How do big companies store their bitcoins?

[WorldofBitcoins]

Hi guys. My question is, how do big companies store bitcoins? Which wallets are used?  What is the procedure for accessing the wallet? And how they are not afraid to keep such a large number of bitcoins worth millions of dollars in their wallets. The human factor can play a very cruel joke.

[FatFork]

Hi guys. My question is, how do big companies store bitcoins? Which wallets are used?  What is the procedure for accessing the wallet? And how they are not afraid to keep such a large number of bitcoins worth millions of dollars in their wallets. The human factor can play a very cruel joke.

This is a rather general question and different companies handle this in different ways, but my best guess is that most reputable and well-known companies keep the majority of their funds in multisig cold wallets.

For day-to-day transactions, hot wallets could work but those tend to have hardcore security too.  The specifics likely differ between companies, but I'd bet access takes jumping through multiple hoops. Like layers of authentication approvals, audits, etc.

But I'm no expert, just speculating based on what I know.  The inner workings of these systems aren't something they share publicly.

[Wiwo]

Hi guys. My question is, how do big companies store bitcoins? Which wallets are used?  What is the procedure for accessing the wallet? And how they are not afraid to keep such a large number of bitcoins worth millions of dollars in their wallets. The human factor can play a very cruel joke.

Just as an addition to what fatfork already said about companies preferences in selecting which wallet that best meat their preference at a time, but primarily most companies will only use hot wallet for transactions but most definitely since most of their daily transactions will be in fiat so bitcoin won't be a big option for them so at that milti sig cold wallet is their best shot, just as fat fork said this is just an assumptions since most companies won't reveal such info.



The image above shows how/ways businesses handles their Bitcoin reserves.
Source: https://river.com/learn/how-should-a-business-store-bitcoin/

[Ambatman]

There are different method big corporations safeguard and store their coins.
For holding they make use of hardware wallets while for day to day transactions hot wallets are used.

Well to eliminate the risk of human. Factor Multisig wallets are commonly used since access are split among different personnels.

For example most Bitcoin ETF rely on a custodian especially Coinbase to safekeep their Bitcoin
Which are stored in an hardware wallet and kept in a safe.

[Alphakilo]

Hi guys. My question is, how do big companies store bitcoins? Which wallets are used?  What is the procedure for accessing the wallet? And how they are not afraid to keep such a large number of bitcoins worth millions of dollars in their wallets. The human factor can play a very cruel joke.

Multisig, large custodians like Coinbase specifically meant for big companies such as Microstrategy and the likes of them.

This is a question that even if Michael Saylor is asked, there will not tell you as if will possibly compromise their security.

But everything that Fatfork has answered correct.

[LDL]

Hi guys. My question is, how do big companies store bitcoins? Which wallets are used?  What is the procedure for accessing the wallet? And how they are not afraid to keep such a large number of bitcoins worth millions of dollars in their wallets. The human factor can play a very cruel joke.

You will be surprised when you see the way big companies or celebrities buy bitcoins, they never buy all bitcoins at once but they buy bitcoins at different prices at different times over different periods. If you've seen El Salvador's plan to buy bitcoins, you'll understand. El Salvador's president has announced that his country will buy one bitcoin per day. However, if you can buy Bitcoin and hold it for a long time in the DCA method, it will definitely be a significant plan of all plans.

[Stalker22]

Maybe a bit off topic here but I was reading something on Reddit the other day that said the feds apparently found the seed phrase or whatever for one of FTX's cold wallets or something that held tens of millions of dollars.  It was just written down on a scrap of paper sitting on someone's desk.  Like next to a bunch of other random papers and stuff and  they didnt even remember they had the wallet until the investigators were searching their offices.  If thats true, it really shows how little some of these companies cared about properly securing their assets and accounts.  Though I guess we already knew FTX was shady and not a serious company.  

[Upgrade00]

Different companies with different approaches. One option I think all companies will use is multi sig. There will be multiple people involved in the decision making process, so there will definitely be the need to require more than one signatures to access it.

Other features will be cold storage, multiple back ups, and I believe there are some that hire third parties to handle the secure storage of their wallets.

[Samlucky O]

For me there is no big deal on where company needs to store there bitcoin, they can store in a any non custodial wallet, provided the seed phrase is safe and  secured and also not accessible to anyone apart from the the person in charge of the company finance. And also the device used for storing of that wallet should be strongly protected by malware protection and antivirus to protect it from phishing attack or viruses.  Apart from that the may decide to store in a cold wallet and many other.

