FAQ

In the United States, where the term is most commonly used, a qualified custodian generally is a federal or state-chartered bank or savings association, certain trust companies, a registered broker-dealer, a registered futures commission merchant, or certain foreign financial institutions (“FFI”). According to the SEC, FFIs are “incorporated or organized under the laws of a country or jurisdiction other than the United States” and meet the following requirements under the new proposal:

1. The adviser and the SEC are able to enforce judgments, including civil monetary penalties, against the FFI;
2. The FFI is regulated by a foreign country’s government, an agency of a foreign country’s government, or a foreign financial regulatory authority as a banking institution, trust company, or other financial institution that customarily holds financial assets for its customers;
3. The FFI is required by law to comply with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and related provisions similar to those of the Bank Secrecy Act (31 U.S.C. 5311, et seq.) and regulations thereunder;
4. The FFI holds financial assets for its customers in an account designed to protect such assets from creditors of the foreign financial institution in the event of the insolvency or failure of the foreign financial institution;
5. The FFI has the requisite financial strength to provide due care for client assets;
6. The FFI is required by law to implement practices, procedures, and internal controls designed to ensure the exercise of due care with respect to the safekeeping of client assets; and
7. The FFI is not operated for the purpose of evading the provisions of the proposed rule.

Finoa has extensive safeguards in place and complies fully with the requirements of German law, many of which are in line with the SEC’s requirements for qualified custodians. Read more about Finoa's qualifications as a custodian.  

Finoa Consensus Services is Finoa’s subsidiary focused on developing blockchain infrastructure and distributed validator technology that secures decentralized networks and maximizes institutional investors’ capital efficiency.

To open an account, please fill in the contact form on our contact page. A member of our Sales Team will be in touch with you to initiate the process.

The account creation is dependent on the onboarding verification process and customer requirements.

The fee charged varies depending on the type of customer you are and the total value of assets you would like to custody. Please get in touch with our team to learn more. 

Storing your assets with a custodian allows you to protect your assets with best-in-class security and reduces the risk of you losing your keys or getting hacked. 

Finoa's custody solution offers bank-level security combined with immediate access to your digital assets. We ensure that your private keys are stored securely while giving you the freedom to deposit, stake, and withdraw your assets and grow your portfolio. 

Private keys for your assets are generated and stored in Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) that provide military-grade cold storage. Through the application of core banking technology to blockchain infrastructure, digital assets can be deposited, withdrawn, or staked within seconds. Our multi-signature functionality serves as an additional layer of security for your assets. 

Multi-signature is the process of validating a specific operation (such as a withdrawal) based on the confirmation from a predefined number of signatures. It acts as a security mechanism to ensure that the funds’ governance is respected. A multi-signature process splits the responsibility among multiple people, eliminating a single point of failure and making it substantially more difficult for funds to be compromised.

Staking means delegating your tokens into the blockchain network to act as a validator of transactions. By staking tokens, one helps in securing the network and in return, receives rewards for doing so.

Finoa's in-custody staking services support Polkadot (DOT), Oasis (ROSE), SKALE (SKL), Near (NEAR), Mina (MINA), Flow (FLOW), Audius (AUDIO), Axelar (AXL), Agoric (BLD), Kyve (KYVE), and more to come. Read an overview of our Proof-of-Stake assets.

Finoa offers a range of staking options, including:

• In-custody staking through the Finoa platform
• Delegated staking, via public validators 
• White-label staking nodes.

Liquid staking, also known as "soft staking," is a type of token delegation whereby the staked assets are not locked. Holders who contribute to a liquid staking pool receive a derivative token representing their stake, which can be used in other decentralized finance protocols.

Thanks to a partnership with StakeWise, Finoa makes it possible for ETH holders to engage in liquid staking via the StakeWise platform.

If you would like to deposit an asset for which we do not currently offer custody support, please get in touch with our team via the contact form. We are constantly adding more assets to meet our customers' needs.

Two-Factor Authentication is enabled in your Finoa account through the Finoa 2FA App. The latter works by cryptographically pairing your biometric data (Fingerprint or Face ID) on your smartphone with your Finoa account. 2FA serves as the means to enable a multi-signature functionality to your Finoa account.

For iPhone users, the Finoa App works on iPhones 6 and above. We highly recommend that you keep your iPhone up to date and install the recommended iOS updates regularly, to ensure the security of your iPhone.

Android users can access the Finoa App on devices running Android 9 or higher. These devices have the required security features, such as an integrated hardware security module (Secure Enclave, Trusted Execution Environment), as well as supporting biometric authentication methods (fingerprint or Face ID). However, as supported devices vary greatly in the Android ecosystem, Finoa cannot grant compatibility with our 2FA App for these.

Compatibility can only be fully assessed by trial, which is why Finoa encourages adopting an iPhone as the preferred device choice. As always, we highly recommend the following for the security of your device:

• Keep the software on your device up to date and install updates regularly. 
• Only install apps and use services from trusted sources.
• Secure your phone adequately for the event of theft. Set up a screen lock with a strong PIN or a biometric factor (e.g. fingerprint). 
• Report anything suspicious.

Disclaimer: note that there are exceptions to the device models supported by the Finoa App.