The SEC’s December statement clarifying crypto asset securities¹ custody does more than resolve technical questions: it signals that on-chain securities are here, and both broker-dealers and securities custodians need to quickly modernize their custodial procedures for digital markets. 

The pace of product development is accelerating. Securities products, including equities, structured products, private credit, money market instruments, and more are being tokenized or issued as digitally-native securities much faster and with greater institutional backing than many expected. 

These firms can no longer treat this asset class as a future consideration. What was once discussed as a long-term evolution is becoming an opportunity to build digital businesses with custody at the core.

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What the SEC Clarified

At the center of the SEC’s statement is a straightforward message: crypto asset securities are securities, and the same investor protection standards outlined in Exchange Act Rule 15c3-3 apply to crypto asset securities.

The guidance explains that financial institutions asserting custody of crypto asset securities must demonstrate:

• Meaningful control and access to the security on the relevant blockchain
• Robust safeguards around private keys and asset movement
• Policies addressing technology risk, business continuity, and customer access
• Operational practices that align on-chain activity with existing broker-dealer obligations

This has two important effects:

• It enables broker-dealers and traditional custodians to evaluate digital asset strategies using familiar regulatory standards rather than novel interpretations.
• It draws a clear distinction between federally-licensed custody models and approaches that rely on self-custody, state-licensing, or structures outside the broker-dealer framework.

This arrives at a critical moment for broker-dealers and custodians. Product issuers are launching blockchain-based securities now and require distribution through familiar channels to mainstream investors. 

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The Strategic Decision Facing Broker-Dealers and Custodians

As digital asset securities become more prevalent, broker-dealers are confronted with a buy, build, or partner decision to offer these products to clients. 

Building in-house custody and operational infrastructure requires technical expertise, significant capital investment, and the ability to map blockchain workflows onto securities-law obligations such as segregation, control, supervision, and reporting. For most firms, this is a multi-year undertaking.

Buying or acquiring crypto-native platforms may offer speed, but often introduces integration challenges and questions around how those models align with broker-dealer regulatory expectations around custody and customer protection.

Partnering, by contrast, allows broker-dealers to access on-chain securities through market infrastructure purpose-built to integrate digital assets within the federal securities framework, while preserving their existing client relationships, supervisory models, and business focus.

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How Prometheum Capital Enables Firms to Enter Digital Markets Now

Prometheum Capital was built to address this exact inflection point. As a FINRA member and  SEC-registered broker-dealer for digital asset securities, Prometheum Capital has applied the customer protection standards of Rule 15c3-3 to blockchain-based securities custody from day one. 

We partner with broker-dealers and capital markets firms to build durable digital asset businesses on a federally licensed custody foundation. Delivered as an infrastructure-as-a-service offering, Prometheum Capital enables broker-dealers to:

• Immediately access digital asset securities without building digital asset custody infrastructure from scratch
• Offer clients exposure to tokenized and digitally-native products within a familiar broker-dealer custody model
• Rely on federal securities laws protections applied in a blockchain-native environment
• Enter digital markets quickly, confidently, and at scale

As tokenized and digitally-native securities products accelerate into the market, broker-dealers will need a path forward that balances speed, investor protection, and regulatory alignment. Prometheum Capital provides that path, enabling broker-dealers turnkey access to participate in the next generation of securities markets through the highest standard of custodial infrastructure.

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Go here to see how we simplify digital assets for broker-dealers, or contact us directly here.

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¹ Crypto asset securities - also referred to as digital asset securities, blockchain-based securities or on-chain securities - are any security issued and transferred on a blockchain that meet the definition of a 'security' under the Securities Act of 1933, including  tokenized versions of an equity or debt security.

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