Beaxy’s Transition from Curv to Fireblocks

Beaxy Exchange has completed the transition of its blockchain infrastructure and digital asset security framework to Fireblocks, a leading provider for institutional digital asset custody.

PayPal Acquires Curv

On March 8th, 2021, global payments servicer PayPal announced its acquisition of Curv, Beaxy’s former digital asset custody provider. Soon after the announcement of the acquisition was made, Curv began to relay to its cryptocurrency clients, including Beaxy, that all custody services would be terminated on December 31st, 2021. At Beaxy, we enjoyed working with Curv from 2020 through the end of 2021. The digital asset protection provided was nothing less than stellar and we were happy to give our traders a top-tier vault to guard their cryptocurrency holdings.

Upon receiving updates from Curv that they would be transitioning away from clients that are based in the cryptocurrency industry, we knew that we had to find an equally, or even better firm to move our asset transfer and blockchain capabilities over to. After months of vetting every potential alternative, we were thrilled to come in contact with a company that was able to provide industry-leading service for all of our client’s blockchain infrastructure and digital asset security and transfer needs.

Enter Fireblocks. Once our agreements with Fireblocks were established, we began working to transition custodied digital assets to an exciting new home where they will be guarded by additionally advanced security protocols.

Fireblocks Digital Asset Custody

With a product launch in June of 2021, Fireblocks is a growing digital asset custody firm that has positioned itself to become the leader for institutional asset security and management.

Fireblocks enables firms like Beaxy to maintain and grow our cryptocurrency operations by leveraging multiparty computation (MPC) along with a three-pronged approach that focuses on security, compliance, and insurance.

The Fireblocks Network

Fireblocks’ network of institutional clients provides for faster and more secure settlements that can be executed on-chain.

Digital Asset Security

With regular security audits, Fireblocks protective protocols were awarded a SOC 2 Type 2 certification from Earnst and Young, a Big Four audit and accounting firm. Sitting behind Fireblocks’ institutional-grade security protocol is a unique insurance policy that goes beyond the traditional measures of covering assets held in storage. Fireblocks unprecedented insurance also covers assets that are in transit, providing clients with the ultimate peace of mind. This one-of-a-kind insurance policy received an A rating from A.M. Best, a firm that audits insurance policies to determine their strength in terms of coverage.

DeFi on Fireblocks

Fireblocks three-pronged protocol enables clients to access decentralized finance (DeFi) applications to trade, stake, or lend funds while being backed by industry-leading security measures. Fireblocks suite of products and services also includes a DeFi API and browser extension that allows for programmatic access to decentralized platforms.

Multi-Party Computation (MPC)

Multiparty Computation theory was introduced in the 1980’s and has seen its first real-world applications through the advent of the digital asset industry. MPC technology can also be applied to data mining, electronic voting, digital asset auctions, and more.

To securely store a private key without MPC, the private key owner will face some dilemmas and trade-offs. For example, storing multiple copies of a private key expands the attack surface and creates more locations where a hacker can potentially access your keys. At the same, storing your keys in only one location creates a single point of failure. If access to that single set of keys is lost or compromised for any reason, your risk of unauthorized access to your wallet increases. MPC solves this issue as multiple parties now control multiple copies of the key with each party being blind to all other parties. At any point where the key is needed for authorized usage, all parties will be asked to approve access to the key. This combines the strength of reducing the attack surface without the risks of creating a single point of failure.

Fireblocks’ Timeline of Success

The Fireblocks team has consistently hit impressive milestones in terms of new investments in the firm as well as the progress that has been built into their products and services along the way. Follow the timeline below to see how they’ve gotten to their current valuation of $8 billion from an initial investment of $16 million.

• June 2019: Fireblocks officially launched a live version of their products and services following a $16 million Series A round of investments.
• December 2019: Fireblocks was granted a SOC 2 Type 2 certification from Earnst and Young, a Big Four auditing and accounting firm.
• April 2020: Fireblocks records $30 billion in cryptocurrency transfers and expands into the Asian Pacific region with offices opened in Hong Kong and Singapore
• Fireblocks increase transaction speeds for secure cryptocurrency transfers through the launch of a new multiparty computation algorithm.
• September 2020: Fireblocks reaches an agreement to bring on its 100th client and exceeds $150 billion in cryptocurrency transactions.
• October 2020: Fireblocks expands into the European market with new offices in France and Germany.
• November 2020: Fireblocks received $30 million in additional investments through a Series B raise led by Paradigm.
• March 2021: Following the Series B raise, Fireblocks gained $133 million in new investments through a Series C raise that was led by Stripes, Coatue, and Ribbit.
• July 2021: A Series D round of investments led by Spark Capital, DRW VC, SCB 10X, Sequoia Capital, Stripes, and Coatue raises $310 million.
• August 2021: Former SEC Chairman, Jay Clayton, joins the Fireblocks advisory board.

What This Means for You

Client assets in the form of Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), ERC20 tokens, Ethereum Classic (ETC), Ripple (XRP), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Bitcoin Satoshi’s Vision (BSV), and EOS were in the initial batch migrated over to Fireblocks. Additional asset migrations will be communicated to Beaxy account holders via email. Client funds will be guarded by Fireblocks’ industry-leading protocols that take a three-pronged approach to optimize for security, compliance, and insurance.