Challenge
Edge Capital was aware that the activities they were looking to perform for their investors, such as DeFi, could come with a variety of risk factors. “With DeFi, we’ve seen that hacks are a core risk for businesses,” says Vadim Khranov, Founder and CIO at Edge Capital. “We’ve seen a lot of people who are not using Fireblocks get hacked.”
Despite the risks Edge had identified in this area, they knew that utilizing DeFi and other blockchain-based trading opportunities could provide significant value for their investors. For example, it’s an important part of Edge’s business model to be able to access the newest blockchains as soon as they become available because of the high rewards that can come from doing so. “With brand new blockchains, there’s an opportunity to get very high yields, very high rewards,” details Khranov. “The first custody solution that connects to these chains securely gives us the ability to make more money for our investors.”
Ultimately, Edge needed to find a provider that could enable these sorts of high-yield activities while prioritizing security.
Solution
Edge Capital selected Fireblocks because of the multifaceted, MPC-based security infrastructure the platform offers. “With regular, browser-based wallets, the private keys end up on your hard drive. That creates a risk every time you log into something like your MetaMask wallet,” explains Khranov.
The core advantage of Fireblocks, on the other hand, is how the keys are split and how transactions are signed – and the distribution between servers. The security there is most important to us.
Edge also appreciated that, with Fireblocks, they remained the sole holders and owners of their private keys. With Fireblocks, they didn’t have to worry about the possibility of a mistake or hack on the part of a custodian. “We also like the idea that we hold our keys ourselves,” Khranov says. “I don’t want my custodian to hold my keys and move money for me, because there’s a human error potential there.”
Results
With Fireblocks, Edge Capital is able to offer a range of high-yield, blockchain-based investment services for their clients that they otherwise would not have secure access to.
In general, Edge has enjoyed a greater degree of efficiency since adopting Fireblocks. “With other providers, we used to spend 2 hours a day signing docs and sending emails, waiting for transactions to be approved. It’s a nightmare,” Khranov details.
MPC is much faster and more efficient and saves us money on gas fees. This allows us to do large transactions effectively. Fireblocks is absolutely easy and straightforward; it works really well.