Bitcoin Payments Firm Strike Moves Custody In-House After Ditching Third-Party Services

Digital payments firm Strike has moved all customer bitcoin (BTC) and U.S. dollar (USD) assets to its own in-house infrastructure, according to a June 8 blog post by CEO and cofounder Jack Mallers.

Mallers says the move is part of a two-year effort and will reduce counterparty risk while ensuring the robustness and performance of the company’s products and services. His announcement comes in the wake of bankruptcy rumors about Strike’s former custodian, Prime Trust, which has agreed to sell itself to digital asset custody rival BitGo. Fellow Bitcoin financial services firm Swan Bitcoin also recently abandoned Prime Trust.

Read more: Crypto Custody Firm BitGo Reaches Preliminary Agreement to Buy Prime Trust: Sources

Strike declined to comment on the situation surrounding its former custodian, emphasizing that its plan to move custody in-house has been two years in the making. The company’s customer base, spread across more than 65 countries, will now custody bitcoin and fiat directly with Strike.

“I’m proud to announce Strike now owns and operates all of its own infrastructure for customers,” Mallers wrote. “Strike now custodies customer bitcoin and dollars, which means no custodial intermediaries between us and our users.”

Benefits of the transition

Mallers says the transition to in-house custody brings short and long-term benefits to users.

“Because of our infrastructure enhancements, we’ve begun rolling out a lot of awesome new features and capabilities that are now live,” Mallers explained.

Strike users can now send bitcoin directly to other users on a peer-to-peer basis. They can also opt to receive funds as cash or bitcoin. Bitcoin payments can be made directly on-chain or via the Bitcoin Lightning Network – a second layer payment system for cheaper and faster bitcoin transactions.

Deposit limits have been increased and on-chain payments are now tiered, allowing users to pay higher fees for faster payments and lower fees for slower, less urgent transactions.

The 29-year-old says his company has “some serious ambitions” in the long-term.

“Global on/off ramps, instant withdrawals, new DCA [dollar cost averaging] capabilities, continuing to improve our limits, more cross-currency capabilities, and more things we hope to bring soon,” Mallers said.