Custody Agreement

Overview

The agreement should identify the parties, beneficial owner, supported assets and networks, account structure, authorized instructions, transaction timing, fees, and service responsibilities. It may also cover staking, forks, airdrops, governance, sub-custody, liens, and treatment of unsupported assets.

Critical risk terms include segregation, title, insolvency treatment, liability standard, insurance scope, security incidents, service suspension, data access, dispute resolution, and governing law. Marketing claims or technical architecture do not replace these legal provisions.

Clients should align the contract with their actual approval policy and operational processes. Exit rights need workable withdrawal periods, data exports, and cooperation during migration. The agreement should be reviewed when services, assets, jurisdictions, or sub-custodians change. Legal advice may be needed because custody classifications and protections vary by location.

Custody Agreement should be distinguished from investment ownership and from a software interface. For example, a provider may display an asset balance while holding pooled assets through another custodian; operations must verify contractual rights, segregation, withdrawal capability, and external evidence rather than rely on the screen alone.

Custody Agreement works through controlled onboarding, asset receipt, internal attribution, storage-tier assignment, authorization, signing or provider instruction, monitoring, withdrawal, reconciliation, reporting, and return or migration. For Custody Agreement, each handoff needs stable identifiers and an authoritative record of who approved and executed it.

The operating model for Custody Agreement should map legal ownership, beneficial entitlement, technical control, account structure, asset segregation, supported networks, signing policy, provider roles, contractual duties, and insolvency treatment. For Custody Agreement, these dimensions can belong to different parties and must not be inferred from a wallet label.