WisdomTree granted trust company charter to offer crypto-related services in New York

WisdomTree, the global asset manager behind the BTCW spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund, has been granted a charter from the New York State Department of Financial Services to offer crypto-related services in the state.

The charter allows WisdomTree to operate as a limited-purpose trust company under the New York Banking Law with enhanced regulatory supervision, according to a statement.

It authorizes the company to perform fiduciary custody of digital assets, including digital wallet services, issue and exchange approved stablecoins, and manage stablecoin reserves under the newly formed WisdomTree Digital Trust Company, LLC.

NYDFS’ approval also enables the firm to launch WisdomTree Prime for New York retail customers in the coming weeks — a personal finance app focused on offering user-friendly access to digital assets such as crypto and digital funds covering a range of major asset classes.

More specifically, the firm plans to issue the WisdomTree Gold Token and the WisdomTree Dollar Token in WisdomTree Prime and maintain reserves for those assets under an NYDFS-approved framework.

“The New York State Department of Financial Services is the premier regulator for businesses that engage in digital asset activity,” WisdomTree founder and CEO Jonathan Steinberg said. “This well-established trust company charter program — which long predates digital assets — is based on bank-grade regulation, allowing us to offer products that capitalize on innovation without sacrificing customer protection.”

WisdomTree joins just nine other firms with trust charters for crypto services, including Coinbase, Gemini and Fidelity Digital Assets, according to the NYDFS website . WidsomTree also plans to use the trust company to offer products and services for institutions and business customers in the future.

WisdomTree is the issuer of one of the newly approved spot Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. However, it ranks last among nine other competing products from BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale and Bitwise, among others, with $75.6 million in assets under management.