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Safe Establishes New Development Firm to Attract Institutions and Tackle Crypto’s ‘Cyber Warfare’ Era

Published

3 месяца ago

11 июня, 2025

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Safe, the popular multiparty crypto wallet previously called Gnosis Safe, has launched a new development unit, Safe Labs, in a move aimed at consolidating its operations and sharpening its product roadmap after it was targeted in February’s $1.4 billion ByBit hack — the largest crypto heist to date.

The new entity will serve as the core development arm of Safe, which until now had outsourced technical work to a separate development firm, a structure commonly used across the crypto industry, Safe Labs Chief Executive Rahul Rumalla said on Wednesday. Safe Labs will operate directly under the umbrella of the Safe Foundation, a nonprofit organization.

In an interview with CoinDesk, Rumalla said the transition reflects a broader strategy shift toward building products that can meet both the ideological standards of cypherpunk culture and the practical demands of enterprise clients.

“This framework that we are forced to operate in — it actually forces you to compromise one over the other: If you want more security, you have to compromise on convenience, and if you want more convenience, you compromise on security,” Rumalla said.

“We at Safe Labs, we step back and we reject this framework. We don’t want to operate in this model where we have to compromise one over the other.”

Post-Hack Pivot

According to Rumalla, the ByBit hack was a “catalyst” for the creation of Safe Labs.

While Safe’s core smart contracts remained uncompromised, its user-facing web application was infiltrated with malicious code by North Korea’s Lazarus Group. That attack enabled the hackers to trick ByBit’s CEO into signing off on a transaction that rerouted funds into their control.

“What we saw with an attack like this is that our core values were used against us,” Rumalla said. “Anonymity, privacy, self-custody, transparency, open source — these were used against us.”

Despite the breach, Rumalla said user confidence in the Safe platform remained strong. The application saw “practically no churn” in the aftermath and continues to process 10% of all transaction volume across Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible networks.

“We’re not defending against cyberattacks,” Rumalla said. “We are defending cyber warfare, and that requires a mindset shift — not just at the project level, not at the company level, but as Ethereum or even crypto as a whole.”

From Ideals to Infrastructure

The move to formalize internal development echoes similar shifts by other major protocols, including Morpho and Polygon, which have both recently made moves to streamline decision-making and improve accountability with more traditional organizational structures.

In parallel, Safe Labs is also refocusing on product design. The team is currently working on a “V2” version of its wallet, which Rumalla described as more “opinionated” — meaning bolder product direction, particularly for institutional users.

“What we’re going to be launching and testing in the future is a subscription plan, essentially, that’s called Safe Pro — or Safe for enterprises, Safe for institutions — very much around that realm,” he said. “We’re going to basically package this opinionated product that’s more for the user segments that have higher security needs and more customization appetite.”

“We need to operate at startup speed,” Rumalla added. «That in itself is the premise of why we need to operate as a separate, independent entity. We need to align where we need to align, which is on the mission, but we need to be a bit more independent in terms of how we execute.»

With more than $60 billion in total value locked and over $1 trillion in historical transaction volume, according to Rumalla, Safe remains one of crypto’s most battle-tested self-custody platforms. The team, now roughly 40 strong and based in Berlin, is betting that its next chapter — one that embraces opinionated product design without sacrificing its open-source ethos — will help define how wallets look in a world heading toward a trillion-dollar on-chain economy.

«Our mission is simple: making self custody easy and secure,» Rumalla said. «That’s a win for everybody.»

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Crypto Trading Firm Keyrock Buys Luxembourg’s Turing Capital in Asset Management Push

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20 часов ago

16 сентября, 2025

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Crypto trading firm Keyrock said it’s expanding into asset and wealth management by acquiring Turing Capital, a Luxembourg-registered alternative investment fund manager.

The deal, announced on Tuesday, marks the launch of Keyrock’s Asset and Wealth Management division, a new business unit dedicated to institutional clients and private investors.

Keyrock, founded in Brussels, Belgium and best known for its work in market making, options and OTC trading, said it will fold Turing Capital’s investment strategies and Luxembourg fund management structure into its wider platform. The division will be led by Turing Capital co-founder Jorge Schnura, who joins Keyrock’s executive committee as president of the unit.

The company said the expansion will allow it to provide services across the full lifecycle of digital assets, from liquidity provision to long-term investment strategies. «In the near future, all assets will live onchain,» Schnura said, noting that the merger positions the group to capture opportunities as traditional financial products migrate to blockchain rails.

Keyrock has also applied for regulatory approval under the EU’s crypto framework MiCA through a filing with Liechtenstein’s financial regulator. If approved, the firm plans to offer portfolio management and advisory services, aiming to compete directly with traditional asset managers as well as crypto-native players.

«Today’s launch sets the stage for our longer-term ambition: bringing asset management on-chain in a way that truly meets institutional standards,» Keyrock CSO Juan David Mendieta said in a statement.

Business

Crypto Trading Firm Keyrock Buys Luxembourg’s Turing Capital in Asset Management Push

Published

20 часов ago

16 сентября, 2025

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Crypto trading firm Keyrock said it’s expanding into asset and wealth management by acquiring Turing Capital, a Luxembourg-registered alternative investment fund manager.

The deal, announced on Tuesday, marks the launch of Keyrock’s Asset and Wealth Management division, a new business unit dedicated to institutional clients and private investors.

Business

Gemini Shares Slide 6%, Extending Post-IPO Slump to 24%

Published

20 часов ago

16 сентября, 2025

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Gemini Space Station (GEMI), the crypto exchange founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, has seen its shares tumble by more than 20% since listing on the Nasdaq last Friday.

The stock is down around 6% on Tuesday, trading at $30.42, and has dropped nearly 24% over the past week. The sharp decline follows an initial surge after the company raised $425 million in its IPO, pricing shares at $28 and valuing the firm at $3.3 billion before trading began.

On its first day, GEMI spiked to $45.89 before closing at $32 — a 14% premium to its offer price. But since hitting that high, shares have plunged more than 34%, erasing most of the early enthusiasm from public market investors.

The broader crypto equity market has remained more stable. Coinbase (COIN), the largest U.S. crypto exchange, is flat over the past week. Robinhood (HOOD), which derives part of its revenue from crypto, is down 3%. Token issuer Circle (CRCL), on the other hand, is up 13% over the same period.

Part of the pressure on Gemini’s stock may stem from its financials. The company posted a $283 million net loss in the first half of 2025, following a $159 million loss in all of 2024. Despite raising fresh capital, the numbers suggest the business is still far from turning a profit.

Compass Point analyst Ed Engel noted that GEMI is currently trading at 26 times its annualized first-half revenue. That multiple — often used to gauge whether a stock is expensive — means investors are paying 26 dollars for every dollar the company is expected to generate in sales this year. For a loss-making company in a volatile sector, that’s a steep price, and could be fueling investor skepticism.