We make it safer, faster and easier for institutions and individuals to safeguard and administer cryptoassets.
Registered cryptoassets firm with the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FRN No. 928556)
Our Story
Greater freedom to transact.
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Originally named Trustology we were founded in 2017 and backed by ConsenSys and Two Sigma Ventures. Bitpanda Custody was established on the premise of enabling greater freedom to transact in a fair and efficient manner. By bringing the world of blockchain technology and cryptoassets to new market participants, we believe this will help make this happen.
But the problem with crypto lies in its complexity and how easy it is to lose assets without the right foundational layer for private key security and management. Many of the solutions today are either too complicated, expensive, cumbersome, slow or not secure enough to self-manage.
That’s why we prioritised and built TrustVault — a fast, user-friendly and highly secure custodial wallet service for institutions and individuals designed to address the security and ownership shortcomings of existing solutions today.
Through our people, processes and technology, we are about developing and designing solutions that make it safer, faster and easier to manage, create or find value in crypto markets.
In 2022 we were acquired by Bitpanda GmbH and rebranded to Bitpanda Custody.
Newsroom
Approach
Our Methodology
People, process and technology
To build safer, faster and easier solutions you have to invest in the combination of people, process and technology. We combine experts in banking, cryptography and technology with well-designed processes and superior technology to deliver tamper-proof solutions for how people should securely hold cryptoassets and handle any financial transaction. We're committed to excellence in everything we do and with everyone we engage with.
No compromise
We only build and design solutions that we know will continue to improve on security, deliver on efficiencies and work in real-time for our clients. It's about making it safer, faster and easier for our clients to manage their cryptoasset activities through our framework of people, processes, technology.
Best of both worlds
We’re driven by the idea of decentralised finance, but some aspects of regular banking make too much sense to give up. Like account recovery, deposit protection and simple user interfaces. We build our solutions to provide decentalisation where it’s needed and centralisation where it’s wanted.
Leadership
An inspired and highly-experienced team
Our carefully selected and vetted leadership team has decades of experience working at world-class institutions such as JPMorgan, PWC, the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, UBS, BNY Mellon, and RBS.
Alex Batlin
Founder & Managing Director
Alex Batlin
Founder & Managing Director
Alex is an entrepreneur with extensive banking and blockchain experience.
Previously, at BNY Mellon, Alex was Blockchain Lead and founding head of Emerging Business & Technology team. At UBS, Alex was founding head of a blockchain-focused FinTech Innovation Lab in UK’s Level 39 accelerator. Alex co-founded Utility Settlement Coin, Enterprise Ethereum Alliance and Trusted IoT consortias, and was featured in the 2015 FinTech Finance35 and 2016 FinTech 40 lists.
Mark Hornsby
CTO
Mark Hornsby
CTO
Mark is a dedicated technologist with extensive industry experience in top tier investment banks.
In his most recent role, Mark was recognised as a Distinguished Engineer in his Senior Innovation Engineer role, where he was responsible for examining emerging technology and its possible applications within Royal Bank of Scotland. Previously, Mark was head of Counterparty Credit Risk Technology at RBS.
Prior to working at RBS, Mark was a Credit Risk developer at UBS, and OTC Derivatives developer at Deutsche Bank.
Paul Yardley
Head of Software Engineering
Paul Yardley
Head of Software Engineering
Paul is a highly skilled software engineer and team leader with many years of experience working for top tier banks.
Prior to joining Trustology as Head of Engineering, Paul worked as a lead engineer in BNY Mellon’s Blockchain team. Before BNY Mellon, Paul worked as a senior engineer in UBS’s Level 39 FinTech Innovation Lab on Blockchain projects. Further back, Paul lead multiple software development teams at IBM and later UBS, including UBS equity research team.
