All news is rigorously fact-checked and reviewed by leading blockchain experts and seasoned industry insiders. - Google is previewing an MPC crypto security service built for banks that hold digital and tokenized assets.
- Alphabet already uses the system to protect its own assets on Ethereum and Solana.
- Banks keep custody of client assets and use Google’s technology to control the keys.
- Commercial availability is planned for early 2027.
Google presented Google Multi-Party Compute, a security service that lets banks authorize transfers of cryptocurrencies and tokenized assets without any single server or employee holding a complete private key, at its first digital assets symposium in New York on October 28. The product is in private preview with several major financial institutions that Google has not named, and a commercial launch is planned for early 2027. Alphabet has already started using it to secure its own digital assets on Ethereum and Solana, while pricing remains undisclosed.
Alphabet Became Its Own Test Bank
Google has not said which tokens Alphabet secures with the system or what they are worth, so the disclosure says nothing about ETH or SOL on the company’s balance sheet. Its value for banks is practical, since compliance teams evaluating a custody vendor want to know where the technology has already handled real money. Rich Widmann, director of digital assets strategy at Google Cloud, tied the launch to regulated institutions that are starting to put client assets on blockchains, and the product turns guidance Google first published in 2023 into a managed service that also handles key recovery.
Why One Hacked Server Can’t Move Funds
Whoever controls a private key can move the assets attached to it, and a confirmed blockchain transfer generally cannot be reversed. MPC splits signing authority into shares held in separate environments, which jointly produce a valid signature without the full key ever being assembled. A bank could, for example, spread three shares across different locations and require any two of them to approve each transaction.
SHARE 1
Bank’s own hardware
SHARE 2
Google Cloud
SHARE 3
Rival cloud provider
Any 2 of 3 sign → transaction approved
Illustrative two-of-three setup, not Google’s official architecture
With that structure, a single compromised environment cannot move funds and a single outage does not freeze them, and larger setups such as five-of-seven are also supported. Before signing, every request passes a policy engine running in Confidential Space, Google’s hardware-isolated computing environment, which can demand extra approvals for a large transfer to a newly added wallet. The service supports ECDSA signatures, used by Bitcoin and Ethereum, and Ed25519, used by Solana. It offers no protection against collusion between authorized signers, and the post-quantum protection Google mentions has no release date.
Jack Henry Puts 7,200 Banks Within Reach
Google introduced Confidential Space in 2022 and published a reference architecture for MPC signing on it in April 2023, with Wells Fargo cited among the banks experimenting with the setup.
Swiss crypto bank AMINA, Incore Bank and Crypto Finance, the digital asset unit of Deutsche Börse, completed the second phase of a payment pilot on Google Cloud Universal Ledger (GCUL) in April, moving to account-to-account transfers for real clients. On October 16, Jack Henry, which supplies core banking software to more than 7,200 US community banks and credit unions, said it would become the first core banking technology provider to integrate with Google Cloud Universal Ledger. That gives those institutions a route to tokenized deposits, meaning ordinary bank deposits recorded as tokens on a shared ledger, although Jack Henry named no launch date and an earlier survey found 11% of its clients exploring the idea. Google has not said the MPC service will come bundled with GCUL.
Why Google Won’t Hold Client Assets
| Provider | What it offers | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Hold client assets | ||
| BitGo | Qualified custody and wallets | ● Live |
| Anchorage Digital | Federally chartered crypto bank | ● Live |
| Sell signing technology | ||
| Fireblocks | MPC wallets and policy engine | ● Live |
| Fordefi | MPC wallets with transfer controls | ● Live |
| Managed MPC, bank keeps custody | ● Preview | |
Institutional MPC and custody providers by model
Anchorage and BitGo hold client assets as custodians, while Google leaves custody and the regulatory burden attached to it inside the bank. Google Cloud already hosts core workloads for large lenders, and the new service explicitly lets a key share sit with a rival cloud, which addresses supervisors’ concerns about dependence on one vendor. The incumbents have years of live operations behind them, and Google has published no independent benchmarks for signing speed or recovery.
DORA Will Test the Multi-Cloud Pitch
Banks will want pricing and the names of the preview participants before committing. In the US, the OCC confirmed in March 2025 that national banks may offer crypto custody without prior supervisory approval, and in the EU, MiCA lets credit institutions provide custody of crypto assets after notifying their regulator. DORA requires them to document and manage every technology provider behind a critical function, a category a signing service plainly falls into, so splitting key shares between two clouds would build that redundancy into the setup from the start.
Google’s entry also changes the position of smaller MPC vendors that already run on its infrastructure. MPCVault was among the companies Google highlighted in 2023 for using its confidential computing technology inside an institutional MPC product, and the same cloud platform it relies on is now preparing a competing managed service for the banks it hopes to sign.
