HashKey Cloud and BitGo jointly launch institutional unsecured pledge service

The barrier between custody and revenue is disintegrating

For institutional cryptocurrency holders, the choice between security and revenue has long been a tight curse. Custody service providers ensure the safety of assets but limit profit potential; pledge services require the removal of tokens from the platform, thereby introducing counterparty risk. Today, HashKey Cloud and BitGo are removing this obstacle. The two companies directly integrated HashKey Cloud's verification node operations into BitGo's hosting environment, allowing fund managers, exchanges and corporate treasuries to pledge assets while always placed in cold storage.

This cooperation has built an institutional non-custodial pledge infrastructure. Customers can authorize on-chain verification and receive rewards, while BitGo continues to protect the underlying private key. This arrangement eliminates a major pain point for compliance teams-they had previously been reluctant to transfer assets to hot wallets or delegate them to external verification nodes.

How unmanaged pledges work

The core innovation is to decouple custody and verification. Traditional pledge means transferring assets to the pledge address, exposing them to smart contract risks or the security posture of third-party operators. HashKey Cloud runs verification nodes, and BitGo holds assets. Customers retain the management rights of funds in the custody interface and only grant verification rights. This architecture is similar to the traditional asset management approach of separating asset custody from transaction execution.

For ETF issuers and asset managers, this structure meets two requirements at the same time: it not only meets regulatory expectations for asset isolation, but also can participate in the evidence-of-equity economy. At the same time, it also narrows the attack area. If the verification node commits misconduct or suffers forfeiture, the managed assets themselves are not directly exposed-a distinction that is crucial to trusted customers.

Real-world asset tokenization and settlement

The scope of cooperation goes beyond pledge. HashKey Cloud and BitGo plans to jointly cover real-world asset tokenization, transaction settlement and custody. This will extend to an infrastructure layer that allows tokenized bonds, credit instruments and other RWAs to be verified and settled without leaving custody boundaries. The timing is intriguing: institutional demand for tokenized assets is rising rapidly. Recently, the tokenized market chain exceeded US$20 billion, driven by transactions such as Bullish's US$4.2 billion acquisition of Equiniti and the real-time treasury bond settlement between Ondo and JPMorgan Chase.

By integrating verification capabilities with regulated custodians, HashKey Cloud and BitGo are targeting a market where institutions want to manage both tokenized securities and native crypto earnings through a single pipeline. This is an end-to-end packaging solution that may attract traditional financial companies that lack deep encryption operational experience but are entering the chain.

Demand, Regulation and Market Structure

Institutional pledge demand is not a fantasy. For example, the recent surge in SUI prices is driven by the flow of institutional pledged funds, indicating that funds will flow quickly once custody issues are resolved. Similar cooperation lowers technical and legal barriers that have previously kept large configurators on the sidelines.

However, important uncertainties remain. This model still needs to deal with the fragmentation of rules in various jurisdictions. The United States, Europe and Asia tax and regulate pledged gains differently. Unmanaged settings do not automatically exempt agencies from local licensing requirements. In addition, operational integration between two complex platforms-BitGo's multi-chain hosting and HashKey Cloud's verification infrastructure-requires deep technical alignment and can take months to stabilize. Competitors offering bundled custody and pledge solutions, including some large exchanges, have not stopped.

The regulatory context adds pressure to build the right structure. As banks oppose major cryptocurrency legislation days before the Senate vote, the entire industry is preparing for a regulatory framework that could require stricter asset sequestration. Products built on a model where custody and verification are both independent and functionally synchronized may be able to comply with emerging compliance standards rather than hastily remediating them afterwards.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the infrastructure stack of institutional cryptocurrencies is becoming modular. Custody, pledge and settlement are no longer bundled in a single black box. This evolution reflects the trend of traditional finance-in the post-transaction pipeline, decomposition is finally achieved in order to improve efficiency and resilience. For organizations focusing on this space, the integration of HashKey Cloud and BitGo is not so much a single product release as a signal that the underlying architecture is being reshaped.