Prime Trust Launches Instant Settlement Network for Crypto-Fiat Trades

The Nevada-based financial institution Prime Trust has launched a real-time settlement network for asset transfers among its clients, competing with similar services offered by crypto-friendly U.S. banks Silvergate and Signature.

Announced Monday, the new service, known as PrimeX, gives Prime Trust’s clients immediate access to funds when they trade cryptocurrency or fiat with each other. The trust company, which eliminated custody fees in January, will not charge for the new service, either. It is available 24/7 and has no limit on transfer amounts, according to the announcement.

The network is already used by “industry-leading exchanges, OTC desks, market makers, stablecoins, and traders,” the company said, without identifying any of these clients. Accordingly, all counterparties are known on the network and must agree to send or receive funds to or from one another before transactions can take place.

Prime Trust, despite its small size, has played an outside role in the crypto industry. It handles custody of fiat for a number of dollar-backed stablecoins, offers cold-storage custody for crypto assets, and provides fiat deposit and withdrawal services for Huobi’s U.S. exchange, HBUS.

Kevin Lehtiniitty, Chief Product Officer at Prime Trust, said in a statement:

“Leveraging Prime Trust’s ability to custody a wide variety of assets, the Prime Exchange Network is the world’s first platform for 24/7 settlement of multiple FIAT currencies, as well as digital assets, all in one qualified custodian.”

Earlier this year, Prime Trust’s New York-based competitor Signature Bank introduced the Signet system, which as of early February had more than 100 clients transferring millions of dollars a day to each other. Likewise, Silvergate Bank has on-boarded a number of major crypto exchanges, hedge funds, and miners that use the California institution’s settlements platform to send millions of dollars between network participants.

Prime Trust CEO Scott Purcell (holding microphone), image via CoinDesk