Xapo
Gibraltar · Founded 2013 · 12 known investors
Acquired by Coinbase Custody Trust Company August 2019 · $55M · source ↗
Xapo provides banking and wealth management services for Bitcoin holders, offering savings accounts with interest returns, lending against Bitcoin collateral, and custody solutions.
Founders & leadership
Xapo was founded in 2013 by Wenceslao 'Wences' Casares, Federico Murrone, and Wences Casares.
Board
Investors · 12
Also in the syndicate · 2
Funding
SEC filings, press & company announcements$20M disclosed across 1 of 4 rounds · 2014
- $20MraisedMar 2014 · 2 sourcesSource ↗
Source: company announcements and press reports — follow each round's link for the claim.
Valuation · disclosed
Disclosed eventsSource: SEC prospectus filings, and round valuations the company or its investors disclosed — follow each entry's link for the claim.
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Xapo was founded in late 2013 by Argentine entrepreneur Wences (Wenceslao) Casares, with Federico Murrone as co-founder/COO (Crunchbase also lists Thong Ngo as a co-founder/early compliance executive). Casares was already a well-known Latin American tech entrepreneur: he built Argentina's first ISP in 1994, founded online brokerage Patagon in 1997 (sold to Banco Santander for roughly $750M in 2000), founded Brazilian bank Banco Lemon (acquired by Banco do Brasil in 2009), founded videogame studio Wanako Games (acquired by Activision in 2007), and founded digital wallet Lemon Wallet, which he sold to LifeLock for roughly $43M in 2013 — the same year he started Xapo. Casares became an early and vocal bitcoin evangelist (dubbed 'Patient Zero' in Silicon Valley bitcoin circles) after personally losing bitcoin to insecure storage in 2011, which inspired him to build a personal 'vault' that friends and institutions began asking to use, forming Xapo's original business idea: combine an everyday hot wallet with deep cold storage (bitcoin stored on air-gapped servers in secure, guarded, often underground/mountain vaults on multiple continents).
Xapo launched publicly in March 2014, raising a $20M Series A led by Benchmark (partner Matt Cohler), with participation from Fortress Investment Group, Pantera Capital and Ribbit Capital. Later in 2014 (reported as of around August 2014, bringing total funding to roughly $40M), the company closed additional Series A financing led by Greylock Partners and Index Ventures, with Greylock partner Reid Hoffman joining as the Greylock representative; other listed investors/board members over time include Meyer 'Micky' Malka (Ribbit Capital), Santi Subotovsky (Emergence Capital), Mike Volpi (Index Ventures), and angel investor Yuri Milner. Crunchbase records only two rounds total, both tagged 'Series A,' consistent with an initial tranche plus an expansion tranche rather than a separate priced Series B. No further institutional equity rounds are publicly documented after 2014, and no current valuation is disclosed.
In April 2014 Xapo launched a bitcoin-backed debit card. The company relocated its legal/operational base from Palo Alto, California to Zug, Switzerland in 2015 (part of the 'Crypto Valley' migration many bitcoin firms made), and later established Gibraltar as its banking headquarters. Xapo obtained a European e-money license in Gibraltar (2017) and a New York State BitLicense (2018), becoming one of the few licensed bitcoin custodians serving U.S. institutional clients; it later voluntarily relinquished the BitLicense and discontinued U.S. retail service (around January 2022 / reported early 2022), reflecting a strategic pivot away from the U.S. market. At its peak as a custodian, Xapo was widely reported to be the world's largest holder of bitcoin, with a 2024 Fortune report describing the vaults as still holding on the order of 25,000 BTC (~$1.3B at the time).
Business model
Originally a freemium bitcoin wallet/cold-storage vault and institutional custody provider; today Xapo Bank is a licensed private bank that holds customer USD and Bitcoin deposits (fully reserved, not re-lent), pays interest on both, and charges an annual membership fee (reported as ~$150/year) plus other banking/brokerage fees; also offers blue-chip stock trading for non-US members.
