Kerberus Cyber Security has acquired Refract, the team behind Pocket Universe, in a seven-figure deal. The plan is to fold Pocket Universe into Kerberus’ Sentinel3 extension, roll protection out across EVM chains and Solana, and start building what it calls the first crypto antivirus.Kerberus started in 2023, back when it was called MintDefense, with a focus on blocking scams at the wallet level. The extension has been effective at cutting out phishing attempts and shady approvals, but malware has remained a weak spot. Even users who avoided scams were still losing funds because their devices were compromised. That’s the gap Kerberus now wants to close.Pocket Universe’s founders, Justin Phu and Nishan Samarasinghe, are stepping back to pursue new projects but will keep supporting the transition. As part of the deal, Kerberus also brought in Ran Neuner of Onchain Capital as a strategic adviser and distribution partner, giving the company more reach as it works on the antivirus product.A crypto antivirus doesn’t really exist today. Current tools sit in silos - wallet monitoring, endpoint protection, or protocol defenses - but nothing ties it together. Kerberus wants to change that by creating a device-level product designed specifically for crypto. The first version is still months out, but the direction is clear: close the malware gap and give users another layer of defense without compromising privacy.
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