Cold Storage

IBM unveils new air-gapped cold storage solution for digital assets

The new system works a lot like a time delay safe for digital assets with a policy engine to broker communications.

IBM announced the launch of IBM Hyper Protect Offline Signing Orchestrator (OSO), an air-gapped cold storage solution for digital assets, on Dec. 5. 

Working with digital asset manager Metaco — an IBM partner and Ripple subsidiary — and tier-1 banks, IBM developed the end-to-end asset encryption service to address common vulnerabilities found in typical cold storage solutions.

According to the announcement:

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Binance self-custody wallet launches crypto-to-fiat off-ramp

Trust Wallet has partnered with MoonPay and Ramp to allow customers to convert their crypto to fiat without using any centralized exchange.

Trust Wallet, the noncustodial and multichain crypto wallet, has partnered with Ramp and MoonPay to introduce seamless crypto-to-fiat withdrawals for its users. The partnership will allow wallet users to convert crypto to fiat directly within the wallet app.

The feature eliminates the need for transferring funds to a centralized wallet to liquidate or convert to fiat. With the help of this new functionality, users may now enter and exit the cryptocurrency market totally through their self-custody wallet and take complete control of their cryptocurrency funds.

Cash out window. Source: Trust Wallet

The crypto-to-fiat conversion feature comes when centralized exchanges and even peer-to-peer platforms are shutting down. The latest to shut up shop is Paxful, a popular P2P global exchange that announced its closure on April 4, citing regulatory challenges and staff shortages.

Trust Wallet’s head of product, Eric Chang, said that the off-ramp feature would prove to be a boon for customers, especially at a time when the market is turbulent, and crypto platforms are under heavy scrutiny over managing customers’ funds.

Trust Wallet is the official cryptocurrency wallet of Binance. It offers access to 65 different blockchains and boasts a customer base of 60 million users. The wallet also gives users access to decentralized applications (DApps), enabling them to communicate with DApps on any supported blockchain. Some of its key features include buying, staking, trading and storing various cryptocurrencies.

However, Trust Wallet is not a cold wallet or hardware wallet, where it remains offline until given access by the users. Trust Wallet works as a hot wallet as long as there’s an internet connection. The wallet can be accessed via a secure connection online. While this feature was intended to help users, it proved to be a disaster for the co-founder of the Web3 metaverse game engine “Webaverse,” who lost $4 million from his Trust Wallet.

Crypto wallet provider Ledger raises $109M as demand for self-custody soars

The funding is the first of three rounds for the hardware wallet provider, whose success has been fueled by growing awareness of crypto self-custody.

Hardware wallet provider Ledger has raised 100 million euros ($109 million) in a Series C funding round extension, placing its valuation at 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion), in line with its previous funding in June 2021, Bloomberg reported on March 30. The funding is the first of three investment rounds. 

According to the report, a second closing is due in April, followed by a third funding to take place at a later date, given “high investor interest.” The capital will be used to expand the company’s distribution network, increase production, and develop new products.

Ledger’s new investors include VaynerFund, Cité Gestion SPV, True Global Ventures and Digital Finance Group. Previous investors include Morgan Creek, Cathay Innovation, Draper Dragon and Cap Horn, among others.

In a recent interview with Cointelegraph at Paris Blockchain Week, Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier noted that the collapse of crypto exchanges and banks in recent months had raised the level of awareness about crypto self-custody. “Whenever the market gets stressed and whenever people fear for their savings, you know, they rush to crypto and to Ledger,” Gauthier noted.

Related: How to keep your cryptocurrency safe after the FTX collapse

Ledger reportedly had its best month of sales in November following the dramatic collapse of the crypto exchange FTX. According to the company, revenue from Ledger Live’s buy-and-sell crypto app has grown 200% in the past 12 months. Hardware wallet provider Trezor also benefited from FTX’s failure, reporting a 300% surge in sales revenue as a result of investors rescuing their funds.

Ledger claims to store more than 20% of crypto assets in circulation and 30% of the nonfungible tokens supply. Among recent moves, the company hired Tony Fadell, a builder of the iPhone, to design a new version of its hardware wallet.

Prominent figures in the industry have also encouraged crypto self-custody. “Self custody is a fundamental human right. You are free to do it anytime. Just make sure you do it right,” Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said in November, advising investors to start small and learn the technology.