[examplens]

This is a rather general question and different companies handle this in different ways, but my best guess is that most reputable and well-known companies keep the majority of their funds in multisig cold wallets.

The company wallet must be multi-sig, one person cannot be allowed to have full access independently. Especially if the wallet and the Bitcoin in it are not for daily needs.

For me there is no big deal on where company needs to store there bitcoin, they can store in a any non custodial wallet, provided the seed phrase is safe and  secured and also not accessible to anyone apart from the the person in charge of the company finance. And also the device used for storing of that wallet should be strongly protected by malware protection and antivirus to protect it from phishing attack or viruses.  Apart from that the may decide to store in a cold wallet and many other.

There were several cases where employees abused access to the wallet and transferred coins without authorization. The funds of a large company are not the same as the household budget, therefore they are not treated the same.

[Huppercase]

Hi guys. My question is, how do big companies store bitcoins? Which wallets are used?  What is the procedure for accessing the wallet? And how they are not afraid to keep such a large number of bitcoins worth millions of dollars in their wallets. The human factor can play a very cruel joke.

Why do you need to know where they store their Bitcoin and how they do it? There is something called privacy, this is what Bitcoin gives you that nobody can interfere with your investment unlike the banks where even the government can have access to the account number and the names of the account. The companies store Bitcoin just the way you store your own Bitcoin, they used hardware wallet like the ones you used like Trezor and ledger.

There way of storing Bitcoin on their wallet might not be straight forward like a single spender, they do create wallet with M of N signature where 2 or more private keys are required before any Bitcoin can be spend from the wallet. This protect the compby from the fund been mismanage by one person or stolen by some. Even in a situation when one person who has the ledger is been compromised, the funds can be spent because of the M of N signature requirements.

[Alone055]

Hi guys. My question is, how do big companies store bitcoins? Which wallets are used? What is the procedure for accessing the wallet? And how they are not afraid to keep such a large number of bitcoins worth millions of dollars in their wallets. The human factor can play a very cruel joke.

Firstly, they keep such things confidential for security and safety purposes. However, we can make guesses and think of the solutions they could use, such as multi-sig cold storage or custodians that take care of the funds on their behalf and charge them money for it. When either multi-sig wallets or custodians are involved, there is no human factor that can cause any harm to the company and its coins.

For me there is no big deal on where company needs to store there bitcoin, they can store in a any non custodial wallet, provided the seed phrase is safe and  secured and also not accessible to anyone apart from the the person in charge of the company finance. And also the device used for storing of that wallet should be strongly protected by malware protection and antivirus to protect it from phishing attack or viruses.  Apart from that the may decide to store in a cold wallet and many other.

Giving charge of the funds to a single person or even a team with all the access to the wallet(s) can be foolish, as @examplens said, because if they can move the funds, what will stop them from doing that and running away with the funds? The company is not going to chase a few people around the world because they stole some of their bitcoins, even if they try, the odds of them finding the culprits will be very low.

[hd49728]

Hi guys. My question is, how do big companies store bitcoins? Which wallets are used?  What is the procedure for accessing the wallet? And how they are not afraid to keep such a large number of bitcoins worth millions of dollars in their wallets. The human factor can play a very cruel joke.

Nowadays, storing bitcoin in single signature wallet is no longer popular especially if it is a company, corporation with big fund. They will use multisig wallets for storage, cold wallets but there are entities that don't want to store bitcoins by themselves, but choose custodians for example Coinbase doing this for them.

I don't say using a third party service, like Coinbase, as a custodian for your Bitcoin fund, is safe and best way of storage, but it's fact. You can check it with Bitcoin Spot ETFs in the USA and many of them choose Coinbase as their custodians.

Reminder: do not keep your money in online accounts
Bitcoin Spot ETF Custodians.

[icalical]

Companies usually keep their Bitcoin in cold storage or multi signature wallets. Like Ledger or Trezor hardware wallet to store their Bitcoin offline so hackers can't get to it. I also think that multi signature wallets is a must,  because it require a bunch of people to approve transactions is. I guess some businesses even go for hybrid wallets where both the company and the user have control over access. To avoid or reduce human error or even fraud, companies are setting up tight security stuff like multi factor authentication and encryption. They keep their Bitcoin stash in different wallets to avoid any single point of failure.

