What Custody Actually Costs: Four Providers Quoted

We requested pricing from four custody providers for the same mandate and compared what was quoted against what the agreements actually specified. The benchmark throughout is a corporate crypto wallet with segregated accounts, which discloses enough to check the arithmetic.

The headline structures

All four quoted basis points on assets under custody, declining with size, plus a minimum annual fee.

Quoted rates ranged by a factor of about two at our size. The minimums ranged more widely, which matters because below a certain amount the minimum is the entire cost.

What was not in the headline

Withdrawal fees. Three charged per withdrawal, between a flat amount and a percentage. One included them. At a high withdrawal frequency this reversed the ranking entirely.

Onboarding fees. Two charged a one-off amount, disclosed only in the agreement.

Asset addition fees. Two charged to support an asset not already on their list.

Reporting fees. One charged for reports beyond the standard monthly statement, including the year-end audit confirmation.

That last one is the most objectionable, because an audit confirmation is not optional for a fund.

The comparison that worked

We asked each to quote a total annual cost against a specific scenario: a stated balance, a stated number of withdrawals per month, a stated number of assets, and standard reporting including audit confirmation. The receiving side we measured through a platform set up for client account handling, where settlement is included.

Two produced a number immediately. Two had to construct it, which is itself informative about how often they are asked.

The ranking on total cost differed from the ranking on headline basis points at three of four.

The insurance question alongside

We asked all four for the insurance limit and for total assets under custody.

Two answered both. The ratio differed by an order of magnitude between them, which means the same advertised cover meant very different things.

Two declined to give assets under custody. A provider unwilling to let you calculate that ratio has told you the ratio is unflattering.

What we would do

Ask for a total annual cost against a specific scenario rather than a rate card.

Read the fee schedule in the agreement, not the one in the proposal. Two of four had charges in the agreement absent from the proposal.

And weight the insurance ratio alongside price, because a lower fee with materially thinner cover is not cheaper in any meaningful sense. Test anything you are offered against a crypto exchange with published fees before committing to it.