Share this article
Legacy Trust's Crypto Spin-Off Receives $3M to Roll Out Asian Settlement Platform
First Digital Trust has won backing from Taiwan-based Nogle for its upcoming Asia-focused crypto settlement solution for institutions.
By Paddy Baker
Updated May 9, 2023, 3:06 a.m. Published Mar 9, 2020, 2:50 p.m.
An Asian digital assets custodian, which is building a crypto settlement layer to offer a local alternative to Silvergate Bank, has announced a new lead investor ahead of its coming launch.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
Hong Kong-based First Digital Trust (FDT) announced Monday it had received a $3 million investment from Taiwanese venture studio firm Nogle. The funding will support FDT's offering, including the Rapid Settlement and Clearing Network (RSCN), an institutional-orientated trading platform for the Asia region to launch in May.
"A lot of the funding will be deployed to building out the First Digital Trust tech stack," First Digital Chief Operating Officer Gunnar Jaerv said in a statement to CoinDesk. "We are also deploying capital into compliance building for financial services that, not only meet our global clientele requirements but also worldwide regulatory standards."
FDT started out as the digital asset subsidiary for Legacy Trust, a major Asian trust and custody company, but was spun out in September 2018.
When it unveiled plans for the RSCN in February, FDT said its settlement layer would provide an alternative regional solution to the Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN), which forces crypto firms to make settlements under tough U.S. regulations by virtue of Silvergate Bank's stateside location. RSCN would also support local currencies alongside the U.S. dollar, according to Jaerv.
Established in 2014, Nogle has supported projects it believes will help develop the future digital payment landscape. Its portfolio includes payment gateways, digital ID providers and a proprietary cryptocurrency exchange, BTSE.
Nogle founder Jonathan Leong told CoinDesk the company saw the value in First Digital as both a custodian solution and institutional settlement layer. Beyond just funding, Leong said Nogle will assist in tech development and third-party collaborations.
"Based on their current platform, we're looking to build up their settlement layer and put up more formal partnerships," Leong said. "Basically to have more businesses plug into the settlement layer."
Nogle also invested $2.5 million in the first round of Telegram's (now troubled) initial coin offering, which raised a total of $850 million in January 2018.
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Pye Finance Raises $5M Seed Round Led by Variant and Coinbase Ventures
The platform aims to make locked Solana staking positions tradable via an onchain marketplace.
What to know:
- Pye Finance raised a $5 million seed round led by Variant and Coinbase Ventures, with participation from Solana Labs, Nascent and Gemini.
- The startup is building an onchain marketplace on Solana for time-locked staking positions that can be traded.
- Pye says the product targets Solana’s large pool of staked SOL, worth roughly $75 billion, and aims to give validators and stakers more flexibility over terms and reward flows.
Top Stories