[BlackBoss_]

Companies usually keep their Bitcoin in cold storage or multi signature wallets. Like Ledger or Trezor hardware wallet to store their Bitcoin offline so hackers can't get to it. I also think that multi signature wallets is a must,  because it require a bunch of people to approve transactions is. I guess some businesses even go for hybrid wallets where both the company and the user have control over access. To avoid or reduce human error or even fraud, companies are setting up tight security stuff like multi factor authentication and encryption. They keep their Bitcoin stash in different wallets to avoid any single point of failure.

Multisig wallet with co-signers can help to increase security of fund from wallet hack or abusement of a single person. With a single signature wallet, if a single person dies or if he abuses it, the fund will be stolen.

It will be the end for that company if the founder steals the company fund and run away, or if the founder and the only wallet owner died without any back up left for anyone else.

A Crypto Exchange CEO Dies—With the Only Key to $137 Million.

[Free Market Capitalist]

Multisig, large custodians like Coinbase specifically meant for big companies such as Microstrategy and the likes of them.

This is a question that even if Michael Saylor is asked, there will not tell you as if will possibly compromise their security.

Wrong, Saylor makes no secret of the fact that they keep their funds with Fidelity Custody.

MicroStrategy, a pioneer in corporate Bitcoin investment, has further solidified its position in the cryptocurrency market by delegating a significant portion of its holdings to Fidelity Custody. As of the latest update, a staggering 98% of MicroStrategy's Bitcoin holdings are entrusted to Fidelity Custody, renowned for its robust security measures and extensive experience in asset management within the financial services industry.

I don't say using a third party service, like Coinbase, as a custodian for your Bitcoin fund, is safe and best way of storage, but it's fact. You can check it with Bitcoin Spot ETFs in the USA and many of them choose Coinbase as their custodians.

I believe that the third party service  that specialize in custody and security measures will be the default option for large companies, such as MSTR. For a large company “not your keys not your coins” makes no sense.

[X-ray]

when it comes to this, multisig always appear in my mind, no way the company will just let one person oversee their wallet and if something bad happen all the asset gone.

but knowing that managing the private key on their own gonna add some unnecessary risk and point of failure, i'd bet they will let other company that specializes in crypto and is highly trustable to be managing their bitcoin.

but yeah, there's always possibility that they are creating their own tools, just for the sake of security but I doubt most of big companies are doing that, and also, they definitely won't tell you about how they secured their bitcoin.

[Baofeng]

Hi guys. My question is, how do big companies store bitcoins? Which wallets are used?  What is the procedure for accessing the wallet? And how they are not afraid to keep such a large number of bitcoins worth millions of dollars in their wallets. The human factor can play a very cruel joke.

Good question, but I will speculate that some big companies might used Coinbase prime custody:

Secure digital asset custody
Join the most robust, regulated institutions who have chosen to use our platform to store and manage their digital assets.

https://www.coinbase.com/prime/custody

Even Bitgo has this kind of custody as well, the good thing that this "trusted" exchange are being used as a custodian is that they are fully insured, so it covers against theft and loss.

And yes the old and traditional way, Multi-sig wallet.

[GxSTxV]

As I know big companies usually store their bitcoins with big quantities in something called cold wallets (These are wallets not connected to the internet ) which makes them very secure against hacking. They might use hardware wallets like Ledger or Trezor or even create custom solutions in strong and secure computers. For extra security, they often use multi-signature (multi-sig) wallets where several people need to approve a transaction before funds can move, and thus is in case someone could get access to that computer or hacked it.
Accessing the wallet needs a procedure with private keys. In multi-sig setups many wallet should be combined and no single person has complete control on the funds. Companies also back up the keys in secure locations,
like vaults.

Honestly, I find that half or even the more important part on storing bitcoins is not just about the method or place but also avoiding many mistakes to let hackers easily get access to you and make the company vulnerable .

[john_egbert]

when it comes to this, multisig always appear in my mind, no way the company will just let one person oversee their wallet and if something bad happen all the asset gone.

but knowing that managing the private key on their own gonna add some unnecessary risk and point of failure, i'd bet they will let other company that specializes in crypto and is highly trustable to be managing their bitcoin.

but yeah, there's always possibility that they are creating their own tools, just for the sake of security but I doubt most of big companies are doing that, and also, they definitely won't tell you about how they secured their bitcoin.

Multisigs, cold wallets, personal solutions, you name it - companies would use all of these and more, in my opinion.
When you are big enough, you can rely on yourself, and that is, of course - the best way out of security issues due to you being the one in control, not the one who does software / stuff for you.
Relying on somebody being a giant in that field may lead to trouble.