CoinCorner, a bitcoin exchange based on the Isle of Man, launched a multisig custody service Tuesday that splits control of customer keys with US partner AnchorWatch and insures holdings through Lloyd’s of London. The product, called Vault, charges 1.5% a year and is pitched at owners who want cold-storage security without managing hardware themselves.
The timing follows a rough stretch for custody in bitcoin. Days earlier, hackers drained 4,000 BTC from Blockstream’s Liquid Network before returning most of it under negotiation, and the long-running Coldcard theft case is still working through the courts, with the attacker laundering nearly half the haul through mixers. CoinCorner chief executive Danny Scott said the service is the first of its kind globally, combining insured multisig custody with a setup simple enough for non-technical customers.
How the two-key setup works
Vault uses a two-key multisig arrangement. CoinCorner holds one key and AnchorWatch holds the other, and neither company can move a customer’s bitcoin alone. The keys sit in different jurisdictions under separate entities, so a compromise of either firm does not put funds at risk by itself.
Customers can also set their own identity verification rules, requiring specific checks to pass before any funds move. Insurance underwritten by Lloyd’s of London covers loss of keys and unauthorized access. AnchorWatch, a Lloyd’s coverholder, writes bitcoin custody policies on A+ rated Lloyd’s paper, with per-vault coverage that can reach $100 million on its institutional configurations and $500 million limits for large clients.
“Vault offers a simple non-technical setup for customers, and partnering with AnchorWatch means we can offer fully insured, multi-signature custody with the simplicity our customers expect from CoinCorner,” Scott said in a statement.
Fees, timing and the fine print
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Annual fee | 1.50%, billed monthly |
| Key control | 2-of-2 multisig, CoinCorner and AnchorWatch |
| Insurance | Lloyd’s of London, covers key loss and unauthorized access |
| Withdrawals | Any time, no long-term commitment |
| Deposits | Move to insured wallet on first working day of following month |
| Verification | On-chain via a wallet address CoinCorner provides |
Deposits do not move into the insured wallet immediately. Transfers typically happen on the first working day of the month after the deposit, which matters for anyone expecting same-day coverage. Top-ups are allowed at any time and holdings are verifiable onchain through a wallet address the exchange provides, so customers can confirm balances without trusting the company’s dashboard.
There is a regulatory gap worth stating plainly. The service is not regulated by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, and customers get no FSCS protection or access to the Financial Ombudsman Service. That protection depends on the Lloyd’s policy itself, not on any UK deposit-style guarantee. Anyone using Vault is underwriting the terms of a private insurance contract, including whatever exclusions sit in the fine print.
Regulation is coming anyway
The launch lands just as the UK prepares to fold crypto custody into its formal regulatory framework. FCA rules for crypto custody are expected to take effect on October 25, 2027, and the wider market is already shifting. The FCA decided to lift its retail ban on crypto ETPs this October, and Hargreaves Lansdown, the country’s largest retail investment platform, reversed its position on those products after the announcement. Custody is the next piece of the regime, and platforms that build compliant infrastructure early will have a head start when the rules bind.
CoinCorner’s bet is that insured custody becomes a competitive requirement rather than a premium add-on. Custody failures have defined the industry’s worst moments, from exchange collapses to the recent run of thefts and partial recoveries, and retail customers have had few options between bare multisig setups and corporate custody contracts priced for institutions. AnchorWatch’s model, which pairs Bitcoin-native vault software with named insurance policies rather than pooled corporate coverage, has been building toward exactly this retail audience since it began operations as a Lloyd’s coverholder in late 2024.
The technical base is Trident Vault, AnchorWatch’s Bitcoin-native custody system. It uses miniscript to encode spending conditions, timelocked recovery paths and multiple signing quorums directly on the blockchain, so the policy is enforced by the Bitcoin network itself rather than by a company’s back office. In its multi-institution configuration, the same software distributes keys across three independent firms in a 2-of-3 arrangement, a setup designed to survive any one institution going offline or becoming unavailable.
The 1.5% annual fee is not cheap next to a hardware wallet and a steel backup plate. It is cheap next to losing the keys. Whether enough UK holders agree will show up in the deposit flows over the next few quarters.
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