BitGo’s CEO Says Traditional Banks Can’t Win the Custody War

Fintech

Two months after its NYSE debut, BitGo CEO Mike Belshe is making the case that the crypto custody market has a structural problem — and that his company is the only kind of firm built to solve it.

Key Takeaways

• BitGo CEO argues crypto-native firms have a structural advantage over traditional banks in custody
• Over 80% of revenue comes from custody and staking fees — not volatile trading volume
• Federal bank charter secured, holding $104B in assets across 4,900+ institutional clients
• Belshe sees BitGo as the foundational infrastructure layer of the entire crypto ecosystem

Appearing on The Crypto Beat on March 6, Belshe was direct: traditional financial institutions are compromised by design. Banks like Morgan Stanley that run trading desks alongside custody operations face inherent conflicts of interest that crypto-native firms simply don’t carry. In his view, that conflict isn’t a minor compliance footnote — it’s a fundamental flaw in how legacy institutions are wired.

The Conflict of Interest Argument

The logic is straightforward. When a bank profits from trading activity, its incentives around custody — safeguarding client assets without skin in the market game — become muddied. Belshe argues that BitGo, built from the ground up around custody and staking infrastructure, doesn’t face that tension. The business model either works as a neutral, secure custodian or it doesn’t work at all.

That focus shows up in the revenue mix. More than 80% of BitGo’s income comes from custody and staking fees — recurring, relatively stable revenue that doesn’t swing with crypto market volatility the way exchange-dependent models do. For institutional clients, that predictability matters.

Credentials That Back the Claim

The argument carries more weight with a federal banking charter behind it. In late 2025, BitGo received unconditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to operate as a National Trust Bank — a designation that changes how regulated institutions can legally engage with a custodian. Few crypto firms have cleared that bar.

The operational numbers are substantial: $104 billion in digital assets under custody as of September 30, 2025, serving over 4,900 institutional clients across more than 50 countries. That’s not a startup pitch — it’s an established institutional footprint. Revenue for the first nine months of 2025 hit $10 billion, compared to $1.9 billion in the same period a year earlier.

“The AWS of Digital Assets”

Belshe’s broader framing positions BitGo not as a single product but as the underlying layer the entire crypto industry runs on — what he describes as “the AWS of digital assets.” The analogy is deliberate. Amazon Web Services didn’t compete with the companies it powered; it became indispensable to them. Belshe is making the same bet on custody infrastructure.

Recent moves point in that direction. BitGo is providing the backbone for SoFi Bank’s SoFiUSD stablecoin, a stablecoin-as-a-service arrangement that plugs its infrastructure directly into a regulated bank’s product. It also tokenized its own shares on Ethereum, Solana, and BNB Chain in partnership with Ondo Finance — a signal that it’s willing to operate at the frontier of what institutional crypto infrastructure can do.

Why This Moment

The timing of Belshe’s argument isn’t accidental. With regulatory clarity improving and institutional appetite for digital assets growing, the custody layer is becoming a serious competitive battleground. Analysts at Compass Point and Canaccord have already flagged BitGo as a prime acquisition target for traditional financial institutions — which is, in a way, a validation of Belshe’s thesis. If the banks wanted to beat BitGo, they’d have done it by now. Instead, they may end up buying it.

For Belshe, the edge isn’t just technical — it’s architectural. A firm built around neutral custody infrastructure, with a federal charter and a hundred billion dollars in assets, is a different animal than a bank that added a crypto desk. That distinction, he argues, is what institutions are starting to figure out.

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Author

Alex is an experienced financial journalist and cryptocurrency enthusiast. With over 8 years of experience covering the crypto, blockchain, and fintech industries, he is well-versed in the complex and ever-evolving world of digital assets. His insightful and thought-provoking articles provide readers with a clear picture of the latest developments and trends in the market. His approach allows him to break down complex ideas into accessible and in-depth content. Follow his publications to stay up to date with the most important trends and topics.

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