Web services and applications
Our Technology
TrustVault is powered by the world’s most secure hardware and software designed to safeguard private keys and protect digital assets from loss, destruction, theft and fraud, whilst providing the flexibility to transfer instantly, at any time, anywhere. Combined with insurance protection and a robust account recovery process, we ensure our clients can transact in real-time, securely and efficiently.
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TrustVault
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TrustVault Web Services
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TrustSign Firmware
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Blockchain
How it works
A step-change in private key safeguarding
Stage 1
Instruction Keys
Your Instruction Key is used to sign outgoing transactions, once authorised with your password and facial-scan or fingerprint. The transaction is then submitted to TrustVault via our secure API. This key is kept within your phone’s secure processor, known as the Secure Enclave on iOS, and forever linked to your biometric and government ID.
Secure Enclave
Today, most high-end mobile devices contain a dedicated processor designed to store our most sensitive personal data, such as passwords and biometrics. This processor works similarly to a hardware wallet and, when connected with TrustVault, enables Instruction Keys to be securely stored on a phone.
Stage 2
Policy Files
Your wallet account Policy File is managed within our HSM cluster and used to validate the legitimacy of each transaction. For individuals, a Policy File confirms that the correct Instruction Key signed the transaction before approving a transfer. For businesses, it powers a unique set of advanced security controls, like multi-signatory rules.
Hardware security modules (HSMs)
HSMs are physical computing devices designed to safeguard and manage private keys for crypto-processing. TrustVault uses a global network of these HSMs to provide the industry’s highest level of security.
Stage 3
Transaction Keys
Your Transaction Key is the actual key used to secure assets on the blockchain. It is managed in our secure HSM cluster at all times — it can never be seen by human eyes. Once your Policy File has been used to confirm the legitimacy of your transfer, your Transaction Key is used to re-sign the transaction, providing the final signature needed to complete a transfer on the blockchain.
Hardware security modules (HSMs)
HSMs are physical computing devices designed to safeguard and manage private keys for crypto-processing. TrustVault uses a global network of these HSMs to provide the industry’s highest level of security.
Stage 4
Instant completion
It takes approximately ⅓ of a second to re-sign a transaction in our HSM cluster, providing almost zero delay between the moment you request a transaction and the point at which it’s submitted to the blockchain.
Security
Industry-leading security
End-to-end hardware security
Starting with the front-end secure enclave in iOS mobile devices and other key storage hardware through to our back-end infrastructure of top-of-the-line hardware security modules (HSMs) and secure data centres. We ensure secure storage for our clients with real-time access and transfers.
Automation
TrustVault’s transaction control, verification and signing procedures are managed entirely by our custom firmware operating within HSMs, which are immune to tampering and eliminate the security risks and transaction delays associated with human operators.
Resiliency
The TrustVault Platform operates on a highly-secure, geographically distributed network of dedicated data centres and cloud-based technology, supported by insurance, 24/7 infrastructure monitoring and bank-standard fallback, redundancy and tamper-prevention systems. Through this infrastructure, we take care to ensure no single points of failure.
Risk prevention
Systemic risk prevention
Cyber and physical theft
All private keys and controls are managed within tamper proof programmable HSMs, and then stored in secure data centres with highly-available multiple encrypted backups in the cloud.
Fraudulent transfers
All transfer instructions must pass through our three-step signing process, beginning with submission via a registered TrustVault app, installed on a mobile device containing a secure processor and biometric locking hardware.
Operator risk
Unlike omnibus account wallets, TrustVault enables each user to own one or more unique, key-safeguarded blockchain wallet addresses, the contents of which can be independently audited by the owner at any time.
Careers
Join the movement
We’re looking for fast-movers and brilliant thinkers to help us drive the adoption of the crypto economy. If you can’t see the right position today, we still want to hear from you. Send us your CV and we’ll keep you in mind as we grow.
Open Roles: Sales Representative
Insights
Our Thinking
MAKE THE MOVE
Create your TrustVault Account today
Experience a new standard in cryptoasset security and management.
Cryptoassets supported
