BitGo, a digital asset custodian managing over $2 billion worth of cryptocurrency, has started allowing institutions to trade directly from their accounts while the funds remain safe in cold storage.

According to a press statement, BitGo’s new offering comes through a partnership with financial services provider SettleBit, as clients will be trading directly from their custody accounts through an API integration with the financial services provider’s settlement platform.

BitGo, which was founded back in 2013 and offers institutional clients security, liquidity, and custody services, now allows institutional investors to trade bitcoin, ether, and USD while the funds remain insurance in BitGo’s custody. The firm added it plans on adding more utility tokens and stablecoins in the future.

Nick Carmi, BitGo’s Head of Financial Services, said:

We know that many of our clients want to be able to trade without moving their assets out of cold storage. Using our settlement API, SettleBit has created a simple and elegant solution.

The press statement details that SettleBit will allow trades to be made with other custodians as well. The first trade has already been completed, as last month CMT Digital traded $100,000 worth of bitcoin.

As CryptoGlobe reported, last year Coinbase completed an over-the-counter (OTC) cryptocurrency trade from cold storage, after integrating its Custody service with the OTC trading desk. The post claimed the move was a “major unlock” for its clients, as it would provide them with an “easy and immediate liquidity on their offline funds.”

It’s worth noting other cryptocurrency firms have released settlement solutions for OTC traders. Crypto exchange Gemini and Seed CX have been providing similar services to lure in institutional clients, for example.

Featured image by Hunters Race on Unsplash.