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Google Debuting a Bank-Grade Crypto Custody Tool Built on Split Keys: Report

Google is reportedly unveiling Google Multi-Party Compute, a crypto custody system that splits signing keys across separate systems, at its first digital assets symposium in New York today. The product is in private preview with several financial institutions. Alphabet has started using it to secure its own assets, according to CoinDesk reporting.

Google plans commercial availability in early 2027 and has not disclosed pricing.

The system applies multi-party computation to a signing key. The key is divided into fragments held by separate parties or machines, and a transaction requires a set number of fragments to sign. 

The full key is never assembled in one place. A bank could hold one share on its own hardware, another in Google Cloud, and a third with a rival cloud provider. Institutions can set thresholds such as two-of-three or five-of-seven. Before any signature, a policy engine running inside Google’s Confidential Space checks the transfer against limits, destination restrictions, and approval rules. 

Google says it has no access to key shares in unencrypted form, per CoinDesk.

Crypto’s security issues

The pitch rests on a persistent problem. Chainalysis attributed 43.8% of cryptocurrency stolen in 2024 to compromised private keys. DeFiLlama data shows roughly 40% of the $16.69 billion lost to hacks through June came from key compromises. In June, an attacker took seven keys from one developer’s computer during the Humanity Protocol breach and drained wallets across two networks. 

Such incidents show how concentrated signing authority creates a single point of failure. The industry has responded by recommending multi-vendor multisignature setups that spread control across hardware and software providers.

Google also frames the product against AI-enabled fraud. Chainalysis found that scams linked to AI tool vendors averaged $3.2 million per operation in 2025, compared with $719,000 for other scams. The report links the two figures but does not prove that AI caused the difference. 

Ethereum researcher Justin Drake has warned that AI could eventually find mathematical shortcuts that weaken wallet signatures. No AI system has shown that capability. Google’s MPC design targets stolen credentials and unauthorized transfers, not a break in the underlying cryptography.

Quantum computing presents a separate, longer-term risk. Google researchers estimated that a sufficiently powerful future machine could derive a bitcoin private key from an exposed public key in about nine minutes. Roughly 6.9 million bitcoin have exposed public keys. Google says its architecture can adopt post-quantum signatures later without forcing institutions to rebuild their systems, but it has set no timetable. Background on how quantum machines threaten bitcoin explains which addresses are most exposed.

Google enters a market led by Fireblocks, Fordefi, and BitGo. Google argued to CoinDesk that its banking relationships and security expertise give it an advantage. It also positions itself as a neutral supplier for banks that do not want to rely on competitors. 

Banks already use specialized platforms, such as BNP Paribas’s custody work with Metaco, and multi-institution vaults built with BitGo.

This post Google Debuting a Bank-Grade Crypto Custody Tool Built on Split Keys: Report first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Google is testing a crypto custody security system for banks, using multi-party computation to protect private keys and authorize institutional transfers.

TL;DR: Google’s updated rules for UAE-targeted crypto exchange and wallet ads took effect October 21. Advertisers need an accepted local license and Google certification; the policy is not blanket permission for all crypto promotions.

Crypto exchanges and software-wallet providers targeting customers in the United Arab Emirates now face the licensing and certification conditions set out in Google’s updated advertising policy.

The change took effect on October 21, according to Google’s official policy notice. This is the implementation date of an earlier announcement, rather than a newly issued rule on Wednesday.

For the crypto exchange and software-wallet category, Google lists four accepted authorities: the Capital Market Authority, Dubai Financial Services Authority, Financial Services Regulatory Authority and Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority. Advertisers also need certification from Google.

A License And An Ad Approval Are Separate Steps

A financial-services authorization and permission to distribute an advertisement answer different questions. The first concerns the business’s regulated activities. The second concerns whether a particular platform will carry its marketing under that platform’s rules.

The updated notice links those processes but does not merge them. Possessing a license does not, on its own, establish that an advertiser has completed Google’s certification process.

Equally, a reader encountering an ad should not treat its appearance as an assurance about investment returns or a guarantee against loss. Advertising eligibility concerns access to the marketing channel; it is not an assessment of every transaction a customer might make afterward.

For firms, the operational consequences sit with campaign preparation. A company needs its authorization and certification details to match the service it is promoting and the jurisdiction it is targeting. Marketing teams cannot safely infer that eligibility in one market automatically carries over to another.

The notice also discusses other financial-product categories. Those should not be collapsed into one universal crypto rule: the license list above is the one Google provides specifically for cryptocurrency exchanges and software wallets targeting the UAE.

The immediate change is therefore precise. Eligible providers have an updated route to advertising access, with a local licensing requirement and a separate platform certification requirement attached.

Related Reading

• Twitter Joins Facebook and Google in Banning Crypto Advertising
• Why Google is Removing All Bitcoin Mining Apps on the Play Store
• Block Takes Bitcoin Mainstream With First Major Consumer Ad Campaign

This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.