Zug, November 27, 2020 – Bitcoin Suisse and Swiss Crypto Vault AG are pleased to announce that Bitcoin Suisse Vault AG – its institutional-grade solution for crypto asset custody – has successfully completed an independent audit and received the ISAE 3402 Type 2 report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Bitcoin Suisse Vault AG has been audited by PwC yearly since its inception in 2018. This makes it the only crypto custody offering worldwide to have that long and uninterrupted coverage of independent assurance reports by a Big-4 audit firm.
Bitcoin Suisse Vault AG is the proprietary custody solution for crypto assets of the Bitcoin Suisse Group and forms one of the main pillars of its business. Bitcoin Suisse stores multiple billions (CHF) of crypto assets in a secure, fully redundant cold storage solution. As part of its rigorous focus on quality and security, the audit firm PwC has been engaged as independent auditor to perform assurance engagement on the design, implementation and operating effectiveness of controls related to this crypto storage solution since opening the Vault for clients in Q1-2018.
The control framework assessed during the ISAE 3402 audit included control objectives for the following areas: Key Generation and Distribution; Key Management, Transaction Authorization and Client Data Management; Vulnerability Management and Security Configurations; Physical and Logical Access Management; Change Management, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Management. Following the successful completion of the assurance engagement, the Bitcoin Suisse Vault AG received the world’s first-ever ISAE 3402 Type 2 report for these control areas.
This Type 2 report, which was issued on November 20, 2020, confirms that the Bitcoin Suisse Vault AG operated securely throughout the audit period from September 25, 2019, to October 31, 2020. This follows on from the ISAE 3402 Type 1 report issued in 2019. The Bitcoin Suisse Vault AG has thus been fully audited since its launch in 2018, with other audits including but not limited to a code review conducted by Zühlke and penetration testing by Compass Security.
Established in 2016 and opening for clients in Q1-2018, the Bitcoin Suisse Vault AG pioneered HSM technology for crypto asset storage, as well as the absolute focus on the removal of the human factor as a source of theft, fraud & access violations. With a fully redundant HSM setup, highly secure geographically separated underground locations and a perfect service history, it is likely one of, if not the safest crypto vault with any track record, as well as having broadest support for different crypto assets.
The ISAE 3402 Type 2 report was issued to Swiss Crypto Vault AG. Swiss Crypto Vault AG is the crypto custody technology company who develops and securely operates Bitcoin Suisse Vault AG on behalf of Bitcoin Suisse and its clients.
Markus Perdrizat, CEO Swiss Crypto Vault AG and Head Custody at Bitcoin Suisse, commented: “Ensuring the security of our clients’ assets is our highest priority. ISAE 3402 Type 2 audit reports provide peace of mind for institutional clients that their assets in the Vault are safe and audited, and that they can easily meet the requirements of the applicable Swiss and EU outsourcing regulations. The awarding of this Type 2 report also represents an important step forward in our efforts to make crypto financial services institutional grade.”
