London-based Archax has selected tech from Swiss firm METACO for its institutional custody solutions for digital assets.
Archax, a digital asset exchange, brokerage and custodian, says it is deploying its technology on IBM Cloud to use the “confidential computing capabilities” of IBM’s digital asset infrastructure.
Seamus Donoghue, VP of Strategic Alliances at METACO, comments: “As one of the world’s leading traditional financial centres, the UK has a key role to play in bridging traditional finance and digital assets – recently outlined by the UK Treasury. The first FCA regulated digital securities brokerage, exchange and custodian, Archax is at the vanguard of this transition, enabling seamless institutional access to the sector.”
Despite all the crypto drama of late, Graham Rodford, CEO and Co-Founder of Archax, explains: “We see the digital asset market as a long-term investment opportunity, and at Archax we make investments in technology and processes to reflect that vision.”
Archax will integrate METACO’s digital asset custody, issuance and orchestration platform, Harmonize, enabling clients to store, trade, issue and settle cryptocurrencies and digital securities.
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Harmonize was built in partnership with Tier 1 custodian banks and is used by institutions such as Citigroup, Societe Generale – FORGE and BBVA Switzerland.
Archax will deploy Harmonize which uses IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services. The latter is designed to enable METACO Vaults to store encrypted keys externally in a database while “affording the protections” of IBM’s FIPS 140-2 Level 4 rated hardware security modules (HSM).
Irrespective of how Harmonize is consumed, the companies point out that custodians retain physical control of the root of trust of the assets and the policies that govern the management of the assets, through the IBM HSM Smartcards.
Archax was founded in 2018. The firm lists global digital issuances, and is also developing its own range of liquid digital structured products that will trade on its exchange.
METACO’s HQ is in Lausanne. Its infrastructure is supporting live implementations in various regulatory jurisdictions, including Switzerland, Germany, the UK and Singapore, with other “projects in progress” in jurisdictions such as the US, France, Australia and Hong Kong.