Equity Trust, a financial services company with over $25 billion in assets under custody and administration, just launched a new digital asset platform. Using that digital asset platform, ordinary investors can purchase cryptocurrencies for their individual retirement accounts (IRAs).

The news was announced in a press release earlier today.

Equity Trust has previously made it easy for individual investors to diversify their retirement portfolios with a range of different assets, including precious metals, tax liens, real estate, and private equity, among other alternative asset classes. Using self-directed retirement accounts, Equity Trust’s users can enjoy greater control over their financial futures.

Now, with its new digital asset platform, Equity Trust is allowing individual investors to invest in cryptocurrencies.

To access the platform, all you need to do is open an account through Equity Trust’s online account system, myEQUITY. Alternatively, users can call the company and open an account through a senior account executive.

Equity Trust requires a minimum investment of $10,000. Additionally, users wishing to use the digital asset platform will need to pay a non-refundable fee of $500.

Once you’re signed up, you can purchase and sell a variety of popular cryptocurrencies within your self-directed IRA. Equity Trust offers bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ether (ETH), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Litecoin (LTC), and Ripple (XRP). Purchases are made using a trade-date-plus-one formula (i.e. next-day cash availability for sale transactions).

In the press release announcing the digital asset platform, Equity Trust emphasizes the tax savings Americans can get by investing in crypto through their individual retirement accounts. The IRS treats bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies like property for tax purposes. If IRS guidelines are followed, then taxes are deferred, which means there are no immediate tax implications. That means if you held bitcoin in your account during the 2017 financial boom, and you kept those bitcoins in your IRA, then you would not have had to pay taxes on those holdings. Those taxes could have been deferred until your retirement – when you’re in a lower income bracket.

As a result, Equity Trust calls their self-directed individual IRA a “tax-favorable investment vehicle” for investors. You’re not avoiding taxes on your crypto gains. You’re deferring them until a future date – like after retirement.

The digital assets platform is accessible through a simple online interface. Equity Trust specifically wants to market their cryptocurrency IRA options to those who have been interested in crypto in the past but were unable to purchase it.

Obviously, one of the biggest concerns with institutional crypto investing is with storage and security. All it takes is one mistake for a firm to lose access to all customer funds.

Equity Trust claims this isn’t an issue:

“One of the prized features of the platform is the ability to connect a client’s Equity Trust account with a “cold storage” facility, allowing for a secure long-term storage approach for digital currency. This feature significantly mitigates the customer risks often associated with the investor holding their own cryptocurrency keys.”

Ultimately, Equity Trust is hoping investors will be attracted to the platform in order to diversify their retirement funds and protect their financial future. By placing crypto in a tax-advantaged retirement account, you can avoid tax implications today while still enjoying the rise and fall of crypto prices.

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