How To Keep Your Crypto Safe

This “How To” article is probably one of the most important in the series. In this edition, we’re looking at how you can keep your crypto safe and what we do behind the scenes to protect your data and digital assets.

Key Takeaways

• 2-Factor Authentication (2FA) is enabled by default to protect you and your assets
• Finst is the first and only Dutch crypto platform that successfully obtained a Proof of Reserves (PoR)
• Your money is kept separate from our assets as a company on a 1-1 basis and safely stored with bunq

2-Factor Authentication (2FA)

2FA is arguably one of the most asked-about and common security measures in the financial services space, crypto being no different. To make your life easy and give you peace of mind right away, we’ve enabled this by default. Simply put, you’ve got one thing less to worry about when it comes to protecting your digital assets.

How secure is my Finst account?

Besides the sought-after biometrics protection (2FA), several other security measures are in place to keep you safe. These include:

• Closed-loop system; this ensures that even if a malicious party was able to access your account, they could never send any funds to an account that is not yours.
• Device pairing; pair your account with trusted devices, ensuring that only you have access to your account and assets.
• Data encryption; your data is fully encrypted, stored within the EU, and processed in a strictly confidential manner. Of course, we will never sell it to any third parties.
• Instant notifications; stay up-to-date with all your incoming and outgoing transactions, and always know what’s happening in your account.
• Discreet mode; you can hide your account numbers with one tap - great for using the Finst app in public.

We’d like to think that’s already quite the list of security measures but when it comes to security, there’s no messing around. So, let’s take it one step further and explore some of our additional state-of-the-art security measures.

Security Measures at Finst

Without further ado, let’s dive into how we offer you security and risk management at the highest level.

Cryptocurrency vault

Your crypto belongs to you and is secured with the world’s most trusted custodian, Fireblocks. On a technical level, Fireblocks makes use of Multi-Party Computation (MPC) technology with hardware isolation to secure your assets from external attacks, internal collusion, and human error.

Money safekeeping

Your money is kept separate from our assets as a company on a 1-1 basis and safely stored with bunq, a regulated and one of the most reputable Dutch banks.

Asset segregation

Your assets are segregated from us as a company, ensuring you maximum protection no matter what happens to us.

Proof of Reserves (PoR)

Finst is the first and only Dutch crypto platform that successfully obtained a Proof of Reserves (PoR) from an independent and reputable audit firm (Audit Now).

Securing Crypto Withdrawals

The final security measure we’ll be looking at in this article relates to crypto withdrawals. Generally, a cryptocurrency withdrawal is processed within a few minutes but can take a few hours depending on the asset and network. Please keep in mind that Finst is not able to influence the execution time of a transaction on the blockchain as this is dependent on the network activity.

However, in some cases, a withdrawal can be delayed due to one of the following security measures:

• You made a withdrawal to a new address which is subject to a cool-down period of up to 48 hours for safety reasons.
• Your destination wallet address is potentially associated with a high-risk activity (such as gambling) and your transaction is being reviewed by Finst. This usually takes up to 1 business day but may take longer in some cases and your funds may be frozen or further due diligence may be performed.

We understand that in some cases these crypto withdrawal security measures may cause some frustration, but these are solely in place to keep you and your digital assets as safe as possible.

Conclusion

While we do our utmost to keep your data and your crypto safe, there will always be some risk in place where money or in this case crypto is involved. We have state-of-the-art security measures in place to keep security and risk management standards at the highest level. However, we do kindly ask you to exercise caution, especially when approached by third parties who may offer investment or portfolio management services. These parties may ask you to share your device screen. Much like your bank, this is something we’d never ask you to do.