State Street-backed Securrency partners with GK8 for custody and institutional blockchain infrastructure

GK8, a cybersecurity and digital asset custodian, has partnered with fintech company Securrency to provide banking clients with institutional-grade blockchain solutions.

The partnership centers around GK8’s enterprise-grade custody solutions, which will become available to Securrency’s clients as the fintech company builds its tokenization infrastructure. Securrency’s main focus is tokenizing real-world assets such as stocks, commodities and other securities.

Dan Doney, co-founder and CEO of Securrency, described GK8 as the “most secure custodial solution in the market,” adding:

“GK8’s design provides all-around protection and functionality for enterprise-grade clients. By adding the GK8 custodial solution to our network, we can now make sure that our customers’ assets are protected to the highest standards.”

Securrency is backed by State Street, U.S. Bank, WisdomTree and Abu Dhabi Catalyst Partners, suggesting that institutional players are looking at security tokenization more closely. Tokenization refers to the process of turning real-world items into digital assets through blockchain technology. In finance, asset tokenization is said to have major implications for traditional institutions. As Cointelegraph’s Expert Take series explained:

“Tokenization implies that account management and claims on assets are driven by cryptographic keys, as opposed to account management and asset management by a system operator called a bank. Though tokenization is more than just account management and claims to an asset, it enables divisibility, fungibility and disintermediated business functions, such as asset transfer.”

Related: Security tokenization may be the next big use case for blockchain tech

Major cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance and FTX already offer tokenized securities. On these platforms, tokenized shares of Apple, Tesla and GameStop log more than $1 million in daily volumes.

Demand for tokenized assets isn't just coming from retail investors, but banks as well. Lior Lamesh, co-founder and CEO of GK8, told Cointelegraph that the banking sector is driving a significant portion of the demand for such assets:

"Banks are no longer only focusing on cryptocurrencies as an asset class, but also looking to tokenize traditional assets (Equities, Bonds, Gold, etc.), including tier one banks in the U.S. and globally."

When asked about the biggest trends within tokenization, Lamesh said nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, were the clear leader in terms of demand and overall adoption. However, "a runner-up would be the tokenization of traditional financial assets" such as equities bonds and precious metals, he said.