On January 22, 2026, crypto asset custodian BitGo officially listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BTGO, raising $212.8 million with a valuation of $2.1 billion. This milestone is seen as a significant signal of market recognition for crypto infrastructure companies. Unlike crypto exchanges, over 80% of BitGo's revenue comes from asset custody and staking services, rather than transaction fees. This business model allows it to maintain stable cash flow even in a market downturn, as institutional clients' demand for secure asset storage does not decrease with price fluctuations.
At the end of 2025, BitGo received unconditional approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to become a federally chartered national trust bank, named BitGo Bank and Trust N.A. This qualification was extremely rare at the time – Circle, Ripple, Fidelity, and Paxos, which applied at the same time, only received conditional approval, while similar applications from traditional financial institutions such as Morgan Stanley had just been submitted. The federal charter means that BitGo no longer has to deal with the complex state-by-state system of trust and money transmission licenses, but only needs to follow a unified federal regulatory framework, which greatly simplifies the compliance costs of interstate operations and provides institutional clients with a more efficient service entry point.
When discussing traditional banks such as Morgan Stanley attempting to enter the crypto custody space, BitGo CEO Mike Belshe emphasized a key structural difference: traditional financial institutions typically operate trading, wealth management, and investment banking divisions simultaneously, creating potential conflicts of interest; while BitGo's core business is limited to custody and staking, with no trading division. The security of client assets is completely independent of the company's revenue sources, making it easier to establish transparent and credible custody standards. This focus is the first-mover advantage that crypto-native companies have over traditional financial giants in the digital asset custody space.