Bitcoin payment firm strike moves guard in-house after dropping third-party services

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Digital payments company Strike has moved all of its customers’ bitcoin (BTC) and US dollar (USD) assets to its own internal infrastructure, according to a June 8 blog post from CEO and co-founder Jack Mallers.

Mallers says the move is part of a two-year effort and will reduce counterparty risk while ensuring the robustness and performance of the company’s products and services. Its announcement comes on the heels of bankruptcy rumors surrounding Strikes’ former custodian Prime Trust, which agreed to sell itself to BitGo, its digital asset custody rival. Fellow bitcoin financial services firm Swan Bitcoin also recently dropped Prime Trust.

Strike declined to comment on the situation surrounding his former keeper, noting that his plan to move the guard in-house lasted two years. The company’s customer base, spanning over 65 countries, will now hold bitcoin and fiat directly with Strike.

I’m proud to report that Strike now owns and operates all of its own infrastructure for customers, wrote Mallers. Strike now holds customers’ bitcoins and dollars, which means there is no middleman in custody between us and our users.

Mallers says the transition to in-house custody brings both short-term and long-term benefits to users.

With improvements to our infrastructure, we have started rolling out many awesome new features and capabilities that are now live, Mallers explained.

Strike users can now send bitcoins directly to other users on a peer-to-peer basis. They can also choose to receive funds in cash or bitcoins. Bitcoin payments can be made directly on-chain or through the Bitcoin Lightning Network, a second-layer payment system for cheaper and faster Bitcoin transactions.

Deposit limits have been increased and on-chain payments are now staggered, allowing users to pay higher fees for faster payouts and lower fees for slower, less urgent transactions.

The 29-year-old says his company has serious long-term ambitions.

Global on/off ramps, instant withdrawals, new DCA [dollar cost averaging] capabilities, continuing to improve our limits, more cross-currency capabilities, and more things that we hope to bring soon,” Mallers said.

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