Is it possible to achieve financial freedom with Bitcoin?

Bitcoin aims to bring power back to the people. Beyond that, a calculated investment in Bitcoin can potentially bring one closer to financial freedom. But how does one do that?

Over the last 14 years, investors have been attracted to Bitcoin (BTC) for many reasons — from being a potential solution to the economic woes of the existing fiat economic system to reaching the unbanked and diversifying portfolios. However, a large portion of the general public sees Bitcoin as a gateway to financial freedom amid growing fiat inflation and geopolitical uncertainties.

Traditional banking systems have, time and again, served as a tool for centralized governments to dictate financial access, especially during emergencies. Most recently, the Ukraine-Russian war served as a case study for how cryptocurrencies helped the displaced and the unbanked access funds for basic necessities.

As intended by the creator Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin seeks to bring power back to the people. No amount of regulations, sanctions or bans can stop people from using Bitcoin as money. Beyond that, a calculated investment in Bitcoin has the potential to bring people closer to attaining their dream of financial freedom. But how can people achieve that?

Hodl

The massive volatility of cryptocurrencies coupled with the restlessness of an investor is a recipe for an instant loss. Many fail to understand that Bitcoin — unlike other cryptocurrencies — is a long-term investment. Hence, Bitcoin veterans recommend holding the asset during bull markets and buying the dips during bear markets.

According to data from UpMyInterest, setting aside a few off-years, Bitcoin holders witnessed a mean annual return of 93.8%, which in its best-performing year, spiked to 302.8%.

Historical summary of Bitcoin annual returns. Source: UpMyInterest

As simple as it sounds, hodling (crypto lingo for holding assets) has proved difficult for investors. Some factors that trigger abrupt Bitcoin selling include the spreading of FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) and price movements.

While it makes sense in the short-term to earn profits off Bitcoin’s volatility, zooming out the price chart reveals a long-term greater incentive in holding. Moreover, investors owning Bitcoin will always have the option to utilize this spending across geographical boundaries without losing value.

Dollar-cost averaging

Considering Bitcoin as a viable long-term investment option, many investors tend to implement the dollar-cost averaging (DCA) strategy. This involves setting aside a predetermined dollar amount from a regular income to be reinvested in Bitcoin every day, week or month.

While El Salvador was initially criticized for adopting Bitcoin as a legal tender amid crippling inflation, the country could repurpose the resultant unrealized gains to fund social projects, such as building hospitals and schools.

With the Bitcoin bull run running out by 2022, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele followed a strategy similar to DCA, wherein the country would purchase 1 BTC every day.

When Bukele announced his plan for buying Bitcoin, it was priced roughly at $16,600, as shown by data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView.

Bitcoin price movement ever since Nayib Bukele announced plans to purchase 1 BTC every day. Source: TradingView

Since then, BTC’s price has surged 40.46%, providing much-needed relief to Salvadorans. Investors looking for financial freedom must pursue a similar strategy while reacting to market changes and public sentiment.

Self-custody

When it comes to the long-term holding of Bitcoin, the key is not to trust any other third-party entity with the assets’ private keys. Investors who store Bitcoin on crypto exchanges unknowingly give away complete control of their assets.

Ever since the FTX fraud came to light, the case of self-custody grew stronger. Investors that suffered losses owing to the alleged misappropriation of funds realized the importance of self-custody. Maintaining ownership of the private key — via self-custodial wallets — becomes paramount for those that seek financial freedom in its truest sense.

The FTX fallout also forced crypto exchanges to prove the existence and safety of users’ funds in order to avoid a low liquidity situation.

Although hardware alternatives for crypto self-custody require an upfront investment, it is up to the users to choose an ideal method of storing the private keys, even if it means writing the private keys on a piece of paper.

The three practices mentioned above — hodl, DCA and self-custody — form the main pillars of financial freedom. However, users are not limited from trying other strategies that suit their needs.

Achieving financial freedom with Bitcoin is possible. Given the nascency of the crypto ecosystem, investors are advised to focus on the long-term benefits of Bitcoin while reaping short-term gains in the process.

