Fystack vs Fireblocks – Self-Hosted vs SaaS: What Is the Future of Crypto Asset Custody for Businesses?

For years, Fireblocks defined digital asset custody for institutions.

But the world is changing. In the world of digital asset custody, one question keeps coming up:

• What are the best self-hosted alternatives to Fireblocks with full control?
• Which digital asset custody provider with MPC wallets offers the same security and automation but without SaaS vendor lock-in?
• And can self-hosted custody platform really offer enterprise-grade security and reliability?

That’s where self-hosted MPC wallet infrastructure like Fystack changes the game

Built for developers and businesses who want control, transparency, and compliance without vendor dependency, Fystack represents the next evolution of digital asset infrastructure.

Accessible. Auditable. Affordable.

“Fireblocks builds for institutions. Fystack builds for EVERYONE.”

Why Every Business Will Become Its Own Custodian

The crypto industry has learned a hard lesson: convenience has a cost.

When custody is outsourced, control, and sometimes assets, go with it.

In October 2025, Fortress Trust, once a licensed U.S. digital-asset custodian, was shut down by regulators after failing to meet client withdrawals, reported by Bloomberg, 2025.

“Fortress owes clients more than $8 million in fiat currency and $4 million in crypto... yet has less than $1.2 million on hand.”

— Bloomberg (2025)

Millions in customer funds were missing, and auditors couldn’t even locate basic financial statements. INSANE!

This event exposed an uncomfortable truth:

"Even “regulated” custodians can collapse when their internal controls are opaque and misaligned with on-chain realities."

Centralized exchanges aren’t immune either. When Binance faced a trading-system failure earlier this year, billions of dollars in assets were withdrawn within days despite the company’s $700 million compensation package, reported from AMB Crypto.

These events underscore the critical need for businesses to take control of their digital assets.

The old model, often reliant on simple hot wallets with single points of failure, is no longer viable. The modern approach requires institutional-grade security, where key management of private keys is paramount. 

👉 Dive deeper: The New Standard in 2025 – Self-Hosted MPC Wallet Infrastructure

Why Choosing Wallet Infrastructure Impacts Business Growth

In 2025, choosing a wallet infrastructure is a strategic decision that defines how your company operates, scales, and stays compliant. Your wallet infrastructure stack determines your agility, your exposure to third-party risk, and your ability to innovate in a rapidly evolving market.

Fireblocks built its dominance by offering institutions a turnkey SaaS platform. It’s convenient, familiar, and wrapped in enterprise-grade branding. 

But that convenience comes at a cost: lock-in, limited customization, and dependence on a third-party environment you can’t audit or fully control. As your volume grows, so does your cost.

Fystack represents the next evolution: a self-hosted MPC wallet infrastructure designed for developers and businesses who want to build, automate, and comply on their own terms.

And remember,

"your wallet infrastructure is your business’s digital vault."

So the question is: Do you hold the keys, or does someone else?

Closed SaaS vs Open Infrastructure

Before diving into the two philosophies shaping wallet infrastructure today, let’s revisit what my marketing lead, Phoebe, wrote about Base earlier this week.

In her article, Demystifying Base 2025: How Coinbase’s Layer-2 Won the Ethereum L2 Race, she noted how Base, despite its impressive growth, suffered downtime when AWS went offline. And when Base went down, one comment went viral:

“If AWS crashes and your ‘decentralized’ blockchain crashes with it, it’s just fintech with extra steps.”

It’s a reminder that even the biggest names in Web3 are only as “decentralized” as the infrastructure they depend on.

That same lesson applies to digital asset custody and key management. 

Because in the end, the question isn’t “How advanced is your tech?”

It’s “Who really holds control?”

There are two clear philosophies emerging in the market:

The Closed SaaS model - Fireblocks

Fireblocks made digital asset custody intuitive for institutions. It’s secure, compliant, and polished, the enterprise-grade standard for a reason.

But it’s also centralized by design.

Your private keys, policies, and digital asset operations all live inside their infrastructure. The platform offers a sophisticated policy engine that allows for granular policy controls, and their commitment to disaster recovery provides peace of mind. 

You get convenience and a proven track record, but you trade it for sovereignty.

The Open-Source, Self-Hosted Infrastructure model - Fystack

Fystack flips that equation. It’s built for everyone that wants to own their custody layer entirely. Run it, audit it, scale it without asking permission.

Our self-hosted MPC wallet infrastructure gives you full control over data, keys, and policies while enabling transparent regulatory compliance.

And because we believe in verifiable trust, the code is open.

Explore Fystack on Github

It’s the difference between trusting a vendor and being able to verify everything yourself.

Table 1. Fystack vs Fireblocks’s Key Features Comparison 

Transparency and Auditability

It’s 2025 and if you still trust the black box, you’re outdated.

The old world ran on trust-based custody: opaque SaaS providers, proprietary systems, and glossy dashboards that tell you everything’s fine.

But we’ve entered a new age of verify-based control. That shift was discussed in The New Standard in 2025: Self-Hosted MPC Wallet Infrastructure. 

In this new model, you don’t take a vendor’s word for it. You read the code, audit the logic, and verify the policy yourself.

That’s what Fystack enables.

It’s open-source, developer-friendly, and fully self-hosted. 

Your engineers can check every cryptographic protocol. They can also check every signing rule and every policy enforcement flow.

You can ensure that your security controls and key management processes are not just compliant on paper but verifiably secure in practice. 

