Binance Labs recently decided to invest in the Series A round of Ngrave, a Belgian self-custody hardware wallet company.
In a recent announcement by Binance, they stated that they made an investment in the Belgian firm as part of their strategy toward self-custody wallet industry.
Ngrave was founded in 2018. It contains three main features: Graphene – a key backup tool; Zero – Hardware (cold) wallet; Liquid – a mobile app.
Through these three features, Ngrave aims to penetrate the cold-wallet market. Co-founder of Binance Yi He said that self-custodian wallets are essential to facilitate security. He added that security is crucial for crypto adoption.
Binance Labs’ investment further shows their stance on their approach toward security. Binance engaged in such ventures in the past too. They previously invested in SafePal, which is another hardware wallet company.
Binance also partnered with Ledger, which is arguably the biggest crypto wallet in the market. This partnership allowed users to use debit/credit cards to purchase directly using the Ledger application.
This recent activity from Binance comes to light due to recent events that unfolded regarding FTX. The FTX scandal urged the need to have self-custodian wallets in various exchanges.
Hence, Binance’s investment with Ngrave is quite strategic, as it shows users that Binance is working on a self-custodian approach for users.
Binance’s Approach for Self-Custody
As stated by Changpeng “CZ” Zhao himself, CEO of Binance, now more than ever users need to rely on the safety of their assets. Hence, even though Binance is centralized, CZ urges users to use decentralized means of storing their assets.
Binance also owns Trust Wallet, a software-based wallet. Though Pascal Gauthier, CEO of Ledger, urged CZ to add a connect option for Ledger and Trust Wallet users to promote safety.
Rumors suggest that Trust Wallet developers are working on that, which will integrate the two wallets.