VALR’s dedicated team of cyber-security experts takes care that your cryptocurrencies and account are as safe as possible by putting in place several security measures:
1) Coin storage
Our cryptocurrency storage spans both "cold storage" and "hot wallets".
Cold storage means that the private keys that control the cryptocurrency are held offline in "air-gap" isolation from any online system. Furthermore, our cold storage operates a multi-signature scheme where several private keys need to be used to sign any transaction enabling the movement of funds. These keys are held in institutional vaults that are geographically dispersed, access-controlled and video-monitored. Multiple signatories are needed to transfer funds after physically entering secure off-site premises and satisfying institutional grade security clearances.
Hot wallets are online wallets that are connected to the internet and are required to maintain operational liquidity. We deploy multi-signature hot wallets that use multiple private keys which are managed and secured through cloud-hosted cryptographic key management services.
2) Internal controls
Our security procedures don't allow any individual (not even our CEO) to single-handedly transfer cryptocurrencies--we always require multiple signatories to move your funds.
Carefully architected procedures and processes that require multiple signatories from multiple secure locations are required to move cryptocurrencies.
Our offices do not store any cryptocurrencies.
3) Account security
Because we know that the most likely scenario for a security breach of your VALR account is user-specific, where someone gains access to your personal sign-in credentials and uses these to access your account information and funds we implement several account security features.
We automatically enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) by SMS for all critical transactions. While this is as secure as we can make your account, we strongly encourage all our customers to upgrade your 2FA using an Authenticator app to increase your account security. We cannot do this for you--it requires your action.
We also require your authorization for all attempts to access your account from any new device or location.
4) Financial security
We are a full reserve crypto-trading platform where customers can only trade from pre-funded accounts. This means that we do not lend out any of your assets like banks do. All your funds are kept 100% fully reserved.