After more than a decade serving institutional clients, BitGo launches a trading, staking, and wallet platform for individual users.
BitGo, a digital asset service provider based in California, officially announced on December 2nd its expansion into the global retail market. This move marks a significant strategic shift for the company after more than a decade focused on serving institutional clients, including major names like Nike and over 150 cryptocurrency exchanges.
BitGo will provide a comprehensive platform for individual investors, integrating trading, staking, cryptocurrency wallet services, and secure custody solutions, including cold storage and self-custody.
Fierce competition and vast market potential
BitGo's entry into the retail market comes amid increasing competition in the digital asset sector. Many new competitors have been and are entering this race, particularly targeting the institutional customer segment, putting significant pressure on established companies like BitGo. Diversifying the customer portfolio toward the retail market with immense growth potential is seen as a reasonable strategy for BitGo in the current context.
According to estimates, the number of global cryptocurrency users will reach 1 billion by the end of 2024, indicating the immense potential of this market.
BitGo believes that the retail cryptocurrency market is facing challenges regarding the reliability of exchanges and a lack of secure custody solutions. The company aims to address these issues by providing tightly regulated custody services, leveraging the experience and reputation it has built in the institutional client sector.
BitGo also revealed plans to collaborate with several banks and financial institutions to integrate cryptocurrency transactions and off-exchange payments; however, details about partners and the scope of deployment have not yet been disclosed.
Expanding into the retail market is not the only recent advancement for BitGo. In August 2023, the company completed a $100 million Series C funding round, raising its valuation to $1.75 billion. This funding round included investors from the U.S. and Asia, adding to the list of existing investors, including Goldman Sachs, DRW Holdings, and Galaxy Digital Ventures.
In September 2023, BitGo also announced plans to enter the stablecoin market with a new stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar. In addition, the company is developing a regulated custody platform to manage native tokens for Web3 protocols, supporting cryptocurrency organizations in distributing tokens to investors, employees, and grant recipients.
Additionally, BitGo is also acting as the custodian for several Bitcoin ETF funds in the U.S., providing cold storage services for issuers such as Valkyrie, Hashdex, and 21Shares.
