Fireblocks

Market position

At its January 2022 Series E, Fireblocks was described as the highest-valued digital asset infrastructure provider, with an investor estimating that roughly 15% of daily crypto transaction volume was secured through its infrastructure. Sacra characterizes it as one of the most well-funded companies in the digital asset infrastructure sector, with about $1.04 billion raised. Competition is grouped into vertically integrated exchanges with custody arms (Coinbase Prime, Binance's Ceffu, Kraken Custody), regulated digital asset banks and trust companies (Anchorage Digital, BitGo, Zodia Custody, Komainu), and MPC wallet specialists (Ledger Enterprise, Copper).

Fireblocks positions itself as the originator of MPC-CMP for digital assets, a protocol that never assembles a private key in one place, requires fewer signing rounds than standard MPC (described as 8x faster), and supports cold-storage signing with offline key shares. Key shares are distributed across multiple tier-1 cloud environments, on-premises data centers, or hybrid setups. Security controls are layered — MPC, SGX secure enclaves, a Policy Engine whose rules are signed by an admin quorum and executed inside enclaves so neither hackers nor insiders can alter them, and the Fireblocks Network for deposit-address authentication. Third-party analysis notes that competitors with bank charters hold regulatory and balance-sheet advantages Fireblocks lacks, while MPC wallet specialists often price lower but offer narrower product scope; Fireblocks' differentiation rests on platform breadth, security depth, and network effects.

Technology

The platform's cryptographic core is the Fireblocks MPC-CMP protocol for ECDSA and EdDSA signatures, which never reconstitutes a whole private key, uses fewer signing rounds than standard MPC (stated as 8x faster), and supports offline key shares for cold storage. Key shares are distributed across multiple tier-1 clouds, on-premises HSMs, or hybrid configurations. Intel SGX secure enclaves isolate cryptographic material, algorithms (MPC and zero-knowledge proofs), and API/exchange credentials from server-level compromise and from insiders including Fireblocks employees. The Policy Engine runs inside SGX with policy verification distributed across MPC servers, and rules are signed by an admin quorum, hashed, and encrypted so they cannot be modified. Additional controls include an Admin Quorum for workspace changes, mandatory two-factor authentication, multi-device approval with TEEs and biometrics, transaction simulation and real-time DeFi threat detection, token approval monitoring and revocation, and Fireblocks Security Posture Management.

Go-to-market

The company sells directly to institutions through a sales-led motion, with website calls to action to talk to sales and request a demo, supported by published customer case studies (ABN AMRO, Revolut, Bridge, GSR, QCP). It also offers developer-facing documentation, APIs, and SDKs, and has added self-service functionality allowing customers to manage users, reset 2FA, whitelist IP addresses, and change their Admin Quorum directly in the workspace to accelerate onboarding. The Fireblocks Network itself acts as a distribution channel, as connected counterparties and exchange/fiat partners increase the platform's value to new members.

Financial institutions and digital asset businesses: banks, custodians, crypto exchanges, fintechs, trading and lending desks, hedge funds, asset managers, payments companies, and Web3 businesses. Named customers and case studies include ABN AMRO, Revolut, Bridge, GSR, QCP, Bank of New York Mellon, Galaxy Digital, Crypto.com, BlockFi, Deribit, eToro, CoinShares, SwissBorg, 3AC, B2C2, and MultiBank.io.

Geography

Sacra lists headquarters in New York, United States, and the company states it has offices around the globe. Customer growth reported for 2021 was led by institutions in the Asia Pacific and the Europe, Middle East and Africa regions. The stablecoin payments network is described as covering over 100 countries and 60 currencies.

History

The founders met while working at cybersecurity vendor Check Point, where they participated in the task force investigating the 2017 Lazarus Group breach of four South Korean exchanges. Sacra lists a founding year of 2018. The company grew from 150 customers at the start of 2021 to more than 800 by January 2022, when it announced a $550 million Series E at an $8 billion valuation, bringing total capital raised to roughly $1 billion (approximately $1.04 billion cumulatively per Sacra). Subsequent developments include the Tokenization Engine 2.0 with LayerZero, the September 2025 launch of a Global Stablecoin Payments Network, the appointment of former SEC Acting Chairman Elad Roisman as Chief Regulatory and Policy Officer, and activity by Fireblocks Trust Company, an NYDFS-chartered qualified custodian, including a staking arrangement with Figment for the NEAR treasury vehicle SVRN.

Risks & controversies

Third-party analysis notes that Fireblocks does not hold a bank-grade trust charter comparable to competitors such as Anchorage Digital, which confers regulatory and balance-sheet advantages, and that vertically integrated exchange platforms combining trading, leverage, and custody pressure Fireblocks on total cost of ownership and time-to-market. MPC wallet specialists compete on price. The company also operates in a threat environment it documents itself, including exchange compromises such as the Bybit hack and prospective quantum-computing risk to cryptographic security.