There is growing demand for institutional-grade digital asset custody and trading infrastructure, the firm said. Singapore is one of the more open jurisdictions as far as cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin are concerned.

METACO, a software and infrastructure business serving the market for cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, has opened its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore. It has a new team managed by managing director, APAC, Patrick Enjalbal.

Enjalbal, who is a former director at Singapore-based financial technology consultancy, Luxoft, has more than 20 years’ experience of advising and managing the successful deployment of institutional-grade financial technology solutions in Asia-Pacific and beyond. Martin Frick has also joined as senior sales advisor. Frick was previously the managing director of Temenos APAC, where he led operations for the banking software provider across the region.

With demand accelerating for institutional-grade digital asset custody and trading infrastructure, opening the Singapore office and expanding the APAC headcount has demonstrated METACO’s commitment to offering best-in-class services to existing and future customers in the region. It has also allowed the company to continue enabling banks and other institutions to enter the crypto economy safely through its digital asset orchestration system - Harmonize .

The firm said that it enables institutions to secure, trade, and manage any cryptocurrency or digital asset. 

“As institutions expand their digital asset operations, they often need to work with multiple third-party self-custody vaults, sub-custodians and liquidity providers. This creates institutional challenges in terms of security, and scalability, with a proliferation of access points weakening end-to-end processes,” the firm said in a statement. 

Alex Manson, global head of SC Ventures and board member at METACO, said: “It is clear that digital assets are here to stay, and furthermore that this particular market will experience extraordinary developments over time. Financial institutions are well placed to capitalise on this market opportunity, and we have already observed increased levels of adoption by banks and wealth managers in APAC.”