For institutions holding digital assets, a central custody question is whether a transaction can be authorized without exposing sensitive cryptographic operations to connected systems. In a report published on November 14, 2026, at 17:36 (UTC+8), PANews said Blockstream had launched a custody solution developed with French technology group Thales.
According to PANews, citing Cointelegraph, the system combines Thales hardware security modules (HSMs) with Blockstream’s Secure-MPC technology. It is designed to let institutions authorize transactions while keeping sensitive cryptographic operations inside dedicated security hardware.
Blockstream co-founder and CEO Adam Back said conventional MPC protocols are often too complex and interactive to use practically in fully offline cold storage. He argued that keeping signing devices offline helps prevent unauthorized access. Back also cited what he described as a $6.3 billion Binance hack to illustrate the risks of connected custody infrastructure; the brief report does not independently establish that incident or loss figure.
The custody trade-off highlighted by the announcement is how to retain transaction authorization while limiting the exposure of signing operations. The report does not provide an independent security assessment of the new system.