Binance to let institutions store crypto with cold custody

The Mirror service is based on Binance Custody and involves mirroring cold-storage assets through 1:1 collateral held on a Binance account.

Amid the centralized cryptocurrency exchanges (CEX) crisis, crypto exchange Binance is moving to improve its institutional trading services with cold-custody opportunities.

On Jan. 16, Binance announced the official launch of Binance Mirror, an off-exchange settlement solution that enables institutional investors to invest and trade using cold custody.

The newly launched Mirror service is based on Binance Custody, a regulated institutional digital asset custodian, and involves mirroring cold-storage assets through 1:1 collateral held on a Binance account.

Binance emphasized that the new solution enables more security, allowing traders to access the exchange ecosystem without having to post collateral directly on the platform, stating:

“Their assets remain secure in their segregated cold wallet for as long as their Mirror position remains open on the Binance Exchange, which can be settled at any time.”

Launched in 2021, Binance Custody is a custodian platform with its own cold-storage solutions, covering secured assets against physical loss, damage, theft and internal collusion. In March 2022, Binance Custody secured cold-wallet insurance in Lithuania to operate an institutional-grade digital asset custody solution. Mirror accounts for more than 60% of all assets secured on Binance Custody.

“We built Binance Mirror last year and have been testing it with our institutional users. User feedback has been positive, and we are happy to announce and market it officially now,” a spokesperson for Binance told Cointelegraph.

It’s still unclear whether Binance plans to provide similar cold custody services to retail investors. Binance did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.

Related: Bitcoin Core developer hack highlights self-custody risks: Community responds

The news comes shortly after Binance experienced a massive drop in liquidity, with several billions of dollars worth of crypto leaving the platform in late 2022. The liquidity decline is largely attributed to the crisis among CEXs fueled by the collapse of FTX, with investors flocking to self-custody instead of storing their assets on centralized platforms.

Amid the growing self-custody trend, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao admitted that centralized exchanges might no longer be necessary eventually. In November, Binance’s venture capital arm also invested in Belgian hardware wallet firm Ngrave.

Police body cam leaks suspect’s seed phrase during vehicle inspection

A viral video making rounds on Twitter showed two police officers searching a suspect’s car and coming across pieces of paper, one of which contained seed phrases.

While self-custody is considered the ultimate way to secure one’s funds, many fail to acknowledge the risks associated with physically storing seed phrases. A search conducted by the State Police agency for Nevada ended up making a suspect’s seed phrase public after being picked up by the body cam.

A viral video making rounds on Twitter showed two police officers searching a suspect’s car and coming across pieces of paper. It turns out that the suspect was a strong believer in self-custody as unfolding the pieces of paper revealed the suspect’s seed phrase, which was hand-written — a popular method to prevent online compromises.

Nevada State Police body cam records suspect’s seed phrase. Source: Twitter

As the incident got recorded by one of the officer’s body cameras, the suspect’s seed phrase has now become public information.

Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao saw the video and warned investors about learning the various risks involved in different methods of storing cryptocurrencies. He said:

“I am a proponent of free choice. Feel free to hold your crypto anyway you wish. But learn the risks of each method.”

The video sparked conversations around the best way to store seed phrases, with the most popular suggestion being memorizing the seed phrase. While the idea of learning the seed phrase — a unique combination of 12 or 24 words — by heart sounds safe, CZ pointed out that lack of inheritance and the forgetfulness of the human mind are two of the biggest flaws when it comes to storing important information on the “brain wallet.”

Related: How to keep your cryptocurrency safe after the FTX collapse

The arrest of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried for alleged misappropriation of funds was perceived as a cue to rethink long-term storage strategies of cryptocurrencies.

While an immediate reaction was to pull out the funds from crypto exchanges, the CEOs came forward to reassure the investors’ fund’s safety regardless of where they intend to store their cryptocurrencies.

On the other side of the spectrum, Ray Youssef, the CEO of the crypto exchange Paxful, sided with the idea of Bitcoin (BTC) self-custody. He promised to send weekly reminders to all investors to move their funds away from the exchange.

“My sole responsibility is to help and serve you. That’s why today I’m messaging all of our [Paxful] users to move your Bitcoin to self-custody. You should not keep your saving on Paxful, or any exchange, and only keep what you trade here,” he stated.

