WHITE PAPER THREE
A plain-English guide to custody roles, authority, controls and continuity for family offices holding Bitcoin.
A considered resource for serious capital
This white paper is designed for family offices, multi-family offices and registered investment advisers who need a plain-English framework for a live allocation question. Bitcoin Custody for Family Offices keeps the analysis connected to portfolio construction, operating controls and the responsibility to make the decision understandable to the people who will inherit it.
The material is intentionally practical. It identifies what needs to be decided, who needs to be involved, which assumptions should be written down and which questions belong with tax or legal counsel. It does not use price targets, performance promises or a required conclusion. A family may decide to allocate, to wait or not to allocate; the quality of the decision depends on the quality of the work around it.
The question is not only where Bitcoin is held. It is who can authorize a movement, who can execute it, how the action is recorded and what happens if a key person is unavailable. This paper treats custody as part of portfolio governance, with operational choices tied back to the family’s mandate and risk tolerance.
The paper walks through direct ownership, qualified custodians, multisignature controls, delegated access and the separation of duties. It does not assume one structure works for every family. Instead, it shows how liquidity requirements, legal ownership, reporting, internal controls and succession planning should inform the design.
Good custody arrangements can be explained to an investment committee and tested before they are needed. The closing section proposes a review rhythm covering permissions, backup procedures, counterparty exposure, incident response and generation-change readiness. The goal is a custody model that remains understandable when the people who set it up are no longer in the room.
Read it before a committee meeting, not after the decision has already been made. Use the headings as prompts for an investment memo, a family meeting or a conversation with an adviser. Then separate the portfolio questions from the implementation questions: ownership, custody, reporting, taxes, legal structure and succession may require different specialists.
The aim is a durable record of reasoning. A well-formed record lets a family revisit the allocation when circumstances change without treating every review as a fresh debate. It also gives the next generation a way to understand what the original decision was meant to accomplish and which limits were intentionally put around it.
Veritas Bitcoin Strategies LLC is an investment adviser registered with the State of Oregon Division of Financial Regulation, CRD 306768. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training and does not constitute an endorsement by any regulatory authority. Advisory services are offered only to residents of states in which Veritas Bitcoin Strategies LLC is registered or is excluded or exempted from registration. Form ADV Part 2A and Form CRS are available at adviserinfo.sec.gov and on request. The content on this website, including books, white papers, articles and any materials delivered by request, is educational and general in nature. It is not investment, legal or tax advice, is not personalized to any individual’s circumstances and is not an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any security or digital asset. No advisory relationship is created by using this site or requesting a resource. All investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal. Bitcoin and other digital assets are speculative and volatile, may lose value rapidly, and are not deposits or obligations of, or guaranteed by, any bank; they are not insured by the FDIC, NCUA or SIPC. Past performance is not indicative of future results, and no outcome, return or protection of capital is guaranteed.
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