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Protego Trust has raised $70.0M across 1 funding round.
Key people at Protego Trust.
Protego Trust has raised $70.0M in total across 1 funding round.
Protego Trust provides regulated financial services for digital assets, targeting institutional investors. The company develops secure infrastructure and compliant solutions, enabling professional clients to participate in the crypto economy. It bridges traditional finance with decentralized ledgers, offering tools for managing digital asset portfolios under strict regulatory oversight.
Protego Trust was founded in 2017 by Greg Gilman, co-founder of the startup incubator Science. Gilman identified the institutional need for secure, compliant digital asset management. This insight led him to build a regulated entity integrating digital assets into traditional finance, creating trusted crypto infrastructure for professional investors.
Protego Trust serves institutional investors seeking reliable, regulatory-assured digital asset inclusion. Its mission focuses on becoming a foundational component for widespread institutional adoption, offering robust, compliant financial services. The company envisions expanding secure, regulated participation in the evolving digital asset market.
Protego Trust has raised $70.0M across 1 funding round. Most recently, it raised $70.0M Protego Trust Bank - Series A in December 2020.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 1, 2020 | $70M Series A | — | Wave Financial | Announced |
Key people at Protego Trust.
Protego Trust Bank (also known as Protego Trust Bank N.A.) is a federally chartered trust bank specializing in digital asset services for institutional clients, including custody, trading, lending, issuance, staking, and governance participation for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.[1][2][3] Founded in 2017 and based in Seattle, Washington, it raised $70M in a Series A round from investors such as Digital Currency Group, Coinbase Ventures, and Algorand Technologies, positioning it as a regulated bridge between traditional finance and crypto markets.[1][2] The bank serves financial sector clients like institutional investors, digital asset exchanges, corporate issuers, and high-net-worth individuals, solving key pain points in secure, compliant digital asset management amid growing institutional adoption.[1][3]
Protego Trust began as a state-chartered trust company under Washington law in 2017, evolving into a national bank (Protego Trust Bank N.A.) through a conversion approved by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in 2021.[1][3] This shift followed a share exchange with Protego Corporation and enabled nationwide operations from its Seattle headquarters, with sales offices in Boston and New York.[3] Key milestones include a $70M Series A funding round about four years ago (around 2021) and board expansions in 2022, adding experts like former State Street CEO and BNY Mellon Investment Services CEO, as well as Brian Brooks and Michael Carpenter for regulatory depth.[1][2] These moves reflect its pivot from state-level operations to a federally regulated entity tailored for institutional crypto entry.
Protego Trust rides the institutional crypto adoption wave, capitalizing on post-2021 regulatory clarity from OCC approvals that legitimized national trust banks for digital assets.[3] Its timing aligns with surging demand for compliant custody amid ETF approvals, DeFi growth, and tokenized assets, where market forces like Bitcoin/ETH staking yields and stablecoin proliferation favor regulated players over offshore alternatives.[1][3] By enabling secure key management and ancillary services, it influences the ecosystem by onboarding traditional finance—reducing counterparty risks for institutions and fostering broader blockchain integration, much like how national charters revived trust banking for crypto and payments.[1]
Protego Trust is primed to expand custody to more asset types (e.g., platform/utility tokens, commodities) and launch trading/lending platforms, leveraging its charter for competitive edge in a maturing $trillion+ digital asset market.[3] Trends like tokenized real-world assets, regulatory harmonization, and AI-driven risk management will shape its path, potentially amplifying influence as institutions allocate 5-10% to crypto. Watch for partnerships with protocols like Cardano/Algorand (early backers) to drive governance/staking volumes, solidifying its role as a cornerstone for compliant institutional crypto infrastructure—echoing its origins as a regulated pioneer in an emerging frontier.[1][3]
Protego Trust has raised $70.0M in total across 1 funding round.
Protego Trust's investors include Wave Financial.