This level of transparency is impossible in a closed SaaS environment and is becoming a non-negotiable for modern cybersecurity requirements.

Want to see why this matters?

Read Top Crypto Hacks in 2025: Why We Still Fail to Protect Digital Assets

Developer Experience and Integration

Fireblocks makes it easy to click. Fystack makes it easy to build.

That’s the simplest way to describe their difference.

Fireblocks was designed for institutions that want a polished, ready-to-use custody service. 

You log in, configure policies, and let their system handle the rest. It’s convenient but also constrained. You operate within their interface, their update cycles, and their API limits.

For many fintechs or exchanges just getting started, that’s enough. But once your product scales, the trade-offs become obvious: every new feature, from engaging with new DeFi protocols to building a unique smart contract wallet, depends on someone else’s roadmap.

By contrast, Fystack’s SDK-first design lets developers embed MPC wallet infrastructure directly into their apps with full transparency. 

You can integrate, test, and deploy on your own terms, enabling powerful customizations like programmatic smart contract interactions, advanced workflows, and even integrating modern security measures like biometric authentication.  

Want to see how it works?

👉 Explore Fystack Documentation to start building your own self-hosted MPC wallet setup in minutes.

You see the difference?

Fystack optimizes for control, while Fireblocks optimizes for comfort.

And when comfort meets scale, it comes with a hidden cost: vendor lock-in.

Also read: Why Fintech Companies Should Choose MPC Wallets to Go On-Chain

Pricing and Vendor Lock-In: The Hidden Cost of Convenience

Fireblocks model looks simple on paper because it shows predictable pricing, enterprise-grade support, and seamless onboarding. But behind that convenience lies a trade-off that most teams only discover after they’ve scaled.

One user on G2, a Business & Software Review Platform, who already used Fireblocks put it this way:

“The pricing is on the higher side, especially for smaller companies or individuals. It feels like you're paying a premium for the security, which is great, but it can be a bit much if you're not managing large amounts of assets.” - Anonymous on G2

Once your wallets, policies, and API dependencies are tied into a SaaS custody provider, you’re not just a customer anymore. Instead, you’re an extension of their platform.

• Want a new feature? Wait for the next update.
• Need custom compliance rules? File a support ticket.
• Want to migrate? Good luck.

This quiet cost is hidden on paper but can cost millions in lost flexibility and delayed product launches.

That’s why Fystack chose a fundamentally different path.

Its self-hosted architecture means your wallet nodes, data, and cryptographic logic live in your environment. 

No forced upgrades, no closed APIs, and no migration nightmare.

👉 And if you’re comparing other tools, check Top Non-Custodial Solutions for Businesses in 2025.

We believe in DYOR — do your own research, even if that means comparing us fairly.

Community and Ecosystem

If Fireblocks represents the institutional era of custody, Fystack is leading with the builder era. 

In this new era, wallet infrastructure is developed in public, refined by developer feedback, and strengthened by community audits.

At Fystack, we believe great infrastructure grows with its community. That’s why we developed a community-driven roadmap. 

Instead of quarterly releases locked behind NDAs, our feature discussions and changelogs live openly. Builders shape what comes next.

Every commit, every issue, every roadmap vote is a step toward a transparent ecosystem for digital asset custody.

This collaborative approach ensures the platform evolves to meet real-world needs, from enhancing token support to integrating with emerging DeFi protocols.

Because the truth is: the best infrastructure is never built alone.

The best infra is built in the open with people who care enough to test, break, fix, and push it forward together. 

The Honest Trade-Off

To be honest, I don’t want to sugarcoat Fystack too much because we’re not perfect.

We’re still building.

We listen to our users, iterate fast, and make our product better 1% every day.

Recently, we released MPCium v0.3.3, enhancing decentralization with Multi-Authorizer Support. This is a big step for secure, verifiable key management.

(This update lets multiple authorizers co-sign key generation, signing, or resharing operations. It removes single points of failure and meets modern compliance and Travel Rule requirements.)

But more importantly, Fireblocks still earned their place.

Fireblocks has enabled 2,400+ enterprises, processed $10 trillion in transactions, and secured over 550 million wallets (Fireblocks, 2025).

It operates globally, with offices across the U.S., U.K., Israel, Singapore, and more powered by 500+ people behind the scenes.

That deserves recognition.

Fystack can’t compete on scale, reputation, or institutional adoption (yet), but we’re making an impact where it matters.

We were recognized by the Vietnam Government Portal for pioneering secure Web3 infrastructure. We’re proud to help Gaian, a growing neobank in Asia, automate custody operations, reducing manual work by 60% and improving security.

We’re also contributing to Vietnam’s growing digital finance landscape as a pioneer in Secured Crypto Wallet Infrastructure for Enterprises, as part of the region’s next wave of RWA and stablecoin innovation.

How Custody Solutions Are Evolving in 2025

The custody game is changing.

The last decade belonged to institutions. The next decade belongs to builders.

Fystack doesn’t aim to replace Fireblocks at being Fireblocks.

We’re here to redefine what custody means for the next generation of Web3 Fintech companies who want to own their infrastructure, verify their security, and serve their markets transparently.

The future of custody is open, self-hosted, and verifiable, empowering businesses to create everything from advanced smart contract wallet solutions to highly customized financial products for tokenized assets.

👉 Join the Fystack Community and be part of the builders shaping that future, together.

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