Braavos

Braavos is a self-custodial smart contract wallet built on Starknet with native Bitcoin support. Founded in 2022, the wallet has grown to more than one million deployed accounts and holds roughly a quarter of Starknet's total wallet TVL. Its core proposition is that account abstraction — the ability to program the rules governing a wallet at the smart-contract level — can deliver institutional-grade security without sacrificing usability.

How It Works

Starknet is a ZK-rollup Layer 2 network that settles on Ethereum. Instead of creating a simple externally-owned account controlled by one private key, Braavos deploys each user's wallet as a unique smart contract on Starknet. This architecture gives the wallet programmable signing rules: transaction approvals can require multiple factors, enforce daily spending limits, or mandate approval from more than one device.

The Hardware Signer ties transaction signing to the phone's Secure Enclave or Trusted Execution Environment — the same tamper-resistant chip that protects device biometrics and Apple Pay keys. When a user approves a transaction with Face ID or a fingerprint, the signing key never leaves the secure chip, making remote theft of the key computationally infeasible. Braavos stacks this with an optional passphrase to offer two-factor (2FA) or three-factor (3FA) authentication without requiring external hardware.

Key Features

Multi-Factor Authentication and Spending Limits: Up to 3FA can be activated, combining the hardware-bound key, a traditional seed phrase key, and on-chain daily spending limits. The spending limit acts as a circuit breaker: even if one factor is compromised, an attacker cannot drain funds faster than the daily cap permits.

Multi-Owner Accounts (MOA): Multiple wallets or devices can co-own a single Starknet account with customizable threshold signing, implemented entirely in the wallet's smart contract. This gives teams and power users native on-chain multisig without deploying a separate multisig contract.

Native Bitcoin Support: Added in 2025, BTC integration lets users send and receive Bitcoin and make Lightning Network payments by scanning QR codes — covering merchants and peers anywhere Lightning is accepted. Bitcoin yield is accessible through Starknet DeFi protocols, offering auto-compounding positions without manual bridging or wrapping. Rates have reached double digits but fluctuate with market conditions and carry underlying protocol risk.

Staking and Yield: The wallet surfaces native staking for ETH, STRK (Starknet's governance and gas token), and BTC. STRK staking launched in late 2024 with auto-compounding. Users interact with staking positions directly from the wallet interface without visiting separate DeFi front-ends.

Gas-Free Transactions: Braavos sponsors gas fees for common interactions, removing the requirement to hold ETH or STRK before using the network — a significant friction point for users onboarding from centralized exchanges or other chains.

AVNU DEX Integration: Swaps route through AVNU, a DEX aggregator on Starknet, to source liquidity across multiple protocols and optimize pricing. Swaps execute inside the wallet without a browser redirect.

Fiat Onramps: Apple Pay and Google Pay integrations allow direct fiat-to-crypto purchases without leaving the app, covering users who want to buy crypto without first visiting an exchange.

Cross-Chain Bridging: Braavos integrates bridge partners including rhino.fi, Owlto, Orbiter, and Starkgate, supporting deposits from 21 source chains: Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Polygon, zkSync Era, Optimism, BSC, Solana, and others. Users bridging from Solana can fund Starknet positions directly through these integrations.

Pro Score: An on-chain activity tracking system that gamifies wallet usage by scoring transaction history and DeFi participation. As of August 2026, Braavos has made no official token announcement, though Pro Score has generated speculation about airdrop eligibility.

Supported Assets

Braavos supports the primary Starknet asset set: ETH (bridged from Ethereum mainnet), STRK, USDC, USDT, and other ERC-20 tokens deployed on Starknet. Native Bitcoin and BTC yield products are also available. Braavos has not issued a proprietary token.

Security and Audits

The Hardware Signer architecture keeps signing keys in device-level secure hardware, substantially narrowing the attack surface for phishing campaigns and remote exploits. Braavos reports no critical exploits or fund losses across its deployed wallet base since 2022. The project operates a bug bounty program for external security researchers. Formal third-party audit disclosures are not extensively documented in public-facing materials; users making large custody decisions should seek current audit documentation directly from the team.

Team and Funding

Motty Lavie is the founder and CEO of Braavos. In 2022, the project raised $10 million led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Road Capital, BH Digital, DCVC, Crypto.com, Matrixport, and StarkWare Industries — the core development organization behind Starknet. StarkWare's direct investment reflects Braavos's position as a key ecosystem participant rather than a peripheral project.

Ecosystem Context

Braavos is a Starknet-native product, not a Solana-native application. Its relevance to Solana users arises through cross-chain bridging: Solana is one of 21 supported source chains, making it straightforward to move assets from Solana to Starknet positions managed through Braavos. For users already active on Starknet — or those looking to access Starknet DeFi yields from a Solana base — Braavos represents the second-largest wallet option in the ecosystem, behind Argent X.