PANews reported on February 4th that, according to Cointelegraph, the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (CIRO) has officially released a provisional regulatory framework for the custody of cryptocurrencies and tokenized assets. This framework aims to provide regulatory clarity for investment dealers and protect investor interests during the long-term rule-making process.

The framework imposes custody requirements on member traders operating crypto trading platforms, including setting caps on custody percentages, stipulating capital thresholds, and clarifying reporting obligations. CIRO introduces a tiered custody model, increasing capital, insurance, governance, and technical safeguards requirements based on the percentage of client assets a custodian is allowed to hold. For example, Tier 1 and Tier 2 custodians can hold 100% of a trader's client crypto assets, but must meet higher capital thresholds; while the maximum percentage of assets held internally by a trader is capped at 20%.