SEC Staff Clarifies State Trust Companies May Custody Digital Assets → Regulation

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Briefing

The SEC Division of Investment Management issued a No-Action Letter (NAL) confirming that a state-chartered trust company may be treated as a “bank” for the purposes of the custody rule under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and the Investment Company Act of 1940, provided specific conditions are met. This action immediately operationalizes a compliant custody solution for Registered Investment Advisers (RIAs) and registered funds seeking to hold digital assets, thereby removing a critical regulatory bottleneck that previously restricted institutional participation. The most important detail is the NAL’s effect of dispelling the “cloud of enforcement” that had previously deterred the use of state-charchartered entities for this specific custody function.

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Context

Prior to this guidance, the legal framework for institutional digital asset custody was characterized by significant ambiguity, particularly concerning the SEC’s “Qualified Custodian” rule. The existing rules primarily recognized federal or state-chartered banks, trust companies, and broker-dealers, but the application to state-chartered trust companies holding novel digital assets was uncertain, exposing RIAs to potential enforcement risk for failing to meet their fiduciary and custody obligations. This uncertainty created a compliance challenge that effectively limited the pool of approved custodians, hindering the integration of digital assets into mainstream investment products.

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Analysis

This NAL fundamentally alters the operational requirements for RIAs by expanding the permissible universe of custodians, allowing them to integrate digital assets into their compliance frameworks with greater legal certainty. The action directly impacts product structuring, enabling the launch of new funds that require a Qualified Custodian for digital asset holdings. Regulated entities can now leverage the specialized expertise of state-chartered trust companies, which often have existing state-level digital asset charters, to satisfy the stringent custody requirements of the Advisers Act. This development reduces concentration risk within the custody market and facilitates the necessary segregation of client assets, which is a core tenet of fiduciary responsibility.

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Parameters

Governing Statutes → Investment Advisers Act of 1940, Investment Company Act of 1940.
Key Compliance Requirement → “Qualified Custodian” status for digital asset holdings.
Targeted Entity Type → State-chartered trust companies acting as digital asset custodians.
Primary Beneficiaries → Registered Investment Advisers (RIAs) and registered funds.

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Outlook

The SEC staff’s NAL sets a critical precedent by demonstrating a willingness to apply existing statutory definitions flexibly to accommodate digital asset innovation within the current regulatory perimeter. This move is expected to accelerate institutional capital flows into the digital asset space by providing a secure, legally-vetted custody solution. Future legal processes will likely involve the SEC formalizing this guidance into a broader rule or issuing further NALs to clarify the specific conditions for other types of financial institutions, potentially setting a standard that other jurisdictions may adopt for defining institutional digital asset custody.

The SEC’s custody clarification is a foundational regulatory step, unlocking institutional participation by providing a clear, risk-mitigated pathway for fiduciaries to hold digital assets.

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