Membership/account fees, interest rate spread on deposits, and transaction/brokerage fees; historically also earned custody fees from institutional bitcoin storage prior to the 2019 sale of that business to Coinbase.
▸Full profile — profile (continued), go-to-market, ownership
Profile (continued)
The pivotal corporate event was in August 2019, when Coinbase acquired Xapo's institutional custody business (the bitcoin storage/custody operations serving funds and institutions) for a reported $55 million, instantly making Coinbase Custody one of the largest crypto custodians globally. This was a sale of a business line/asset acquisition, not an acquisition of the whole company — Xapo itself continued to exist, retaining its retail wallet/vault customers and its Gibraltar banking license, and pivoted into becoming 'Xapo Bank,' a private bank offering both USD and Bitcoin accounts with interest to retail and high-net-worth members, concentrated heavily in Argentina and Latin America (markets with currency instability, echoing Casares's own founding motivation). Xapo Bank markets itself on a 'never lend, always fully reserved' custody promise for member crypto, charges an annual membership fee (reported around $150), and has continued to expand its product set: adding blue-chip U.S. stock trading for non-U.S. members (reported 2023) and launching interest-bearing Bitcoin and fiat accounts targeted at the UK market in August 2024.
Leadership transitioned over time: Wences Casares moved from CEO to Executive Chairman/Founder, while Seamus Rocca (an Oxford Saïd Business School-educated executive) has served as CEO since around 2017, running day-to-day operations of Xapo Bank from Gibraltar. Joey Garcia is referenced in 2024 press coverage as the company's top lawyer/general counsel. Karsten Behrend has been referenced as SVP & Chief Compliance Officer. Casares separately has served on the boards of PayPal (since 2016) and of Facebook's Diem/Libra cryptocurrency project, and is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader (2011) and Henry Crown Fellow (2017), lending Xapo continued credibility in fintech/crypto circles even as he stepped back operationally.
Competitively, Xapo/Xapo Bank sits at the intersection of crypto custody (competing historically with BitGo, Coinbase Custody, Gemini Custody, Casa, and Metaco) and crypto-friendly digital/private banking (competing with players like Circle, Wirex, Kraken, and various emerging-market neobanks). Crunchbase's own comparison set names BitGo, OKX, and Gemini as closest competitors. Because Xapo Bank does not publicly disclose customer counts, deposits, or revenue, precise current scale metrics could not be confirmed from public sources as of this research (August 2026); the most concrete recent figure available is the ~25,000 BTC in reserves cited by Fortune in February 2024.
Go-to-market
Individuals and family offices seeking secure bitcoin custody (original product); currently: retail members (concentrated in Argentina and Latin America) and international clients seeking a dollar+bitcoin private bank account, plus institutional/high-net-worth clients historically.
Ownership
private
Compiled by commissioned research from 45 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Competitors · 10
by search overlap
Companies competing with Xapo for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.
Customers & partners
Partnerships · 4
Relationships the company or its partners disclosed publicly — case studies, joint announcements, press.
Pricing
as listed Jun 2026Public list pricing as researched from the company's own pricing pages; negotiated and enterprise terms vary.
Timeline · 26
launches, deals, and filingsManual searches covered hacks, theft, insolvency, regulatory enforcement and customer litigation.
N/A · No confirmed material breach or insolvency of the core Xapo platform was found. This is a bounded negative search, not a guarantee of absence. source ↗
Cayman fund managed by Hilbert opened to eligible members after regulatory approval and early access.
RIT Capital exited its holding in a management buyout at a 37% uplift to December 2024 holding value; price and cap table undisclosed.
Expanded banking services into the UK after regulatory passporting/approval.
Xapo Bank launches interest-bearing Bitcoin and fiat accounts targeted at UK customers.
Xapo Bank launches blue-chip US stock investment features for non-US members.
Xapo relinquishes its New York BitLicense and stops serving US customers, focusing instead on Latin America and other international markets.
Xapo stopped serving U.S. customers as it focused on Gibraltar banking.
Group converted its regulated infrastructure into a Bitcoin-enabled private bank.
