# Custody Overview Custody refers to where the protocol’s backing collateral assets are held. The collateral backing Apyx is primarily comprised of TradFi assets, e.g. preferred equity and treasuries. This requires Apyx to access liquidity on a TradFi venue like Nasdaq in order to purchase the underlying preferred shares or treasuries. Once acquired, these assets are held in custody under third-party prime brokerage accounts. ### Transparency and Verifiability Because the protocol’s core collateral exists offchain, Apyx is committed to ensuring users can independently verify the collateral. To support this, Apyx will obtain third-party accounting attestations from a PCAOB-registered audit firm, which is the same class of firm permitted to audit U.S. public companies. These attestations will be published on a monthly basis. Importantly, these reports are not lightweight confirmations such as agreed-upon procedures (AUP) engagements, custodian “confirmation emails,” or exchange and onchain dashboard screenshots. Apyx intends to publish examination-level, assertion-based attestations designed to provide materially stronger assurance on the stated backing position. Apyx actively explores and adopts verification tooling that enables users to apply a “don’t trust, verify” standard to the offchain components of the protocol. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.apyx.fi/collateral-and-custody/custody-overview.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.