Blowfish

Blowfish provides a security firewall for Web3, aiming to protect digital wallet users from fraud and malicious activities. Founded in 2021 and based in Zug, Switzerland, the company was established by a team with backgrounds in blockchain, cybersecurity, and machine learning from organizations like Meta, Trail of Bits, 0x Labs, and MakerDAO. The founding team includes Oskar Paolini, Chief Technology Officer Kim Persson, and Fabio Berger, who all bring experience from the blockchain and cybersecurity sectors. Specifically, Paolini and Persson previously worked at the exchange infrastructure provider 0x Labs.

The company's core offering is an Application Programming Interface (API) that integrates with Web3 wallets and custodians to identify and stop fraudulent transactions in real time. By scanning proposed transactions, the Blowfish engine warns users of potential threats such as phishing, decentralized application (dApp) DNS hijacking, and software supply chain attacks. A key feature of the service is providing users with human-readable transaction context, which simplifies complex blockchain data to help users understand the potential impact of their actions before they approve them. The business model centers on providing this security layer to wallet companies, which in turn offer a safer environment for their end-users. Blowfish supports multiple blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon.

In September 2022, Blowfish announced it had raised $11.8 million in a seed funding round led by Paradigm, with participation from investors such as Dragonfly, Uniswap Labs Ventures, and Hypersphere. This capital was aimed at enhancing its fraud detection engine and expanding to new blockchains. One of its early and notable clients is the Solana-based wallet, Phantom, which integrated Blowfish's API to protect its users. Since the integration, Blowfish has scanned hundreds of millions of transactions and prevented thousands of wallet-draining attacks. In November 2024, Phantom acquired Blowfish to further bolster its native wallet security.

Keywords: Web3 security, fraud detection, crypto wallet protection, blockchain security, transaction simulation, phishing prevention, malicious transaction alerts, API security, decentralized application security, digital asset protection, Solana security, Ethereum security, Polygon security, cybersecurity, FinTech, real-time threat intelligence, wallet security API, crypto firewall, Phantom wallet, Paradigm