The Global VC

CYBAVO Delivers Crypto Asset Management Solutions for Enterprises

From addressing cybersecurity to usability at scale, there are growing opportunities for crypto asset management platforms that offer a wide range of secure solutions tailored for enterprises. 

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Co-founders Paul Fan (left) and Tim Hsu.
Picture courtesy of CYBAVO.

Shawn Chu

Shawn Chu

Principal

PUBLISHED

2023.10.18

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Austin Lee is co-author.

It’s increasingly clear that Wall Street and large corporate players are starting to embrace cryptocurrencies. But there’s still plenty of volatility and unknowns in the world of crypto, and enterprise adoption of digital assets can still be a rocky affair. From addressing cybersecurity to usability at scale, there are growing opportunities for crypto asset management platforms that offer a wide range of secure solutions tailored for enterprises. 

CYBAVO aims to fill this gap. Based in Taiwan and founded by cybersecurity veterans, CYBAVO is a digital asset management company delivering secure solutions for enterprises and crypto service providers. Built around holistic cybersecurity foundations, it provides full-stack digital asset management tools, including features from hot and cold wallets to an exchange solution and beyond. The result is a platform delivering functionality and institutional-grade security for companies looking to boost their crypto capabilities. 

The Nuts & Bolts

Problem: Despite ongoing market volatility, 2020 has proven that corporations and institutional investors are more interested than ever in cryptocurrency. But there are still plenty of issues hindering wider adoption by businesses. 

Overall, the crypto landscape remains fragmented and still largely caters to retail traders. That can make it a headache for companies trying to navigate crypto and incorporate digital assets into their businesses. Currently, traditional IT infrastructure isn’t particularly well suited to integrate crypto asset management and system integration vendors generally don’t have all the capabilities to tackle this challenge. Simultaneously, crypto players targeting enterprises generally only offer select services. For example, some don’t offer both hot and cold wallets.

Then there are security issues. The rising popularity of crypto trading has come alongside an exponential rise in crypto-related crime, from investment scams to account hacks. Reported instances of crypto crimes in the U.S. have increased by 312% on average each year since 2017. In 2020, five major digital currency exchange hacks took place, while a total of $287 million in digital currencies were stolen from exchanges last year. That was an improvement over 2019, but security concerns in this space aren’t going anywhere, with decentralized finance (or DeFi) platforms now becoming a prime target for attackers.

Against that backdrop, enabling continued crypto adoption by enterprises and growth among crypto service providers means creating access to secure and simplified crypto management solutions. Enterprises need a range of tools in one place that allow them to streamline management of diverse crypto holdings at scale in a secure manner. 

Solution: CYBAVO is on a mission to provide the most technologically advanced security to digital asset custodians and empower enterprises with a variety of cryptocurrency wallet management services. This includes offering digital asset custody solutions for trading, hot and cold wallet features, and administration management with cloud and on-premise architectures. That means CYBAVO delivers a full-stack solution with institutional grade security, which sets it apart from most peers.

Security is at the core of CYBAVO’s platform. That includes patented encryption technology, a security-hardened operating system and strong enforcement of its transaction policy. CYBAVO’s systems run in a sand-boxed environment in order to mitigate potential DoS attacks. The company leverages Multi Party Computation, or MPC, a cryptographic technique to offer a unique encryption system to protect private keys, including on-premises key storage, and minimizes the risk of key loss with a shared responsibility model. Any attacker would need to compromise at least three different entities to theoretically gain access to keys.

For instance, CYBAVO’s cryptocurrency storage and wallet management system, called CYBAVO Vault, uses multi-factor authentication with its app, email and PIN, which includes leveraging biometrics, such as fingerprint ID or face recognition. CYBAVO Vault allows users to manage multiple wallets and currencies from a single interface, including wallets for different teams in an organization.

Currently, CYBAVO works with digital asset service providers, such as exchanges, corporates and SMES that need digital asset management, and traditional financial service providers. 

Getting to know CYBAVO

CYBAVO was launched in 2018 by a team with backgrounds in blockchain security, cryptography, computer security, malware analysis and web security. 

Founders Paul Fan and Tim Hsu are both active and respected in Taiwan’s cybersecurity community and have almost two decades of experience. Paul, who is CEO, previously served as general manager of core tech at internet security company Qihoo 360 and has also worked in R&D at Trend Micro. Tim, who is CTO, has previously served as senior engineer with multi-cloud security company vArmour, and held similar roles at other companies. He’s also an active consultant for multiple blockchain companies in Taiwan and is the co-founder of HITCON, a cybersecurity community conference. 

Why now?

Retail traders spurred momentum around cryptocurrencies, but now time is ripe for more solutions catering to enterprises. Key financial firms are embracing crypto and major companies are making big crypto bets, from Tesla to Meitu

Looking ahead, digital asset management should witness strong global growth, becoming a $6 billion market by 2025. As that trend unfolds, enterprise demand for reliable and secure digital asset management solutions should only grow across different industries. We believe CYBAVO is already ahead of the curve here. 

The future of CYBAVO

CYBAVO is enjoying strong growth in 2021 as more crypto exchanges and startups embrace its platform. It has over 40 enterprise customers across multiple markets and has overseen nearly $20 billion in transaction volume across more than 2 million transactions. It’s now targeting more customers across APAC, SEA and Europe. 

There are plenty of digital asset management service providers in the crypto market, however CYBAVO is unique because it focuses on a B2B full-stack platform with strong cybersecurity bona fides. We’re excited to help CYBAVO’s team continue to grow in this promising market.

You can learn more about CYBAVO at: https://www.cybavo.com/

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Shawn Chu

Shawn Chu

Principal

Shawn Chu is a Principal at 500 Global