Bitget Builds a Bridge to Outside Custodians for Institutional Trades

Bitget unveiled the Open Custody Network on November 5, a setup that links external banks and institutional-grade custodians to the exchange's trading infrastructure for eligible users. The pitch: clients keep trading through Bitget while a separate provider handles safekeeping. Bitget frames it as an alternative to the industry's default model.

That default has long been to bundle execution and custody under one roof. It's convenient, but it concentrates risk — if the platform fails, customers can lose access to both their trades and the assets behind them at the same moment.

'Off-exchange custody' is not a full security guarantee on its own. A structure can still carry settlement obligations, pre-authorised transfers, credit arrangements or shared service providers, so institutions need to pin down who holds legal title, who can start a withdrawal and what happens if the trading venue freezes operations.

NewsBTC's reporting on Aave restricting new tBTC activity is the cautionary example here: risk often lives in how separate components connect, not in whether any single piece is technically sound.

Settlement is the hard part. Fast trading venues need confidence that obligations get settled; traditional markets lean on clearing, collateral and regulated intermediaries, while crypto venues sidestepped the problem by holding assets in exchange accounts. Push assets out to external custodians and you need a dependable way to represent collateral and close trades — which forces choices on collateral efficiency, counterparty exposure and settlement finality. Protections can also vary by asset or jurisdiction, making the offer harder to explain to customers.

Bitget's release is a company announcement of the launch and intended model; it does not independently confirm that every partner bank or custodian delivers the same services, that all users qualify, or that risk has been erased. Prospective clients should ask which custodians are in the network, where it operates, how trading obligations are secured, how positions are reconciled, and how assets come back if the venue or a partner fails. Independent security assessments and clear segregation terms matter most.