Kerberus Buys Pocket Universe To Launch Crypto Antivirus

Cryptocurrency security platform Kerberus acquired Pocket Universe, a popular fraud prevention and browser extension, to build a dedicated antivirus for crypto.

Kerberus Cyber Security has acquired Refract, the developer of Pocket Universe, in a seven-figure deal, the firm said in a statement to Cointelegraph on Thursday.

Following the acquisition, Kerberus plans to integrate Pocket Universe with its own security extension, Sentinel3, expand protection to all Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains and Solana, and develop a crypto antivirus.

“We are now able to work on the security that is needed for crypto, such as the first crypto antivirus to tackle today’s biggest issue: malware and many other things,” Kerberus co-founder and CEO Alex Katz told Cointelegraph.

Pocket Universe builders to step back

Following the acquisition, Pocket Universe’s founders, Justin Phu and Nishan Samarasinghe, will step back to pursue new projects. Still, the duo will keep supporting the Kerberus team, according to an X announcement by Pocket Universe.

Additionally, Ran Neuner, founder of Crypto Banter and CEO of Onchain Capital, joins as a strategic adviser and distribution partner as part of the acquisition.

“The future of crypto adoption depends on user trust and safety,” Neuner said. “Kerberus is the only proven team building trust at the infrastructure level, and this move accelerates their ability to reach the next million users, he added.

Malware issue persists

Kerberus, founded in 2023 and formerly known as MintDefense, is a security company that protects crypto and Web3 users through real-time transaction scanning and automated wallet defenses.

Chief technology officer and co-founder Danor Cohen said he and Katz built the platform “out of desperation,” after witnessing friends lose their life savings to scammers.

“We are a team of two and we managed to keep our users safe with zero losses for over two years,” Katz said.

Although Katz and Cohen say Kerberus has eliminated scams for its users, they found that friends and customers were still losing funds, this time to viruses and malware, which laid the foundation for the plan to build a dedicated crypto antivirus.

“No such thing as a crypto antivirus”

While some products market themselves as a “crypto antivirus,” Katz said that, in reality, no such solution exists in the industry.

“By antivirus, what I mean is, you download a software on your device, and you’re protected; same philosophy with our extension that only needs to be installed,” he added.

Kerberus’ chief technology officer, Cohen, estimated that the forthcoming antivirus product would take at least four months of development to present a first minimal viable product after starting the project. “We already developed some of the IP for it,” he added.

Related: Embargo ransomware group moved $34M in crypto since April: TRM Labs

According to 0xWui, co-founder of the blockchain security firm FailSafe, the crypto industry indeed doesn’t have a single “antivirus” product yet. “Instead, we have complementary layers of defense that work in silos,” he told Cointelegraph.

“Traditional antivirus can quarantine malware; in crypto, once a bad transaction is signed or funds move onchain, they’re gone forever,” he noted, adding:

“Users need simple protections at the wallet level; protocols need runtime defenses, and both sides need coordinated coverage to reduce the attack surface area of hackers and bad actors.”

Trezor warns against “antivirus” scams

While Kerberus is set to build a malware protection tool for crypto, some perpetrators may want to capitalize on the growing need for protecting crypto users.

“Users should stay alert: there could also be “crypto antivirus” apps and browser extensions out there that are themselves scams,” said Lucien Bourdon, a Bitcoin analyst at hardware wallet company Trezor.

Bourdon said the term “antivirus” can be misleading as well. “Unlike traditional malware, the biggest threats in crypto are scams: address poisoning, wallet drainers, fake airdrops, phishing websites. This is what these crypto antivirus apps target,” he told Cointelegraph.

Related: Crypto address poisoning scammers netted $1.6M this week

Kerberus’ chief technology officer highlighted that the platform never asks permission or access to users’ funds or private keys.

“We even made sure we can’t monitor our users’ surfing activity out of Web3 sites. We arrive from 18+ years in the security industry, so we know how important privacy is,” Cohen said.