Bitget Adapts as Institutions Seek New Ways to Hold and Trade Crypto

Nearly half of institutions planning to add crypto exposure in 2026 point to better infrastructure as a reason, according to a Coinbase and EY-Parthenon survey of 351 firms. Custody, settlement and risk controls are cited among the main factors.

The focus has shifted from which assets an exchange carries to how it lets capital move in and out. Stock markets have relied for decades on the separation between broker and custodian. Crypto exchanges are now reorganizing around that same need.

Custody is just the baseline. Asset managers, market makers and other institutional investors each bring distinct needs. An exchange seeking their business has to adapt to all of them.

Bitget is among the exchanges making that shift. The firm describes institutional business as the focus of its ninth year.

Part of that effort means supporting more than one custody model rather than a single required setup. Bitget ties the approach to its Universal Exchange strategy, which already covers crypto and tokenized assets. The open question is how much risk that separation removes, and where it simply gets moved.

Institutions Can Trade Off-Exchange Without Surrendering Their Keys

With off-exchange settlement, where assets sit is separate from where trades happen. A fund leaves its holdings with an outside custodian such as Copper or Fireblocks.

The custodian sets aside part of those assets and reports the balance to the venue. That figure is treated as trading credit, so the fund can trade as though it had made a deposit.

Profits and losses get netted and settled between the custodian and the exchange at fixed intervals. Copper's ClearLoop, for example, settles with linked venues on defined cycles instead of in real time.

The mechanics now matter to a growing number of hedge funds. Traditional hedge funds holding digital assets stood at just over half (55%) in 2025, versus 47% a year earlier, according to the 2025 AIMA and PwC Global Crypto Hedge Fund Report.

Most of these funds still keep digital asset allocations under 2% of assets, and 71% intend to raise them. Bigger allocations make custody, counterparty exposure and execution too important to leave to chance.

Capital efficiency and a smaller direct exchange footprint are what make the setup appealing. With eligible collateral staying at the custodian instead of on the exchange, the structure can reduce how many client assets are directly exposed to venue-level counterparty risk.

Firms that trade across multiple venues do not have to move collateral around, lowering costs and operational risk.

This arrangement does not take away market risk. No matter where the collateral sits, a losing position is still liquidated. The custodian additionally becomes a counterparty itself. Between settlement cycles, what the exchange owes a client is only a claim, not custody, and that interval is where the model is put to the test.

Institutional Custody Needs Vary, and Bitget Builds Accordingly

Institutions are already spreading their custody across different providers. According to the Coinbase and EY-Parthenon survey, 61% of invested firms relied on more than one custodian, with most citing risk reduction. An exchange that requires a single custody route is effectively asking those firms to undo that arrangement.

At one end are regulated asset managers. Their fiduciary duties and asset segregation rules frequently make an independent, regulated custodian a requirement before a trading venue comes into consideration.

Bitget collaborates with regulated custody providers, including an active arrangement with Sygnum. The exchange is also working with other regulated custodians, among them Komainu, which was set up by Nomura, CoinShares and Ledger.

Market makers and quantitative firms are at the other end. They operate on many venues and pay close attention to how quickly collateral can be redeployed. Bitget's long-running integration with Copper ClearLoop fits that setup. Eligible clients can trade on Bitget while their assets remain in Copper's infrastructure.

Further custody and settlement partnerships for Bitget include Cactus Custody Oasis, Fireblocks Off Exchange, OSL MirrorEX and Bitfire PrimeMirror. The company says different types of professional capital should get to the same markets without being forced to hold assets in a uniform way. Keeping an existing custodian can also let a client skip some asset transfers and operational steps.

Choosing a Custodian Is the New Differentiator and a New Concentration Risk

Off-exchange settlement is no longer unusual. Copper's ClearLoop now has links to several venues, including Coinbase International, Kraken MTF and Deribit. Fireblocks Off Exchange also covers several of the same venues.

What sets exchanges apart these days is the number of custody options they provide and how many of them are regulated. Bitget calls expanding its relationships with regulated custodians a priority as it seeks a broader base of investors.

Bitget frames custody as one layer in a wider institutional build-out. Settlement connectivity, trading and liquidity, and eventually capital management services make up the rest. The whole effort is positioned by Bitget under its Universal Exchange strategy, where portfolios increasingly blend crypto with tokenized traditional assets.

That change alters an exchange's purpose. When client assets are held elsewhere, the venue must compete on access, liquidity and execution instead of custody. The risk also ends up in fewer hands. A handful of custodians and settlement networks now supports numerous exchanges at once, so an outage at one could hit all of them.

The industry's next test is how custody and settlement models that are ever more interconnected behave under market stress. Spreading custody relationships across providers can reduce reliance on any one of them, but it also adds new settlement arrangements for venues and institutions to manage.