Fireblocks is the technological layer underpinning a significant portion of the institutional crypto market: MPC wallets, a secure transfer network between counterparties, and rails for tokenization. Over 2,000 organizations operate on this infrastructure—exchanges, banks, fintech companies, funds, and custodians themselves. An individual family almost never becomes a direct Fireblocks client; far more often, it's their bank or manager that runs on it. In 2024, the company obtained its own NYDFS trust license, becoming a qualified custodian.
Scale and What Matters
Over $10 trillion in cumulative digital asset transaction volume has passed through Fireblocks infrastructure. This figure should be read carefully: it refers to assets in motion through the technology, while their custody remains on the balance sheets of banks, exchanges, and custodians that use the platform. For families, Fireblocks is more often relevant indirectly—your bank, custodian, or manager is likely already running on it.
Fireblocks Origins
The company was founded in 2018 by veterans of Israeli cybersecurity—Michael Shaulov, Idan Ofrat, and Pavel Berengoltz. The impetus was a typical vulnerability of that era: assets were stolen during transfers between exchanges and wallets, when the private key ended up in memory or passed through an unprotected channel. The solution was to protect the storage and signing process itself, not just the perimeter around it. By 2021–2022, Fireblocks had become the de facto standard for institutions entering digital assets, closing a $550 million Series E at a valuation of approximately $8 billion (led by D1 Capital and Spark Capital). There have been no public rounds since, so the 2022 valuation should be read as historical.
What Is MPC and Why It Matters
The platform is built on multi-party computation (MPC). The private key to a wallet never exists in its entirety: it is split into several shares, stored separately, and jointly form a signature without ever being assembled in one place. This eliminates the classic weakness of crypto custody—a single seed phrase or one hardware module, whose compromise means the loss of everything. On top of MPC runs transaction policy: who, to whom, in what volume, and under what confirmations can send funds is configured as a corporate regulation, not as trust in one person with a key.
💡 The practical meaning of MPC for a family is that "losing the flash drive with the key" ceases to be a catastrophe scenario. Access is distributed among multiple parties and rules, not tied to a single device or a single employee.
Transfer Network and Tokenization
The second pillar of Fireblocks is a closed transfer network between institutions (Fireblocks Network). Counterparties who have already passed mutual verification exchange assets without manually copying wallet addresses; it is precisely in this routine operation that errors and substitutions most often occur. The third pillar is tokenization rails: issuance, custody, and settlement of tokenized assets (RWA), including on regulated networks like Canton. We examine the mechanics of digital packaging of real assets in detail in the article on asset tokenization (RWA).
Fireblocks Trust Company: Infrastructure with Custodian License
For a long time, Fireblocks remained technology under the hood and did not accept assets for custody under its own responsibility. In 2024, that changed: the company obtained a charter limited-purpose trust company from NYDFS and launched Fireblocks Trust Company—a separate regulated entity with qualified custodian status under New York State law. Among clients who have placed assets there are Bakkt, Galaxy, FalconX, and Castle Island. Qualified custodian status is critical for regulated managers: RIAs, asset managers, or ETF issuers are required to hold client assets with a qualified custodian, and now Fireblocks' own structure can play that role. How custody works in the traditional securities world is described in our article on custody.
Pivot to Stablecoin Payments
Since 2025, Fireblocks' center of gravity has shifted from pure custody to stablecoin payment infrastructure. In 2025, approximately $6 trillion in stablecoin volume passed through the system—roughly three times more than the year before—and monthly flows through Fireblocks Network for Payments exceeded $200 billion. In 2026, Fireblocks Flow (stablecoin acceptance for neobanks and fintechs) and Agentic Payments Suite for AI settlements appeared; MoneyGram connected Fireblocks to its payments and treasury operations, and a consortium of twelve European banks is building a MiCA-compliant euro stablecoin on it. The regulatory framework for this in the EU is set by MiCA, and we examine the structure and types of stablecoins separately.
⚙️ Two acquisitions confirm the direction: Dynamic (embedded wallets, 2025) added embedded wallets for client products to Fireblocks, and TRES Finance (compliance and on-chain accounting, approximately $130 million, 2026)—reporting and transaction control. Custody infrastructure is growing with payments, accounting, and regulatory wrapping.
What This Means for a Family Office
A direct contract with Fireblocks is usually neither necessary nor available to a family: this is B2B infrastructure. But it's worth knowing about for three reasons. Due diligence: when asking a bank or crypto custodian what custody is built on, you will almost certainly hear about MPC and Fireblocks—and this is more likely a sign of provider maturity. Qualified custody: if capital is managed through an RIA, assets can be held at Fireblocks Trust Company in compliance with SEC requirements. Jurisdiction: where exactly your custodian is licensed matters no less than the technology—see the overview of crypto-friendly jurisdictions and the article on crypto for private wealth.
🍓 Fireblocks stands behind the custody and transfer of digital assets for most serious providers, has itself acted as a qualified custodian since 2024 through Fireblocks Trust Company, and is increasingly moving into stablecoin payments. Families encounter it indirectly—through their bank, manager, or RIA. Therefore, the key question sounds like this: on what infrastructure and under whose license is your crypto portfolio held—and are you satisfied with the answer.
Key factual claims
- Over $10 trillion in cumulative digital asset transaction volume has passed through Fireblocks infrastructure.
- The company was founded in 2018 by veterans of Israeli cybersecurity—Michael Shaulov, Idan Ofrat, and Pavel Berengoltz.
- Since 2025, Fireblocks' center of gravity has shifted from pure custody to stablecoin payment infrastructure.
- A direct contract with Fireblocks is usually neither necessary nor available to a family: this is B2B infrastructure.