Gnosis Safe
A multi-signature smart contract wallet on Ethereum for secure, shared management of digital assets with customizable approval thresholds and recovery options.
What is Gnosis Safe?
Gnosis Safe, rebranded as Safe in 2023, is an open-source smart contract platform launched in 2016 by Gnosis that enables users to create programmable wallets requiring multiple approvals for transactions, supporting up to 15 owners with thresholds like 2-of-3 signatures. Deployed on Ethereum and 20+ EVM-compatible chains including Gnosis Chain, Polygon, and Conflux eSpace, it secures over $100 billion in digital assets as of September 2025, with formal verification of core contracts ensuring bug-free operation. Users interact via the Safe Wallet app or web interface, integrating with MetaMask, Ledger hardware wallets, and DeFi protocols like Uniswap and Aave for gasless batch transactions and ENS naming.
Safe’s architecture uses deterministic deployment for consistent addresses across networks, with modules for extensions like account abstraction (ERC-4337) and social recovery via guardians. It supports ETH, ERC-20 tokens, and ERC-721 NFTs, with features like transaction simulation to preview outcomes before signing. The protocol’s SafeDAO governs development, holding 55% of the SAFE token supply (total 1 billion, circulating 400 million at $1.20 USD, market cap $480 million as of September 21, 2025), used for voting on upgrades and fee distribution from premium services. Recent 2025 updates include the SafeBoost program on Gnosis Chain, rewarding users with points based on transaction volume and asset holdings (up to $10,000 monthly incentives, ending October 20), and Safe Watch Agent for real-time threat monitoring launched in June.
Despite its robustness, Safe has faced challenges like a 2022 UI phishing exploit affecting $35 million (mitigated by no fund loss via smart contracts) and gas optimization needs on high-fee layers, addressed through Layer-2 deployments and audited code from Trail of Bits. It powers treasuries for DAOs like MakerDAO and funds like a16z, with over 1 million Safes created and $50 billion in annual transaction volume.
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