Fireblocks announced that it is now transacting at least $2.5 billion in cryptocurrencies every month and has already achieved a 400% increase in customer growth and a 150% monthly transfer volume growth rate.
Various factors are known to limit the public adoption of cryptocurrency especially Bitcoin. For now, one cannot spend Bitcoin the same way they would spend fiat currencies. Sometimes converting crypto into fiat can be quite a challenge. Custodianship of crypto assets and wallet security are the other concerns for the average investors.
Also, wallet and key security together with the undeveloped crypto ecosystem and economic precedent discourage institutional investors from joining the nascent market. After its June 11, 2019 stealth launch, Fireblocks has so far attracted attention from large crypto investors. It might have also found a solution to problems facing the current crypto scene.
The digital asset cybersecurity startup announced that it is now transacting at least $2.5 billion in cryptos every month. Fireblocks revealed in a November 26 press release that it has already achieved a 400% increase in customer growth. Moreover, its cryptocurrency transfer volumes are growing at an enticing rate of 150% month to month. The growth has come in since its launch after getting $16 million in funding.
In the past six months, the New York-based startup can count Genesis Global Trading, Galaxy Digital, and Celsius among its customers. All of these firms use Fireblocks’ services to store, transact, and transfer digital assets. Michael Shaulov, the CEO and co-founder of Fireblocks said:
“There are other good institutional wallet offerings on the market, but The Fireblocks’ Secure Transfer Environment is what makes us so unique […] The Fireblocks Secure Transfer Environment gives financial institutions an ultra-secure account that connects to a high-speed payment network.”
According to the CEO, all these features support and enable the quick and secure movement of blockchain-based digital assets. Investors can move their virtual tokens between exchanges, counterparties, custodians, and customers.
Enhancing Crypto Security
Fireblocks’ Series A funding round in June managed to get investment from companies like Swisscom Ventures, Cyberstarts, MState, EightRoads (Fidelity INTL), and Tenaya Capital. At that time, Shaulov said that his startup created a platform that secures the process and simultaneously simplifies the movement of funds into two steps.
According to Shaulov, blockchain-based assets are cryptographically secure by themselves but moving digital assets proves to be a challenge. He added:
“After interviewing over 100 institutional customers, including hedge funds, broker-dealers, exchanges, and banks, we concluded that the current process is slow and highly susceptible to cyber-attacks and human errors.”
At first, this startup supported up to 15 digital asset exchanges. Currently, Fireblocks has successfully integrated with 23 digital asset exchanges. Additionally, it provides support for at least 180 cryptos, tokens, and stablecoins.
Challenges
The problem facing digital coin traders is operationally complicated. Even though Fireblocks holds promise to solve the challenges, it must first get adopted by many coin traders to be recognized as a crypto standard. Live-key or hot vault databases have been hacked previously and have a less than perfect security reputation. However, only time will tell if Fireblocks is the best solution.
Digital payment adoption will prove important for cryptocurrency success as a new currency. Although the regulators have increased reviews of various stablecoins such as Libra, they have a long way to go before they can issue new rules. For now, a cautious approach appears quite appropriate. Digital currencies are still new and evolving which may be risky for the average investor.
But, Fireblocks portrays advances in security that can be integrated into the existing crypto ecosystem. That will potentially develop a unique solution without recreating any traditionally closed networks. Just like the ATM was a major innovation some 50 years ago, public access to currency and capital changes how people think about currency exchange.
Thus, Fireblocks’ payment technology, if implemented properly, may help more people trade crypto. Taking into account the growth that Fireblocks has experienced in the past six months, it appears like cryptocurrency funds are taking the process quite seriously.
next