New York Startup Raises $6.5 Million to Store Crypto For Institutions: Clear Rise in Demand

A New York-headquartered cryptography pioneer has raised $6.5 million in order to create a new institutional standard for crypto asset security.

In an industry first, the firm has unveiled an Institutional Digital Asset Wallet Service aimed at the bigger financial players that need more security and autonomy over their crypto assets.

Ahead of The Curv on Crypto

Curv, which also has research and development offices in Tel Aviv, has recognized that the slow uptake of cryptocurrencies by institutions could well be a result of the operational complexity and single point of failure associated with the private keys needed to sign blockchain transactions. The company announced $6.5 million in seed funding in round led by Team8, and the world’s leading investor in digital asset companies. Japan’s Monex Group was also one of the investors.

The industry needs an alternative to private keys that maintains the cryptographic layers of security required for blockchain operations. According to the press release, Curv aims to eliminate these issues by introducing revolutionary type of cryptography. Nadav Zafrir, co-founder and CEO of Team8, stated;

“Curv is solving the eternal trade-off between security and availability. No longer do institutions or enterprises need to maintain physical security that doesn’t scale or hot wallets that are difficult to integrate and secure. Curv gives them a single solution that does it all.”

The service will be the first to use proprietary multi-party computation (MPC) protocols in order to eliminate the concept of private keys. Though actual technical details were thin the release added that this would replace the need of both hot and cold wallets. It would use a scalable, software-only, cloud-based service that ensures digital assets are always available and secure.

Co-founder and Chief Product Officer of eToro and advisor to Curv, Ronen Assia, was highly supportive of the new initiative;

“Curv makes it easier for institutions to manage digital assets by ensuring that each and every transaction is secure. eToro believes that in the future all assets will be tokenized and that we will see the greatest transfer of wealth ever onto the blockchain. As we grow our digital asset offering we are looking to work with innovators such as Curv in order to provide the best possible service to our customers.”

Eggs and Baskets

However, this could lead to centralization issues since the company also offers all of the setup, IT requirements, blockchain maintenance, and full management services. In effect, Curv would be holding all the keys, be they private or not.

The Institutional Digital Asset Wallet Service is a subscription service that will be available starting March 25th, 2019 the report added. Exchanges, custodians, fintechs and institutional investors are currently using it in private beta. Curv CEO, Itay Malinger, added; “We are focused on unleashing the potential of blockchains with our revolutionary approach to digital asset security. We give customers a way to securely integrate and manage all their digital assets, so they can easily transact and thrive in the digital world.”

While there is a clear market for such a product, putting all of your crypto eggs in the hands of one tech firm may not be the ultimate solution.