Dennis Nowak alleged 500 BTC stolen from an unnamed exchange account was traced to accounts controlled by Xapo (19.99 BTC) and Indodax (479.69 BTC) and asserted liability for hacking/holding the funds.
U.S. District Court, Northern District of California · On November 20, 2020 the court granted defendants' motion to dismiss with leave to amend. No later merits judgment against Xapo was located in the manual review. source ↗
Coinbase acquired the institutional custody businesses for a reported $55m; retail Xapo continued.
Coinbase Custody acquires Xapo's institutional bitcoin custody business for a reported $55 million; Xapo pivots to become Xapo Bank, retaining retail wallet/vault customers and its banking license.
Xapo is awarded a BitLicense by the New York State Department of Financial Services.
NYDFS authorized Xapo to provide regulated virtual-currency services in New York.
Not an enforcement matter. Xapo obtained a BitLicense in 2018, later discontinued U.S. service and surrendered it in January 2022.
New York State Department of Financial Services · Xapo does not serve U.S. residents; current regulated base is Gibraltar with UK permissions/financial-promotion arrangements. source ↗
Xapo is granted a European e-money license in Gibraltar, later becoming its banking headquarters.
Company timeline says registered users reached one million by year end.
Xapo moves its base of operations from Palo Alto, California to Zug, Switzerland.
LifeLock alleged Xapo technology was developed by Lemon personnel using Lemon time, computers, facilities and IP around LifeLock's $42.6m Lemon acquisition. Casares denied wrongdoing and counterclaimed that LifeLock had approved the separate project and breached obligations.
California Superior Court and later Delaware court · First California case was reported dismissed in 2016 and appealed; LifeLock filed a Delaware complaint. No final public disposition was located in this review; allegations should not be treated as proven. source ↗
Xapo raises additional Series A funding, bringing total raised to roughly $40M, with Greylock Partners (Reid Hoffman) and Index Ventures leading.
Xapo debuts a bitcoin-backed debit card, among the first of its kind.
Xapo publicly launches its bitcoin wallet and vault, announcing a $20M Series A led by Benchmark with Fortress, Pantera Capital and Ribbit Capital participating.
Introduced everyday wallet and insured deep-cold-storage vault alongside first funding.
Casares and Murrone turned their private Bitcoin vault into a wallet/custody company.
Wences Casares founds Xapo along with Federico Murrone, building on Casares's personal bitcoin cold-storage 'vault' concept.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
Legal entities · 5
corporate structureIn the news
▸Research sources · 45
primary sources listed
- Xapo BankXapo Bank · company website
- Xapo Bank investment case studyRIT Capital Partners · investor exit disclosure
- Membership benefitsXapo Bank · product and pricing page
- Security SystemXapo Bank · security documentation
- Virtual currency businessesNew York State Department of Financial Services · regulatory registry
- About Xapo BankXapo Bank · company history and leadership
- Service Fees and Glossary of TermsXapo Bank · legal fee schedule
- Xapo Bank Limited Terms and ConditionsXapo Bank · legal terms
- Xapo Bank in 2025Xapo Bank · company year review
- Pillar 3 Disclosures 2025 Year EndXapo Bank · regulatory financial disclosure
- Xapo Bank secures Gibraltar approval for Bitcoin yieldHilbert Group · partner announcement
- Our card access just got boosted with VisaXapo Bank · product announcement
45 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Xapo do?
- The everyday bitcoin wallet with the security of a deep cold storage vault (original); International private bank giving access to US Dollars and Bitcoin (current)
- Who founded Xapo?
- Xapo was founded by Wenceslao 'Wences' Casares, Federico Murrone, Wences Casares in 2013.
- Who are Xapo's investors?
- Xapo's investors include Digital Currency Group, Emergence Capital, Emergence Capital Partners, Fortress Investment Group, Greylock Partners, Jerry Yang, Pantera Capital, Ribbit Capital and 2 more.
- How much funding has Xapo raised?
- Xapo has disclosed $20M raised across 1 of its 4 known rounds.
- Where is Xapo headquartered?
- Xapo is headquartered in Gibraltar.