Gemini Ups Security with ShardX Buy

Crypto trading platform Gemini has bought Shard X, a developer of secure multi-party computation (MPC) cryptographic technology in an effort to reinforce the security of its business.

Gemini will integrate Shard X’s MPC technology into its distributed, multi-site key management and signing infrastructure, markedly increasing the speed, the firm says, with which it can transfer customer assets and provide support for new asset listings and usage on the Gemini platform.

“Integrating MPC technology into our wallets will enable secure and faster crypto transfers that will help our customers keep pace with liquidity needs and market demands,” says Tyler Winklevoss, CEO of Gemini.

Gemini has more than $30 billion of crypto assets under custody, serving a range of individual and institutional customers. It says the addition of Shard X’s MPC will work in concert with all other aspects of its custody offering, which includes role-based governance protocols, multiple layers of biometric access controls, and physical security to safeguard the sensitive key material, safely stored in government-rated hardware security modules (HSMs), that controls customers’ assets.

Shard X was founded in 2018, its MPC technology generates key fragments which are used in a distributed signing protocol without ever reconstructing a full private key. The firm has developed a portable MPC implementation that aims to run in high security environments, such as Hardware Security Modules (HSMs), ensuring the highest integrity and secure processing of private key fragments that protect digital assets.