Braavos

What Is Braavos?

Braavos is a self-custodial cryptocurrency wallet built natively on Starknet, Ethereum's zero-knowledge rollup layer 2, with added support for Bitcoin. Founded in 2022 and headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, Braavos was built around a single thesis: that self-custody should be as intuitive and secure as using a consumer banking app, without sacrificing the decentralization that gives crypto its core value proposition.

The wallet is available as a browser extension (Chrome, Firefox, Brave, and Edge) and as native mobile apps for iOS and Android. It supports Starknet assets — including ETH, USDC, USDT, and STRK — as well as Bitcoin, offering users unified access to both ecosystems from a single interface.

The Problem Braavos Solves

Self-custody has long been crypto's biggest adoption barrier. Seed phrase management is technical, unforgiving, and unfamiliar to most users. Standard externally owned accounts (EOAs) offer no built-in recovery, no spending limits, and no multi-factor protection — the private key is the only mechanism standing between a user and a permanent loss of funds. Custodial wallets solve UX but introduce counterparty risk, as demonstrated repeatedly by exchange collapses.

Braavos targets the gap between the two. It delivers the security of self-custody with the usability of custodial services, using Starknet's native account abstraction as the underlying mechanism to enable features that are structurally impossible on base-layer Ethereum or Bitcoin.

How It Works: Account Abstraction

Starknet treats every account as a smart contract rather than a simple keypair. This design — native account abstraction — allows Braavos to embed transaction logic directly into the account itself. The result is a programmable wallet that can enforce rules: biometric authentication before each transaction, daily spending limits, time-delayed recovery, and multi-signature approval flows.

The practical implication is that Braavos can require a fingerprint or Face ID scan to authorize any transaction on-chain. The biometric check is handled by the device's hardware security module — the iPhone's Secure Enclave or Android's Titan M2 chip — and the resulting signature is verified by a custom on-chain verification contract. Private keys generated inside these hardware modules never leave the chip and are inaccessible even to the operating system.

The Security Pyramid

Braavos structures its security as a tiered pyramid, allowing users to select the level of protection appropriate to their holdings and threat model.

Seed Signer (baseline): The standard 12-word mnemonic. Widely compatible but vulnerable to phishing and malware — authentication relies entirely on "something you know." This tier is intentionally the least secure option and is primarily retained for compatibility.

Passkey Signer (browser extension): Uses the device's security chip and biometric identity via WebAuthn. Combines "something you have" (your computer) with "something you are" (your fingerprint or face). Mirrors hardware security in a browser context.

Hardware Signer / Protected Signer (mobile): The core security innovation. The Protected Signer uses Android's Trusted Execution Environment (TEE/ARM TrustZone) to virtually isolate key storage from other applications. The Hardware Signer goes further, using a physically separate chip — the Secure Enclave or Titan M2 — from which private keys can never be extracted. Both enforce two-factor authentication: device possession and biometric verification.

Multi-Signer (apex): Combines a browser extension key with a mobile hardware key, requiring both to authorize transactions. This creates true three-factor authentication: something you know (seed phrase, retained for recovery), something you have (two separate devices), and something you are (biometrics). Braavos describes this as "the first time in crypto" that genuine multi-factor authentication has been applied to transaction signing at the account level.

An additional protection layer — a 4-day delay on seed phrase recovery — means that even if a seed phrase is compromised, an attacker cannot immediately drain funds. The legitimate owner can cancel the recovery window before it completes.

Features and Products

Bitcoin Earn: Braavos bridges native Bitcoin to Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) on Starknet in a single tap, then routes it into yield-generating DeFi protocols. Users can earn up to 8–10% APR on BTC with auto-compounding weekly rewards, no lockups, and zero gas fees on the mobile app. The process is presented as a one-click workflow, with Braavos abstracting the bridging, wrapping, and deposit steps behind a single action.

STRK Staking: Starknet's native token STRK can be staked directly within the wallet, with yields up to 9% APR. Staking contributes to Starknet's proof-of-stake security while generating rewards for the holder.

Lightning Network Payments: In March 2025, Braavos integrated Lightning Network payment support, enabling fast and low-cost Bitcoin transactions suited for everyday use cases.

Token Swapping: Users can swap across supported Starknet assets and between Bitcoin and Starknet tokens from within the wallet interface, without connecting to external DEX frontends.

Fiat On-Ramps: Braavos supports direct fiat deposits via Apple Pay, Google Pay, credit cards, and bank transfers, reducing the number of steps between traditional finance and self-custody.

DeFi Dashboard: A built-in dashboard displays active DeFi positions across Starknet protocols. Users can monitor, manage, and adjust yield positions without navigating to individual protocol interfaces.

dApps Explorer: A curated browser for Starknet decentralized applications is built into the wallet, providing mobile users — not just browser-extension users — access to the full Starknet DeFi and NFT ecosystem.

Session Keys: Braavos introduced session key functionality that allows dApp developers to request scoped permissions to execute transactions on behalf of users for a defined time period and set of permitted actions. This eliminates repeated wallet approval popups during extended dApp interactions, significantly improving UX for games, trading bots, and other high-frequency applications.

Multi-Owner Accounts (MOA): Described by Braavos as the most secure method for holding funds, MOA allows multiple signers — separate devices, separate keys — to jointly control a single Starknet account. This mirrors enterprise multisig setups in a consumer-accessible package.

Daily Spending Limits: Users can configure per-day transaction limits, adding a guardrail against unauthorized outflows even if a signing key is somehow compromised.

Gas-Free Mobile Transactions

On Braavos mobile, send, swap, invest, and staking transactions are gas-free. Braavos absorbs gas costs for supported operations, removing a persistent friction point that deters new users from interacting with DeFi.

Security Track Record

Since launching in early 2022, Braavos has deployed over 1 million wallets with no reported critical bugs, exploits, or user fund losses. The wallet does not maintain records of user security credentials and does not take custody of user funds at any point.

Team

Braavos was co-founded by Motty Lavie (CEO), Abraham Makovetsky, and Yoav Gaziel. The company employs approximately 16 people as of mid-2026. Both Lavie and Makovetsky come from software engineering backgrounds.

Funding

In October 2022, Braavos closed a $10 million seed round led by Pantera Capital. Additional investors in the round included Brevan Howard (via BH Digital), DCVC, Road Capital, Crypto.com, Matrixport, and StarkWare — the team that built and maintains the Starknet protocol itself. The StarkWare participation reflects the strategic importance of Braavos to the Starknet ecosystem: it was among the first wallets to extend Starknet's native account abstraction features into a consumer-grade mobile product.

Pantera Capital noted in its investment thesis that Braavos's use of mobile Hardware Security Modules delivers "a security level that is greater than hardware wallets" while maintaining an interface comparable to consumer fintech apps.

Ecosystem Context

Braavos operates on Starknet, a ZK-rollup that uses STARK proof technology to settle Ethereum transactions with high throughput and low fees. Starknet's native account abstraction — absent on most other L1 and L2 networks — is the technical foundation that makes the Braavos security architecture possible. The wallet's Bitcoin integration via WBTC bridges two of the largest crypto ecosystems, positioning Braavos as a multi-asset self-custody layer rather than a single-chain product.

As of 2026, Braavos has positioned itself at the intersection of Bitcoin earning yield, Starknet DeFi access, and consumer-grade security — targeting both crypto-native holders seeking DeFi participation and Bitcoin holders looking for yield without relinquishing custody.