Key Takeaways

• Hex Trust is a digital asset custodian with a proprietary platform called Hex Safe™ through which it offers custody solutions for a range of customers, including banks, asset managers, exchanges, and brokers.
• On the other hand, Protego Trust Bank is a Washington, US-based digital asset trust bank built on blockchain technology that focuses on the digital asset needs of institutional clients, including the custody, lending, trading, and issuance of cryptoassets.
• SFOX is also a US-based crypo asset prime broker with a patented security and custody system called SAFE through which it offers competitive pricing, accessibility, and security to professional traders and institutional investors.

Introduction

(i) Hex Trust

Company Description

• Hex Trust is a digital asset custodian with a proprietary platform called Hex Safe™ through which it offers custody solutions for a range of customers, including banks, asset managers, exchanges, and brokers. The company is focused on providing digital asset custody and DeFi solutions to financial institutions.

• The company is headquartered in Hong Kong and has offices in Singapore and Vietnam, with plans to open additional offices in Europe.

History

• Hex Trust was founded in 2018 to facilitate the transition of traditional financial institutions into the digital assets space.
• The company's founders are Alessio Quaglini, Marc Amez-Droz, and Rafal Czerniawski.

Financial Information

• Hex Trust has raised a total of $16 million in five funding rounds. The company raised $6 million in a Series A funding on March 29, 2021, from QBN Capital and eight other investors and $10 million in a venture round on October 5, 2021, from Animoca Brands and seven other investors.
• The company has an estimated annual revenue of $6 million.

Number of Employees

• Hex Trust has an estimated employee size of 25. 

Notable Customers

• Hex Trust does not publish a list of its customers on its website. However, Mason Privatbank Liechtenstein AG is an example of a notable customer highlighted by the company on its website.
• The company mainly services financial institutions with particular focus on banks, asset managers, exchanges, and brokers.

Partnerships

• Hex Trust has entered into business partnerships with various companies for strategic collaborations allowing it to go to market together with the companies and offer bundled products/services.

• They companies include IBM, r3, Celo, Cyberport, Aave, Bitfury Crystal, SIA, Fidinam, Kenetic, and Terra.

• With IBM, the company's strategic collaboration enables it to leverage IBM's "advanced data security and protection features through IBM™ Hyper Protect Virtual Servers with the dynamic accessibility and scalability," hence encouraging regulated financial institutions to venture into the digital asset space.

• Hex Trust's partnership with r3, a blockchain company, enables it to extend better issuance options of security tokens to its banking clients by integrating with r3's Corda platform.
• Hex Trust partnered with the Celo Alliance to provide custody support in Asia for Celo Blockchain’s native token, Celo Gold (cGLD), with the goal of increasing accessibility to cryptocurrencies around the world.
• Cyberport is a Honk Kong-based fully owned fintech subsidiary of Hong Kong SAR Government whose partnership with Hex Trust involves the fintech's financial investment of an undisclosed amount in Hex Trust to help it scale operations. On the other hand, Kenetic provides strategic investment to Hex Trust, with the company's co-founder and managing partner, Jehan Chu, joining Hex Trust's board of directors.
• Aave's partnership with Hex Trust allows Hex Trust to integrate Aave, stkAAVE, and aTokens platforms into its proprietary custody Hex Safe platform, enabling institutional investors to safely and securely hold the tokens.
• The company's partnership with Bitfury’s Crystal enables it to provide digital asset transaction monitoring and anti-money laundering intelligence.
• SIA's partnership with Hex Trust helps facilitate Hex Trust's offering of digital financial services in Europe.
• Hex Trust's partnership and integration with Fidinam "enables Fidinam to provide digital asset services to their global clients leveraging Hex Trust’s platform, while Hex Trust’s clients can now access specialized digital asset compliance, tax, and accounting services via Fidinam’s global team."
• Terra's partnership with Hex Trust "enables the integration of the Terra blockchain and the support of staking services for the Luna token, within Hex Trust’s fully licensed custody platform, Hex Safe," while facilitating access to promising blockchain protocols for Hex Trust clients.
• Other partnerships entered into by Hex Trust include the collaboration with Hedera, Qredo,  Chainalysis, UnionBank, Algorand, and Parsiq. 

Products and Services Overview

• Hex Trust's suite of services include custody solutions for digital assets, clearing and settlement services, lending and staking services, and markets services.
• The company's clearing and settlement services are performed on-chain, including asset servicing, and API's and SWIFT/FIX messaging.
• The company's markets services allows its clients to connect to liquidity providers as well as facilitate the settlement process, including direct integrated trade execution services from wallets within Hex Custody.

Value Proposition

• Hex Trust markets itself as "the link that connects the traditional financial world to the digital assets ecosystem."

• The company has already established itself as one of the leading Asian digital asset custodians and has built a proprietary platform that meets the requirements of regulated financial institutions. Hex Trust is fully licensed as a Trust Company and is compliant with various global regulatory requirements, including AML, CTF, and FATF.
• Hex Trust offers exclusive focus on digital asset custody and servicing solutions backed by strategic partnerships with various industry leaders, such as IBM and r3.
• Hex Trust also supports a range of deployment options, including cloud-based, SaaS, and enterprise solutions, with a seamless integration through APIs and SWIFT / FIX messaging.

Customer Sentiments

• Hex Trust has an average 4.6/5 star rating on Google out of 9 reviews with limited comments from users. There are no other customer reviews left on other platforms, such as Capterra, Software Reviews, Trustpilot or G2.

