Algorand, Hex Trust partner on bank-focused custody

The Algorand Foundation has partnered with Hex Trust to provide institutional-grade custody service for its own Algo token and others built on the Algorand ASA platform, which include security tokens, stablecoins including Tether’s USDt and Circle’s USDCoin, and potentially central bank digital currencies.

Announced on Feb. 2, Hex Trust’s compliance-focused Hex Safe custody platform is aimed at banks, financial institutions, asset managers, and exchanges working in the digital assets market. Along with safeguarding cryptocurrencies, Hex Safe provides institutional clients with access to liquidity providers and exchanges, as well as lending and staking platforms.

Algorand Foundation CEO Sean Lee said that the partnership “will accelerate the broad institutional adoption of digital currencies” by providing companies looking to work with tokens and cryptocurrencies “a regulated and secure, yet highly flexible platform, on which to conduct transformational, instant, digital transactions.”

Hex Trust CEO Alessio Quaglini added that “Algorand’s ability to be interoperable and act as a private chain with the ability to interact with the public chain, will be vitally important when targeting institutional tokenization projects.”

With an open, permissionless, pure proof-of-stake blockchain that provides transaction finality, Algorand offers “the necessary security, scalability, and decentralization which we believe financial institutions will need when selecting their blockchain,” said Quaglini. “Hex Trust identified Algorand as one of the leading blockchain protocols whose institutional vision and technology align with our mission.”

As for Algorand itself, Silvio Micali’s proof-of-stake blockchain firm has been pushing its growth aggressively, notably in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, as the Ethereum 2.0 transition to PoS moves slowly forward.

Building the ecosystem

Algorand also announced that it has launched its Algorand Europe Accelerator on Feb. 2, with a class of 11 high-growth start-ups. Running through late April, the program is designed to promote “long-term adoption and growth of the Algorand ecosystem and accelerate the trajectory of startups” in areas including payments, lending, infrastructure, the internet of things (IoT) and network-driven platforms.

The Algorand Europe Accelerator provides participating projects with €15,000 (about $18,000) from Borderless Capital, as well as support on strategy formulation and go-to-market execution. Mentors from companies like IBM, BBVA, Coinbase, and Winklevoss Capital will provide guidance on technology, token economics, marketing and fundraising. 

The participating companies are:

ZTLment, a payments infrastructure solution that helps small and medium businesses streamline and overcome barriers related to cross-border trade.

Payscript, a payment orchestration framework simplifying digital payment acceptance and crypto spending to remove barriers to crypto adoption.

Smart-Chain, a research and innovation center that develops 360-degree projects around blockchain technology including facilitating traceability, security and transparency of charity donations.

Blockchain Italia, a software house aiming to develop the DeFi ecosystem by creating lending protocol on Algorand.

STOKR, a primary issuance marketplace for security tokens, that tokenizes alternative investment assets and traditional financial assets on the Algorand platform.

Blockswap Network, a company bringing Universal Basic Savings to proof of stake networks, providing a financial fallback for everyday users.

Ockams, a firm building a cross-chain non-fungible token publishing platform to showcase the features that a developer can build into their NFT and highlight the differences between the platforms to which the user is publishing their NFT.

Cortex, an integrated Crypto mobile app facilitating interaction, information flow and transactions on a single Platform.

Kontinuous, a blockchain asset manager built on Algorand, Kontinuous helps established U.K. brands continuously raise capital from their community via an ‘Invest Now’ button on their website.

ArtSquare.io, a fine art and collectibles tokenization platform relying on the Blockchain to allow users to buy and trade art like stocks on the financial market.

NetObjex, a data marketplace platform for smart cities and connected enterprises that enables tracking, tracing and monitoring of digital assets through the use of IoT, AI and blockchain technologies.