Ether storage coming to Casa as centralized exchanges lose their luster

Crypto firm Casa will offer customers the ability to store ether, with its CEO referencing the FTX collapse as a reason for its appeal.

“A lot of people learned the hard lesson of why holding your own keys is important,” CEO Nick Neuman told The Block in an interview. “I hope we can use this as an industry turning point to continue educating people on the importance of self custody.” 

Casa is launching a refreshed app in January that will provide ether self-storage on its platform in addition to bitcoin as it says the shortcomings of keeping cryptocurrency on centralized exchanges like FTX and Binance become apparent. Centralized exchange spot trading volumes decreased by 26% to $544 billion in October from the previous month, according to The Block Research. 

Over the last few weeks there has been a “huge” number of new users joining the platform, Neuman said.

The addition of ether is only one part of the “next phase of the company’s journey,” which will include initiatives such as new membership plans. 

In May, the firm raised $21 million to build an API that connects Casa to other financial applications. Neuman said the effort is driven by the belief that “everything in our digital lives will be protected by private keys.”