Aptos-based multisig wallet Msafe raises $5 million led by Jump Crypto

Aptos-based wallet startup Momentum Safe (MSafe) raised $5 million in seed funding led by Jump Crypto. 

The round for the multi-signature wallet protocol, which was founded in July last year, featured participation from Superscrypt, Circle Ventures, Coinbase Ventures and Shima Capital, among others.

It chose not to disclose how the deal, which was a simple agreement for future equity with a token warrant, valued the startup. 

Multi-sig, or multi-signature, is a digital signature arrangement used in crypto wallets that requires more than one user to authorize and send transactions.

Such solutions are favored over single signature wallets by enterprises as they enable a team to have more control, CEO Wendy Fu said in an interview with The Block. 

"They're not going to hold all their assets in a single key wallet — that's where we see the gap," she added. 

Through MSafe, account holders can not only manage multi-signature accounts but also lending, yield farming and NFT transactions. 

New blockchain

While there are popular multisig iterations already in operation on other blockchains — notably Safe on Ethereum — Fu, a former software engineer for Meta's crypto payments wallet Novi, said that MSafe is the first such solution on Aptos. 

Aptos is a new layer one blockchain built by Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching, both of whom previously worked on Meta’s Diem project. It uses a programming language called Move that was originally intended for Diem. The blockchain launched on mainnet in October last year.  

"Their approach is to introduce enterprises onto the layer one...  and then with that, attract the users of these enterprises," said Fu, explaining the strategy of Aptos and Sui, another layer one built on Move, created by former Meta employees. 

MSafe itself is led by Fu and CTO Jacky Wang, who was previously a developer at blockchain network Harmony.

The team plans to use the funding to push forward with its plans for an integrated app store that shows selected and trusted applications on Aptos. There are also plans to integrate cross-chain asset support and tooling for decentralized autonomous organizations. 

Correction: This story has been updated after clarification from a Jump spokesperson.