As most cryptocurrencies are decentralized and not under the control of an authority, each individual crypto owner is responsible for keeping their funds safe. It is up to you how you choose to store your funds, whether it is with Firi or in an external wallet.

One thing is certain - if you choose Firi, your cryptocurrency is safe. You can be assured that your digital assets are protected by the highest level of security on the market when you use Firi, both during transit and in storage.

Registered with Finanstilsynet

Firi is registered with Finanstilsynet as a service provider for exchanging and storing virtual currency in Norway.

With Firi, customer funds are just this; customers' funds. Firi never takes any risk with our clients' funds, and we do not touch your funds unless you specifically ask us to do so. This is not the case with all crypto exchanges.

But what if, against all odds, Firi were to go bankrupt? Both your cryptocurrency and your fiat funds will still be safely stored with us. Your cryptocurrency is stored in the company's own wallets, protected by the highest level of security on the market, and your fiat funds are stored in our own bank accounts. The customers' crypto and fiat funds are deliberately separated from the company's funds, and your funds will not be able to be seized by the bankruptcy estate. You can read more about this in Firi's revised annual accounts for 2021.

By leaving customer funds untouched, we also remove all risk of not being able to pay out customer funds should something happen to Firi. In theory, all our customers could withdraw everything they own on Firi at the same time, and it would have gone just fine. This is not the case either with certain global crypto exchanges, or Norwegian banks for that matter. Our auditor checks that we have full coverage for customer funds.

When working with cryptocurrency, it is essential to recognize that employees can be seen as potential targets for criminal actors. To counteract this risk, we at Firi have implemented several layers of security measures. Among other things, we ensure that no individual has the ability to move cryptocurrency. Our system requires multiple authorized individuals to approve any transfer of funds, effectively eliminating the possibility of criminals pressuring employees to hand over assets. This cannot be bypassed in any way, protecting both our employees and our customers' funds.

Furthermore, Firi has extensive personal security procedures for all employees working with cryptocurrency. We have installed alarm systems and notification services that cover both our staff and our workplaces. These measures ensure a quick response to any potential security breach and contribute to a safe working environment where our employees can focus on their work without worrying about personal safety.

Nansen, a leading analysis platform for crypto, has created an overview that shows Firi's holdings of various cryptocurrencies in real time. Note that this is not a complete list, because Nansen does not support displaying all of our cryptocurrencies. In addition, we store a small proportion of the values in hot wallets which it is not possible to show here - it therefore only shows values that are stored cold. Even so, it can be reassuring to know that Firi holds these reserves, and more.

A popular method crypto exchanges can use to prove control over reserves is called Proof of Reserves. In this way, a list of all customers' account balances is built, which is then signed with the keys to the crypto addresses held by the exchanges.

Firi will develop this method in collaboration with the auditor. Meanwhile, we share all our addresses on the cold wallets to be transparent.

We store customer funds both hot and cold (hot storage / cold storage). For this we use what we firmly believe is the safest and most secure alternative available on the market, namely Fireblocks and their MPC technology. We will return to how this solution work, but first, we want to explain the difference between hot and cold storage of cryptocurrencies.

Hot storage means that the keys to your cryptocurrency is stored on a device connected to the internet. Here we store as little of the funds as possible, but enough so that customers can make withdrawals quickly and easily. We store most of the keys to customer funds cold at all times, meaning they are in no way connected to the internet or other computers. This is also the safest way to store crypto.

In the same way that we have cash in a wallet, cryptocurrency is stored in a so-called wallet. At Firi, you as a customer are automatically assigned your personal address, which acts as wallets for all the cryptocurrencies offered by us. We ensure a safe and easy storage of your funds, and we take care of all the technical aspects of securing and storing your assets.

If you choose to move your assets from our wallets and store all your crypto yourself, there are opportunities for that. Note that if you choose to do so, you are responsible for the storage of your cryptocurrency, and the funds taken out by Firi are no longer protected by Firi and Fireblocks. The insurance from Fireblocks also does not cover the cryptocurrency you store in this way.

Read and learn more about external wallets here.

We require two-factor authentication for all accounts registered with us. This is done either with BankID or or with a two-factor authentication app such as Google Authentication or Authy (Norway) or MitID (Denmark). This makes it very difficult for others to log in to your account to complete trades or withdrawals. Remember to never reveal your password information to anyone.

Back to how our wallet infrastructure works, in other words - how we store your cryptocurrency. In order to withdraw crypto from a wallet, a private key is needed to sign transactions that can cryptographically verify that the cryptocurrency is yours. It's of utmost importance that this key remains private. You don't want anyone else to be able to get to your cryptocurrency.

At the same time, you should be able to withdraw your crypto from your Firi account within a reasonable time. At all times, Firi holds the keys to carry out transactions, but the infrastructure needed to carry this out is provided by our trusted partner Fireblocks. To ensure that Fireblocks can issue transactions for our customers, without possessing the keys to do so, a form of cryptography known as MPC (Multi-Party Computation) is used. Here, a method is used that breaks a key into three or more parts, called keyshares. By themselves, the parts are useless, but put together, the keys can build a signature to authorize a transaction on the blockchain.

You can read more about MPC technology in Fireblocks' guide here.

Ultimately, only Firi holds the keys to the cryptocurrency, and it is only possible to assemble a signature through said keyshares between Fireblocks and Firi. As mentioned, the customer funds are also insured with Fireblocks' insurance against crime.

With the help of internal systems, risk engines and highly skilled employees, we prevent most fraud cases before the funds are sent out from our platform.

Detection of fraud and money laundering attempts

In Firi, we have a highly skilled compliance department, consisting of people with education and experience from banking, police and IT. Our compliance team monitors all activity that takes place on the platform, and with the use of analytical tools and risk assessments, we have uncovered hundreds of fraud attempts. They are here to make it safe for you to invest in cryptocurrency.

Furthermore, our compliance team ensure that we act in accordance with society's laws and regulations. Compliance is also about taking responsibility for both our employees and our customers, and reducing all forms of risk. Being compliant means that we take our social responsibility very seriously, follow business ethics, laws and regulations.

Our compliance work is therefore about establishing and maintaining systems that facilitate compliance with laws and regulations that are relevant to Firi. This applies to both laws and rules set by e.g. Finanstilsynet, on behalf of society, or ethical guidelines that we follow within our business.

Blacklist to avoid fraud

We are actively working to blacklist addresses/wallets that we know have been used for fraud. This means that we block the addresses, and make it impossible for our customers to send cryptocurrency to these addresses. In order to maintain a complete blacklist, it is important that you as a customer let us know if you come across an address/wallet that you suspect has been used for fraud.

Note that when we blacklist addresses, it is only from your account with Firi that it is not possible to send crypto to the relevant address. We recommend that you never transfer cryptocurrency to people you do not know well.

Are you ready to start using cryptocurrency?