Gate has officially introduced Proof of Security (PoSEC), a new asset security verification framework that it says makes it the first digital asset trading platform to launch such a system. The exchange, founded in 2013, positions the move as an extension of its existing Proof of Reserves (PoR) efforts, with a stronger focus on how user assets are stored rather than only whether reserves are sufficient.
Under the PoSEC framework, Gate publicly discloses the distribution of assets between cold storage and hot wallets and introduces a cold storage coverage ratio as a key metric. A reading at or above 100% indicates that cold storage alone would cover all user assets even if all hot wallet funds were lost. According to a snapshot taken at 00:00 UTC on November 4, 2026, Gate reported cold storage and hot wallet assets at 88.26% and 11.74% of total assets respectively, producing a cold storage coverage ratio of 104.58%.
Gate defines qualifying cold storage assets as those not used for routine deposits and withdrawals, held offline or under independent custody, requiring multi-party authorization for transfers, and being independently verifiable. The current PoSEC data is still undergoing verification by an independent third-party audit firm, covering asset authenticity and control, valuation and calculation methodologies, and coverage ratio calculations. The audit report will be published on Gate’s official website once completed.
The exchange previously introduced an open-source Proof of Reserves mechanism and Merkle Tree-based verification in 2020, later incorporating zk-SNARKs. As of October 18, 2026, Gate’s total reserves were approximately $8.688 billion, with an overall reserve ratio of 118.49%. Gate also highlights its broader security stack, including hot and cold wallet segregation, multi-signature technology, Multi-Party Computation, dynamic risk monitoring, and zero-trust access control. The platform notes that cold-storage and reserve percentages come from different snapshots, so price movements and fund flows between dates are not reflected.
