UK digital bank Revolut partners with Fireblocks to develop new crypto products

Revolut, the London-based fintech firm, has enlisted crypto security firm Fireblocks to lay the foundations for new crypto products.

Revolut currently offers its 13 million customers exposure to Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, XRP, Bitcoin Cash and Stellar lumens, but the cryptocurrencies are held on customers’ behalf by the company and cannot be transferred out of the app.

Fireblocks, whose core product is a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets, said in a press release that it will provide Revolut with the infrastructure needed “for securing the payment railways for digital asset transfers” and to introduce new product lines and retail-facing capabilities.

Ed Cooper, head of crypto at Revolut, said the tie-up with Fireblocks will allow Revolut to “rapidly add more advanced crypto features as the space continues to evolve at breakneck speed.”

Neither company would specify, however, exactly what those products will be.

Fireblocks’s customers span a range of institutions, from exchanges to hedge funds. The company relies on multi-party computation technology, an emerging field of cryptography that distributes computation across a number of parties without allowing any individual party to see other's data.

Michael Shaulov, chief executive of Fireblocks, believes this sets his product apart in a crowded field.

“There are many hot wallet and cold storage custody options, even warm ones, but what Fireblocks provides is secure rails for funds to be easily transitioned from cold storage or any other storage solution and settled on the largest institutional digital asset transfer network. The network provides secure access to exchanges, liquidity providers, lending desks and counterparties,” he told the Block.

Shaulov said he expects an announcement with more specifics about the collaboration with Revolut in the coming weeks.