Our History

The story of Vault Secure begins in a cramped Brooklyn apartment in 2018. Two cybersecurity engineers — Sarah Chen and Marcus Wright — had just witnessed a wave of online crypto thefts that wiped out thousands of bitcoin holdings overnight. They realized that existing solutions were either too complex for regular users or relied on closed-source components that could not be trusted. That winter, they sold their personal bitcoin savings to fund the first prototype of a truly transparent hardware wallet. With no outside investment and only a small soldering station, they built the first working model entirely by hand.

After six months of iteration, the first functional hardware wallet passed its initial security tests. The breakthrough came when they solved the air-gap signing problem — allowing a hardware device to sign crypto transactions using optical QR codes instead of USB cables. This meant that even a compromised computer could never inject malicious data into the wallet. In 2019, Vault Secure was officially incorporated in Delaware, and the team moved to a small office in Austin, Texas. The first 500 units were sold exclusively to bitcoin enthusiasts on community forums, and every single one sold out in under 48 hours.

The following years brought rapid expansion. By 2021, Vault Secure had grown to twelve engineers and moved to our current New York headquarters. We released the second generation of our hardware wallet, featuring an EAL6+ secure element and a full-color screen for verifying bitcoin addresses. Independent researchers tested the device for over three months and found zero critical vulnerabilities. Unlike many crypto projects that pivoted to other trends, we stayed focused on hardware security. That dedication earned us a loyal following among long-term bitcoin holders who value reliability over flashy features.

Today, Vault Secure is recognized as one of the most trusted names in hardware self-custody. We have shipped over 85,000 wallets to customers in more than 40 countries, and our firmware powers millions of secure crypto transactions. Our history is not just about building a product — it is about resisting shortcuts. We never added wireless connectivity, never asked for user data, and never compromised on transparency. Every bitcoin protected by a Vault Secure hardware wallet represents a small victory in the fight for digital sovereignty. And we are only getting started.