Cobo Raises 13 million USD To Increase Field Of Operations

By Rishma Banerjee

Cobo offers two flagship products for consumers, Cobo Wallet and Cobo Vault.

Cobo Wallet is a multi-asset crypto software wallet that allows users to store Proof-of-Stake cryptocurrencies like Dash, Lightning Bitcoin (LBTC) and ZCoin (XZC). This feature, also known as the “staking” feature, gives its users an opportunity to mine cryptocurrency rewards and enjoy regular returns on pooling their coins. It uses the PoS consensus mechanism to validate blockchain transactions to increase the combined staking capacity. New blocks that are approved by the staking pool are given to the users as rewards.

The startup, based in Beijing has recently raised US$13 million in a Series A funding round from DHVC and Wu Capital, to develop its blockchain products and to explore into global markets.

The co-founder and CTO of the company said,

“Crypto has come a long way since I first ventured into this space five years ago. While I’m excited to see that crypto investment and enthusiasm is on the rise globally, a majority of crypto assets remain dormant in an exchange or wallet for extended periods of time, which creates many lost opportunities…  As crypto becomes widely recognized as a legitimate financial instrument, our goal is to provide a rewards system that leverages unutilized assets to enrich investors and accelerate the growth of the entire crypto ecosystem.”

It also supports 20+ chains including ETH, EOS, TRX, and 500+ multi-chain tokens. There are two ways in which this wallet works. Users have to select between using a Cloud wallet with private keys backed up on the cloud, and a personal HD wallet seed, where the private keys are encrypted on the user’s devices. Cobo wallet also provides a decentralised app (DApp) store. It had reportedly attracted more than 500,000 users.

Cobo vault, on the other hand, is a hardware wallet for cryptocurrencies, that gives the assurance of being the  “the safest possible means of securing keys from hackers.” It has a bank-grade encryption chip, with a tailored firmware that meets BIP 32, 39, and 44 protocols. This is to ensure that the encryption chip stored the private keys safely at all times. Forced entry to this wipes away all stored private keys and data. To guarantee security and protection against supply chain attacks, the vault also has a system of web authentication. Transactions here are conducted through an always changing QR code.

It has a 4-inch LCD with an IP68 waterproof rating and a rugged, IK10 and MIL-STD-810G certified, brushed aluminium case and supports the top 8 cryptocurrencies of today, including BTC, ETH and all ERC20 tokens.

Transactions on Cobo Vault are conducted by scanning a dynamically changing QR code and is priced at 479 USD.