Blockfort, the Swiss digital asset custodian formed just over a year ago, has launched what it calls a Digital Art Fortress — institutional-grade NFT storage built specifically for the Tezos ecosystem and its EVM-compatible layer Etherlink.
The February 20 announcement marks the company’s push into cultural asset custody, targeting professional collectors, galleries, and institutions who need regulated infrastructure for high-value digital art. Blockfort operates under VQF licensing, which it secured in April 2025 after launching as a joint venture between Offx AG and CO3TMRW AG in January 2025.
The Tezos Foundation backed this integration, and the reasoning makes sense. Since 2021, Tezos has carved out a genuine niche in the NFT art world — objkt.com remains one of the more active marketplaces for digital art, and the network hosts a creator community that’s actually engaged rather than purely speculative.
But institutional money has largely stayed on the sidelines. The gap? Custody solutions that meet compliance standards. Banks and family offices won’t touch NFTs stored in browser extension wallets.
Blockfort’s pitch addresses this directly. The platform combines Swiss-regulated custody with Fireblocks infrastructure — a partnership formalized in February 2025 — plus PwC-audited operational controls. Switzerland’s regulatory framework has protected crypto asset ownership rights since 2019, which matters for institutions worried about legal clarity.
Beyond storage, Blockfort provides visualization tools for managing digital art portfolios and a white-glove minting service. That last piece targets traditional artists and galleries entering the blockchain space who don’t want to figure out wallet setup and gas fees themselves.
The company hasn’t disclosed pricing or minimum custody thresholds, which typically signals this isn’t built for retail collectors. Institutional custody services in crypto generally start at six-figure minimums.
For Tezos, this represents another infrastructure play aimed at legitimizing the ecosystem for bigger players. Whether galleries and museums actually move assets into regulated Swiss custody remains the real test — announcements don’t equal adoption.
