Trustology

As you probably know if you’re into trading, there are more brokers every day adding crypto assets to their offerings. And when a broker offers crypto trading, often clients want to be able to deposit and withdraw in crypto as well. That means the broker needs a way to offer a secure custodial wallet, while also adding compliance monitoring tools. Needless to say, it can be expensive and time consuming to do both, but thankfully there’s a solution.

Founded in 2017 and backed by ConsenSys, Trustology is a crypto services firm based in London, and thus FCA registered, providing custodial wallet solutions for institutions, private clients, brokers/exchanges, token issuers, payment providers, and any other organization that requires a custodial wallet solution. Trustology was created as a way to provide traditional financial providers with an easy onramp to crypto assets.

One of the problems it solves is the complexity inherent in crypto, and the risk of losing assets due to unsound infrastructure in the management and security of client’s private keys. The founders of Trustology found that many of the solutions for custodial wallets were unsecure, expensive, complicated, slow, cumbersome, or a combination of all these.

Indeed, many of the custodial wallet solutions don’t even meet regulatory compliance requirements for institutions, and that’s why Trustology put a priority on building and releasing TrustVault, a custodial wallet meant for institutional users. TrustVault is fast, user-friendly and highly secure, and it can be used to administer and safeguard crypto assets across blockchains, exchanges, and decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.

Below we take a deeper look into the features offered by Trustology’s TrustVault platform to help you determine if you can find value in this custodial wallet solution.

Company Information

Website: https://www.trustology.io/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/27111970

Twitter: @TrustologyIO

Founder and CEO: Alex Batlin

Get in touch: Talk to us

Trustology Regulation

In October 2021 Trustology received its full registration as a crypto assets firm with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority. That means they are now included amongst a small list of companies registered thus far with the FCA. It also means they are able to fully carry out cryptoasset activities in the UK market, marking a significant milestone of trust for the company and its TrustVault custodial wallet platform.

Not only can Trustology protect your assets in the same way you’d come to expect from any reputable custodial wallet solution, they are also now a fully registered company with a major financial regulator.

Trustology Services

It’s already clear that Trustology provides a superior custodial wallet service, but they can also provide institutional users with secure means for maximizing their DeFi returns, as well as supporting on-exchange transactions complete with built-in AML compliance controls. This means that the TrustVault platform is ideal for institutions looking for a secure DeFi wallet in real-time.

The Trustology custodial wallet solution has been designed to cater to:

Institutional investors – such as crypto hedge funds and asset managers.

Service providers – including banks, payment providers, exchanges, and brokers.

Token issuers – particularly private placement token issuers.

Individual investors – both new and experienced high-net worth individuals and traders looking for insured custodial wallet services.

As you’ll learn below there are a number of innovative features offered by Trustology, but the most significant is almost certainly their insurance. The funds held in TrustVault are fully insured by Trustology against theft or loss, and against the destruction of the private keys. The level of insurance is based on the subscription plan, but all plans are insured. Businesses can also take advantage of extended insurance.

To be fully clear we have this from Trustology’s own FAQ’s:

All assets secured under the Genesis and Genesis+ tiers are insured. We have an insurance policy brokered by Marsh that covers your assets on a pro-rata basis. The policy has been placed with a panel of insurers with an S&P rating of A+ and above.

What does this mean?

Cryptoassets are in-scope of the Vault Insurance (B0509FINSV2050014) product if the your order form specifies that assets are insurance backed. All loss events are subject to overall limits of liability as per policy and are pro-rated based on the share of lost cryptoassets when a loss event exceeds limits of liability and involves more than one customer. Any assets stored without a corresponding order form will be excluded from any coverage.

TrustVault Wallet and Platform

While you might consider the TrustVault wallet to be a software wallet, in several ways it could also be thought of as a hardware wallet. It is one of the most innovative and unique custodial wallets in the marketplace, offering its users a high degree of hardware security for their holdings. It also features instant transactions that are accessible through a very user-friendly interface on web or mobile, or even via APIs. As Trustology is now an FCA registered cryptoassets firm, you can feel secure with your coins in TrustVault, knowing that Trustology will keep them secure for you for as long as you need.

Supported Cryptocurrencies

One minor downside to Trustology at this point is the fact that they are only offering support for a select number of major chains, cryptocurrencies and crypto tokens. That’s certain to expand in the future, since TrustVault’s unique resigning technology enables the company to move quickly on supporting new chains and assets. It is also technically capable of signing any Ethereum based transaction and storing any ERC-20 token.