How to keep your cryptocurrency safe after the FTX collapse

Sam Bankman-Fried’s fraud of misappropriating users’ funds has led investors to explore options that can help safeguard their investments.

The fall of the FTX crypto exchange forced many to reconsider their overall approach to investments — starting from self-custody to verifying the on-chain existence of funds. This shift in approach was driven primarily by the lack of trust crypto investors have in the entrepreneurs after being duped by FTX CEO and co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF).

FTX crashed after SBF and his accomplices were caught secretly reinvesting users’ funds, resulting in the misplacement of at least $1 billion of client funds. Efforts to regain investor trust saw competing crypto exchanges proactively flaunting their proof of reserves to confirm users’ funds’ existence. However, community members have since demanded that the exchanges show their liabilities to safeguard the reserves.

With SBF, the self-proclaimed “most generous billionaire,” committing fraud in broad daylight with no visible legal implications, investors must maintain a defensive stance when it comes to protecting their investments. To safeguard assets from fraud, hacks and misappropriation, investors must take certain measures to keep total control of their assets — often considered as best crypto investment practices.

Move your funds out of the crypto exchanges

Crypto exchanges are widely used to purchase, sell and trade cryptocurrencies in exchange for a small fee. While other methods, including peer-to-peer and direct selling, are always an option, higher exchange liquidity allows investors to match orders and guarantee no loss of funds during the transaction.

The problem arises when investors decide to keep their funds in wallets provided and owned by the exchanges. Unfortunately, this is where most investors learn the lesson “not your keys, not your coins” the hard way. Cryptocurrencies being stored on exchange-provided wallets are ultimately in possession of the owner, which in the case of FTX users, was misused by SBF and associates.

Evading this risk is as simple as moving the funds out of the exchange to a wallet with no shared private keys. Private keys are secure encryptions that allow access to the funds stored in crypto wallets, which can be recovered using a backup phrase in case of misplacement.

Hardware wallet: The safest bet for storing cryptocurrencies

Hardware wallets offer total ownership over the private keys of a crypto wallet, thus limiting the funds’ access only to the owner of the hardware wallet. After procuring cryptocurrencies from an exchange, users must voluntarily transfer their assets to a hardware wallet.

Once the transaction is completed, owners of the crypto exchange will no longer be able to access the fund. As a result, investors opting for a hardware wallet will no longer risk losing funds to frauds or hacks happening over the exchanges.

Related: What is a Bitcoin Wallet? A beginner’s guide to storing BTC

However, while hardware wallets add to the overall safety of funds, cryptocurrencies remain at risk of impermanent losses when a token’s value goes down unrecoverably. Hardware wallet providers have witnessed a sharp increase in sales as investors slowly move away from storing their assets over exchanges.

Don’t trust, Verify

In all the crypto crashes that happened this year — including 3AC, Terraform Labs, Celsius, Voyager and FTX — breaking of investors’ trust was a common and evident theme. As a result, the motto of “Don’t Trust, Verify” has finally resonated with both new and seasoned investors.

Popular crypto exchanges, including Bitfinex, Binance, OKX, Bybit, Huobi and Gate.io, have taken proactive approaches to showcase their proof of reserves. The exchanges provided wallet information that allows investors to self-audit the existence of their funds within the exchange.

While proof-of-reserve shares a glimpse into an exchange’s reserves, it fails to provide the complete picture of its finances as information related to liabilities are often not made publicly available. On Nov. 26, Kraken CEO Jesse Powell called out Binance’s proof of reserve as “either ignorance or intentional misrepresentation” as the data did not include negative balances.

However, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao refuted Powell’s claims by stating that the exchange has no negative balances and will be verified in an upcoming audit.

The above three considerations are a good starting point for safeguarding crypto assets against bad actors. Some of the other popular methods to take away control from the crypto entrepreneurs are using decentralized exchanges (DEX), self-custody (noncustodial) wallets and doing extensive research (DYOR) on seemingly investible projects.

FTX fiasco boosts Bitcoin ownership to new highs: Analysts weigh in

Data analytics firm Glassnode, hardware provider Trezor and Bitcoin exchange Relai observe an uptick in Bitcoin self-custody.

