Secure Asset Control

What Aethel Custody & Escrow is

Holding crypto is easy until the amounts get serious. Aethel Custody & Escrow gives you the same layered protection that funds and exchanges rely on, without the paperwork or the minimum balances. Your assets sit in segregated vaults, split across cold storage and policy-controlled hot wallets, so a single compromised key can never move your funds.

Escrow sits on top of custody. When you buy, sell or settle a deal with another party, the assets are locked in a smart escrow that releases only when every condition you agreed on is met. Both sides can watch the status in real time, and nobody, including us, can quietly change the terms halfway through.

How it works

1. Open a vault. Create a custody vault from your dashboard and choose who can approve withdrawals: just you, a co-signer or a team.
2. Set your policies. Add daily limits, address allowlists and time locks. Every rule is enforced before a transaction is signed.
3. Deposit assets. Transfer coins or tokens into the vault. Most of the balance moves to cold storage automatically, where 95% of all customer assets are held offline in 3-of-5 multi-signature vaults.
4. Create an escrow. For a deal, define the amount, the counterparty and the release conditions, then invite the other side to confirm.
5. Release with proof. When the conditions are met, the escrow settles on-chain and both parties receive a verifiable receipt.

Security you can verify

Every vault is covered by independent security audits (the latest by Northpeak Labs in September 2026), daily proof-of-reserves attestations, encrypted backups in separate regions and a full activity log you can export at any time. Each approval, policy change and withdrawal is recorded with who did it and when, which makes internal reviews and compliance checks a matter of minutes instead of days. Vaults on the Pro plan are insured up to $1M, and Institutional vaults up to $250M.

Who it is for

Custody & Escrow is built for anyone who wants institutional safeguards without institutional friction:

• Long-term holders who want their savings out of reach of phishing and lost devices.
• Traders and OTC desks settling large deals with counterparties they have never met.
• Startups and DAOs that need multi-approval treasuries and a clear audit trail.

Common questions

Who controls the keys?

Keys are split into shares held in separate secure environments, and no single share can sign a transaction. Withdrawals follow the approval rules you set, so your team stays in control of every movement.

Is there a minimum balance?

No. You can open a vault with any amount and upgrade to multi-approval policies as your holdings or your team grow.

What happens if a deal falls through?

If the release conditions are not met before the deadline, the escrow returns the assets to the original sender automatically. Disputes can be reviewed with the evidence both sides uploaded.

Moving a treasury or planning a large settlement? Talk to our custody team and we will help you design the right approval policy.