (set): Which families of blockchain the product supports, computed from the full network list where we have one.
- Supported networks (list): Every blockchain the provider lists as supported on its own site on the checked date. Networks only, never tokens.
- DeFi access (boolean): Whether a client can use decentralised finance protocols from custody.
- Exchange integrations (text): Exchanges the product connects to directly, as named by the provider.
- Off-exchange settlement (boolean): Whether a client can trade on an exchange while the assets stay in custody.
- API access (enum): Whether clients can connect their own systems through an API.
- Staking offered (boolean): Whether the product lets clients stake assets from custody.
- Insurance type (set): The kinds of insurance the provider says it carries. Types only; whether a limit applies to one client is in the policy, not here.
- Restricted jurisdictions (text): Countries the provider says it will not serve.
- Pricing basis (enum): What the provider charges on.
- List price (text): The entry price as the provider publishes it, for example 24 bps per year or from $800 per year. Never a low, medium or high tier.
- Pricing page (text): The provider's public pricing page.
- Pricing tiers (text): Every public tier the provider lists, one per line: tier, price, what it includes. Enterprise tiers without a price are listed as custom.
How a fact becomes verified
A fact is marked verified only when it carries a source URL a reader can open and the date it was checked. A fact resolved through a dispute also records who resolved it. A fact we could not confirm shows as "not verified"; a fact nobody has published shows as "not disclosed". Neither is a guess. Answers a provider gave us directly show as provider-stated, with the date they gave them, until a public page confirms them.
How to dispute a fact
Every fact and license on a Crypto Custodians fact sheet has a Dispute link. Sign in, pick a reason (wrong value, outdated, wrong source, or other), and add what you know. A change lands only after review, with its reason and source recorded.
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