The bear market has inspired the little guy to accumulate vast amounts of Bitcoin (BTC). The number of wallets holding 1 BTC or more recently hit new highs, while those with 10 BTC or fewer are setting accumulation records.

However, to what extent are these newly minted “wholecoiners” taking custody of their private keys? Has the recent spate of insolvency among centralized exchanges (CEX) encouraged Bitcoin enthusiasts to move their Bitcoin into cold storage, removed from third-party risk?

For Checkmate, the lead analyst at Glassnode, the data would point to this result. “Overall it looks like at least a short-term movement towards self-custody.” Checkmate told Cointelegraph. “Partly out of concern for CEX solvency.”

“Last few weeks have been the largest monthly decline in exchange balances in history, peaking at 177.9K BTC/month in withdrawal volume.”

He also shared that withdrawals from exchanges have set new records, with users taking thousands of Bitcoin off exchanges. The spike is shown in red on the graph.

Customers withdrawing Bitcoin from exchanges has impacted exchange supply. The number of Bitcoin available on exchanges has “fallen to its lowest % of supply (11.99%) since December 2017. This means pretty much every coin that flowed in over the last 12 months has flowed out,” Checkmate observed.

Plus, according to Glassnode data, withdrawals from exchanges accounted “for ~30% of all transactions in recent weeks.” That would suggest an overall shift to self-custody: Bitcoin is being sent to hot or cold wallets.

When Bitcoin investors “withdraw” from exchanges, it can be to an offline hardware wallet, sometimes called cold storage, or an online wallet (hot). Hardware wallets or signing devices are tools that manage a user’s cryptocurrency wallet and private keys. Popular hardware wallets include Ledger, Trezor and ColdCard; hot wallets include Blue Wallet or Exodus Wallet.

Josef Tětek, Bitcoin analyst at Trezor — one of the world’s largest hardware wallet providers — has observed a considerable drive in sales in the past month. “We have seen a dramatic rise in interest in Trezor devices and new Trezor Suite downloads,” Tětek told Cointelegraph. “Our sales are hitting historic highs over the past few weeks.

“Normally, a bear market is rather a quiet period for us, so this uplift in sales only shows how big of an impact the collapses of FTX and BlockFi have on people’s trust in custodian services.”

Cointelegraph had previously reported that Trezor benefited from a 300% increase in hardware sales due to the FTX fiasco. That’s despite the price of Bitcoin grinding down to the mid-teens.

For Switzerland-based Bitcoin exchange Relai, it’s a similar story. The company shared with Cointelegraph that it’s seen plenty of new users as well as increased volume since FTX’s collapse, with November the best month in the Bitcoin exchange’s history.

Related: First time bear market? Advice from Bitcoin bull Michael Saylor

Imo Bábics, the Chief Marketing Officer at Relai told Cointelegraph:

“Well, we are noncustodial, to begin with. We have definitely noticed more people buying Bitcoin due to the FTX crash.”

Relai added, “We know from our friends at ShiftCrypto that there’s been a huge increase in demand for their BitBoxes.”

ShiftCrypto is a hardware wallet provider like Trezor. The company’s social media feeds shared several stories of users who recently became Bitcoin self-custody advocates following FTX’s bankruptcy.

Bitcoin addresses holding at least 1 BTC close in to a million

Exchange balances continue to deplete while the number of “wholecoiner” Bitcoin addresses hits new highs.

Smaller wallet addresses in the Bitcoin (BTC) ecosystem continue accumulating BTC despite market turmoil.

The number of known addresses on the Bitcoin blockchain that hold 1 BTC or more has hit a new all-time high. According to blockchain analytics company Glassnode, the number of wallets holding at least 1 BTC or more reached 950,000.

Bitcoin balances of 1 BTC or more has surged since November. Source: Glassnode

Bitcoin podcast host Jake Woodhouse told Cointelegraph, “To the untrained eye, the price of something reflects the value. However, price action should not be confused with value, as the most recent data in the Bitcoin market represents.” He added:

“Plebs around the world are hoovering up Bitcoin, as they see this is an opportunity to accumulate a wildly under-valued asset, which most assume has no value as the price collapses. ‘Bitcoin is dead,’ shouts the mainstream… Is it? Clearly, many disagree.”

