Digital payments firm Strike has taken a major step towards reducing counterparty risk and ensuring the robustness of its products and services by moving all customer Bitcoin (BTC) and U.S. dollar (USD) assets to its own in-house infrastructure, according to a June 8 blog post by CEO and co-founder Jack Mallers. The move has been two years in the making and will benefit customers spread across more than 65 countries.
I’m proud to announce Strike now owns and operates all of its own infrastructure for customers, Mallers wrote. Strike now custodies customer Bitcoin and dollars, which means no custodial intermediaries between us and our users.
The transition to in-house custody brings short and long-term benefits to users. Strike users can now send Bitcoin directly to other users on a peer-to-peer basis, receive funds as cash or Bitcoin, and make payments directly on-chain or via the Bitcoin Lightning Network. Deposit limits have been increased and on-chain payments are now tiered, allowing users to pay higher fees for faster payments and lower fees for slower, less urgent transactions.
Mallers says his company has some serious ambitions in the long-term. Global on/off ramps, instant withdrawals, new DCA [dollar cost averaging] capabilities, continuing to improve our limits, more cross-currency capabilities, and more things we hope to bring soon, Mallers said.