The reasoning behind the limited offering is that right now Trustology does not hold the relevant UK license to allow us to hold tokens that may be considered Securities or require an E-Money license. As the regulatory position of such tokens is clarified they will look to add more to the list of tokens you can store with them that are deemed utility tokens.

According to the Trustology website TrustVault has support for the following coins and tokens in wallet:

• Bitcoin (BTC)
• Ethereum (ETH)
• DAI
• Basic Attention Token (BAT)
• Maker (MKR)
• Holo (HOT)
• OMG
• Chainlink (LINK)
• 0x (ZRX)
• Augur (REP)
• US Dollar Tether (USDT)
• USD Coin (USDC)
• Binance Coin (BNB)
• Vectorspace AI (VXV)
• Xinfin (XDC)

According to the Trustology website here are the major chains supported:

As a custody provider, we support Bitcoin, Ethereum, Xinfin and Binance blockchains and major assets and exchanges used in today's crypto markets. Ethereum compatible Layer 1 and 2 networks are now supported by TrustVault—Binance Smart Chain, Avalanche, Polygon Matic and more.

This means that not only are all ERC-20 tokens supported, but so are BEP-2 tokens and NFTs and any Ethereum based transaction.

Connectivity

The real power of TrustVault becomes apparent once you install the app on your mobile device, effectively turning it into a hardware wallet. This makes connectivity a non-issue as your wallet is integrated into your mobile device.

There is no mobile app for Android devices, only for iOS as the company feels the security risks for Android devices is quite high. That means the app only works for iPhone users.

The TrustVault wallet does integrate with MetaMask and WalletConnect however, which means you can view all your ERC-20 tokens in a MetaMask wallet but know that they are fully secured and accessed through your TrustVault wallet. You can also interact with any of the Ethereum based DApps in this way. By accessing MetaMask through your TrustVault wallet the connection becomes far more secure than when using an insecure web browser.

Services

Users have access to two types of custodial services when using the TrustVault. These are:

• On-chain – Best-suited for DeFi investors.
• On-exchange – Ideal for serial traders.

Let’s have a look at how both of these services provide an enhanced range of benefits to institutional investors, brokers, payment providers and more.

Trustology On-Chain Services

On-chain services allow you to not only hold your assets securely, but it also enables users to stake their PoS asset and earn yield while holding them securely. In short, you can earn a return through DeFi services, while the custodial wallet fully protects your private keys.

Some of the key benefits of the on-chain option include:

• Highly secure, yet quick.
• Scalable, generate as many keys and wallets as needed.
• Support for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Xinfin, and Binance chains.
• Support for any Ethereum based transactions.
• Support for Ethereum compatible Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks.
• DeFi integrations with MetaMask and WalletConnect for secure access.
• Built-in compliance measures provided by Sumsub and Chainalysis delivered via webhooks.
• DeFi firewall.
• Automate your investments to operate without any manual intervention.

The on-chain option also means you can connect your Trustology wallet to MetaMask and take advantage of all the lending platforms, decentralized exchanges, and other DeFi apps that are available in the ecosystem.

Trustology On-Exchange Services

Trustology has partnered with a number of major brokers and cryptocurrency exchanges, including Coinbase, Kraken, and BitMex, to deliver fast asset transfers and conversions to users. And TrustVault provides institutional investors with an ideal overview of all their investments and fund flows.

With the added KYC and compliance benefits the on-exchange services offer, institutional investors will be able to foster a better relationship with regulators and their clients.

Additional benefits of the Trustology On-Exchange services include:

• API integrations allow for both off-the-shelf and custom-made controls.
• Store your exchange wallet’s TOTP codes on the TrustVault for safer and quicker transactions.

Conclusion

As crypto investors and traders we all know how important it is to keep your private keys safe at all times. The Trustology wallet is an excellent way to do so, providing hardware wallet-like security, combined with insurance in the unlikely event anything was to happen.

With powerful on-chain and on-exchange features we believe this custodial wallet solution is ideal for both institutional investors and service providers, particularly those who hold a significant number of cryptocurrencies, or those who conduct a large volume of trades.

While there are many excellent features, the real benefit to the service is the peace of mind you get with such secure crypto storage, combined with the ability to still trade, invest, and earn yield in real-time.