Bitcoin “pleb” is the name adorned to ordinary people around the globe who support Bitcoin. Plebs buy Bitcoin — or in pleb speak, stack sats (satoshis) — and continue to believe in Bitcoin despite mainstream media’s attempts to eulogize the decentralized technology.

The trend coincides with billions of dollars of Bitcoin and crypto exiting exchanges. As Woodhouse suggests, the Bitcoin plebs of humbler means demonstrate higher levels of conviction while the price flirts with the low teens.

Woodhouse digs into self-custody: “How many of these BTC are in self-custody never to be moved again? My bet: the majority.” Indeed, in the aftermath of the FTX fiasco, some Bitcoin enthusiasts are learning how to take custody of their Bitcoin, registering record withdrawals from exchanges.

Bitcoin Balance on exchanges trends lower. Source: Glassnode

According to Glassnode data, exchange balances have trended down since the beginning of the year. In January, exchanger balances measured roughly 2.8 million, or almost 15% of the total supply of Bitcoin mined. In November, exchanges balances are down to 2.3 million Bitcoin or shy of 11% of the total supply.

Related: Ledger hardware wallets hit by the FTX earthquake — CTO

Woodhouse told Cointelegraph, “The bear market is highlighting the fraudsters who have been selling bitcoin derivatives, naturally promoting the superpower of bitcoin self-custody, which I believe individuals are taking heed of; a signal of huge positivity for the bitcoin bulls.”

Billionaire Michael Saylor, one of the wealthiest Bitcoin bulls, agrees. Saylor recently shared nuggets of wisdom with Cointelegraph concerning the bear market. He advised Bitcoin buyers to relax and focus on the bigger picture.

Crypto.com accidentally sends 320k ETH to Gate.io, recovers funds days after

Crypto.com CEO confirmed the return of the funds and reassured the investors that new processes and features were implemented to prevent a reoccurrence.

The fall of FTX highlighted the importance of proof of reserves in averting risks and improving investor confidence, urging leading crypto exchanges to publicly list down their cold and hot wallet addresses. When trying to confirm the availability of funds on Crypto.com, cold store information revealed a suspicious transfer of 320,000 Ether (ETH) to a wallet address linked to Gate.io on Oct. 21, 2022.

On chain data confirms the transfer of 320,000 ETH from Crypto.com to Gate.io. Source: Etherscan

Community member jconorgrogan raised concerns about the transfer of 320,000 ETH from Crypto.com’s cold wallet to Gate.io, considering that the former claims that 100% of user-owned cryptocurrencies are held offline in cold storage in partnership with hardware wallet provider Ledger.

As discussions picked up steam, Kris Marszalek, the CEO of Crypto.com, revealed that the funds — representing 82% of Crypto.com’s ETH holding in the cold storage at the time of writing — were sent accidentally to Gate.io:

“It was supposed to be a move to a new cold storage address, but was sent to a whitelisted external exchange address.”

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Crypto.com spokesperson clarified that the whitelisted address on Gate.io was owned by Crypto.com. Regardless, Marszalek confirmed that Gate.io returned the funds to Crypto.com’s cold storage and reassured the investors that new processes and features were implemented to prevent a reoccurrence.

While on-chain data confirms that Gate.io returned 285,000 ETH back to Crypto.com, Marszalek stated that all funds were returned. Further investigation showed that the missing 35,000 ETH was sent to a different address, which is yet to be confirmed by the crypto exchange.

In a series of tweets, Marszalek later explained what transpired while confirming that all of Crypto.com’s operations were functioning normally.

It’s not the first time Crypto.com made headlines for an accidental transfer. Back in August 2022, it was found that Crypto.com accidentally sent AUD $10.5 million (worth over $7 million) to Melbourne-based investors, which was supposed to be an AUD $100 ($67) refund. The incident occurred back in May 2021 but was not discovered until an annual audit in December 2021.

Related: Crypto.com commits to proof-of-reserves after halting FTX-backed Solana deposits and withdrawals

Marszalek promised to publish Crypto.com audited proof of reserves on November 10 while highlighting the importance of transparency and user’s safety.

With most crypto businesses willing to share their proof of reserves, investors now have the opportunity to confirm the existence of their funds, which ultimately prevents business owners from misusing the cold storage funds.