Press Search

• Hex Trust is featured in various news articles for its strategic partnerships as well as funding activities. One notable news item featuring the company in the last 24 months highlights the company's securing of a key license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore on August 31, 2021.
• The title of the article published by Bloomberg is: "Crypto Custodian Hex Trust Secures Key Singapore License."
• The link to the news item can be found here. 

(ii) Protego Trust Bank

Company Description

• Protego Trust Bank is a Washington, US-based digital asset trust bank built on blockchain technology that focuses on the digital asset needs of institutional clients, including the custody, lending, trading, and issuance of cryptoassets.
• The bank obtained the conditional approval of its conversion from Protego Trust Company to Protego Trust Bank, National Association in February 2021.

History

• The company was founded in 2018 by Gregory Gilman JD.

Financial Information

• Protego raised an undisclosed amount in a Series A funding in January 2020 from A100x and three other investors, including Science Inc, Valhalla Ventures, and Wave Financial Group.
• Information regarding the company's revenue is not available in the public domain, the likely reason being Protego Trust Bank is a private entity and is not obligated to publicly share its financial results.

Number of Employees

• Protego Trust Bank has 34 employees.

Notable Customers

• Protego Trust Bank has not publicly shared a list of its customers. An exhaustive search in the public domain did not also yield any results for any of the company's notable customers. The company's target customer base is institutional investors.

Products and Services Overview

• Protego Trust Bank offers digital asset custody, trading, lending, and issuance services to its customers.
• The company supports a range of digital assets as well as the fiat on- and off-ramps for the G10 currencies and the seamless integration of its platform with legacy financial and accounting systems.

Partnerships

• Protego Trust Bank partnered with Oracle to leverage their cloud-based and on-premise applications for the launch of secure, scalable, and high-performing digital asset business operations.

Value Proposition

• Protego Trust Bank's value proposition is to offer secure industry-leading custody solutions and fully segregated client accounts tailored towards institutional clients. The company supports a wide range of digital assets as well as the fiat on- and off-ramps for the G10 currencies and the seamless integration of its platform with legacy financial and accounting systems.
• The bank also offers a personalized approval process to meet the specific needs of its clients as well as a "robust reporting and reconciliation systems and mathematically provable, hardware-enforced administration."

Customer Sentiments

• Customer reviews for Protego Trust Bank are unavailable in the public domain, including platforms such as Capterra, Software Reviews, Trustpilot or G2. The likely reason for this is that the bank is relatively new, having received its bank charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in February 2021.

Press Search

• Protego Trust Bank has been prominently featured in the news following the obtaining of its bank charter from OCC. The news was reported by various outlets, including Business Wire, Yahoo, CoinDesk, and NASDAQ.
• The title of the article published by NASDAQ on FEB 5, 2021 is: "Protego Becomes Second Crypto Firm to Win Bank Charter From OCC."
• The link to the news item can be found here. 

ii) San Francisco Open Exchange (SFOX)

Company Description

• SFOX is a US-based crypo asset prime broker with a patented security and custody system called SAFE through which it offers competitive pricing, accessibility, and security to professional traders and institutional investors.
• The platform offers the integration of a range of liquidity providers from a single account, including exchanges, banks, and off-exchange trading.

History

• SFOX was founded in 2014 by Akbar Thobhani and George Melika.

Financial Information

• SFOX has raised a total of $23.1 million in six funding rounds.
• The company raised $120,000 in a seed round funding on Aug 19, 2014 and $23 million in a Series A funding on Aug 16, 2018 from Social Capital, Tribe Capital, and eight other investors.
• The company has an estimated annual revenue of $5.1 million.

Number of Employees

• SFOX has an estimated 50 employees as of October 2021.

Notable Customers

• SFOX boasts over 200,000 traders, funds and businesses using its platform.
• The company's key customers are traders, hedge funds, advisors, and financial institutions.
• Customers Bank is an example of a notable SFOX customer.

Products and Services Overview

• SFOX offers its clients access to various global cryptocurrency markets for trading, including Basic Attention Token, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Binance USD, and Ethereum. It also offers its clients the best price execution across the markets though its Smart Order Routing solution.
• Through its platform, the company offers patented and insured wallet and custody solutions for digital assets as well as portfolio management, including performance, tax, and accounting reports.

Partnerships

• SFOX has entered into various strategic partnerships to expand its operations, including enhancing its liquidity offerings, obtaining access to additional architectural solutions to its custody offerings, and offering state-insured bank accounts to traders.
• The companies include B2C2, Copper.co, Universal Protocol Alliance, M.Y. Safra Bank, CESSPA, and CrossTower.

Value Proposition

• SFOX boasts 50 million trades executed to date and $40 billion notional transactions.
• The company's value proposition is to offer traders access to global liquidity from a single account, provide hedge funds with the best reliable price execution, offer wealth managers a secure and compliant platform to extend crypto trading to their clients, and seamlessly provide financial institutions access to the crypto market via APIs.
• The company claims to have "the top 1% of fund managers using SFOX to outperform the market and execute strategies at scale through deep global liquidity, transparent agency execution, prime services, and 99.99% uptime."

Customer Sentiments

• SFOX has an average 1.3/5 star rating on Product Hunt and a 3.5/5 star rating on Trust Pilot out of two reviews. The customers' positive sentiments relate to the speed of execution, while the negative sentiments relate to their customer service.

Research Strategy