How Spirits Treasure is building a trusted marketplace for rare spirits with OPP Escrow

OPP and Spirits Treasure partnered to put OPP Escrow underneath every trade on a marketplace for rare wine and spirits, from day one. The buyer’s money is held by OPP and released only once both sides have met the agreed terms, so collectors who have never met can trade with confidence, not caution.

Trading a rare bottle of whisky or cognac between two strangers, often in different countries, comes down to one question: who moves first? Spirits Treasure built its business around solving that problem.

The partnership: escrow built in before the first transaction

Spirits Treasure is an online platform where collectors and investors buy and sell rare and fine wine and spirits directly with one another, from whisky and cognac to champagne and rum. Trading valuable bottles between private individuals had been fragmented and risky for years; Spirits Treasure wanted one safe, trusted place where verified collectors could trade. It chose to build escrow in from launch, before processing a single transaction, and asked OPP to provide it.

The challenge: the trust problem in trading rare spirits

High-value bottles routinely change hands between people who have never met, often across borders. That distance is where trust breaks down. A buyer risks paying and receiving nothing, or a bottle that does not match what was promised. A seller risks shipping a valuable item and never getting paid. Without a neutral party holding the funds, both sides carry that exposure, and that fear is often enough to stop a good deal from happening at all.

Our solution: how OPP Escrow protects every trade

When a buyer purchases a bottle, OPP holds the payment securely rather than releasing it straight to the seller, and only pays out once both parties have met the agreed terms.

“For a platform built on trust, OPP Escrow was exactly the foundation we needed. It protects both buyer and seller on every transaction, so our members can trade rare and valuable bottles with complete peace of mind, while we focus on building the community.”

Jarni Stevens, CEO of Spirits Treasure

Underneath that simplicity sits OPP’s payment infrastructure: the compliance, fund-holding and payout logic that makes a trade between two strangers settle safely, without either party carrying the risk. Paired with Spirits Treasure’s own member verification, OPP Escrow closes the trust gap end to end, making the platform safe by design rather than by promise.

On the integration side, OPP made the technical lift light. Clear documentation and a responsive team meant escrow was live within the platform without unnecessary delays.

The impact: why escrow matters for trust

Having OPP Escrow in place from day one is central to how Spirits Treasure builds trust with its members. Every listing on the platform carries the same guarantee: payment held securely, released only once both sides have met their end of the deal. That consistency is what turns a marketplace of strangers into a community collectors are willing to trade in.

Spirits Treasure expects it to be one of the main reasons collectors choose the platform as it grows, giving members the confidence to trade rare and valuable bottles without the fear that has traditionally shadowed private high-value sales.

What this means for you: why high-value marketplaces need escrow

If you are building a C2C or second-hand marketplace where strangers trade high-value goods, whether that is rare spirits, collectibles or other alternative assets, the problem Spirits Treasure faced is likely one you recognise: trust between parties who have never met, and the deals that never happen because of it.

Escrow addresses that directly. Funds sit with a neutral party until both sides have met their end of the deal, so buyers and sellers do not have to take that risk on faith. It is the same escrow OPP built for Marktplaats and Brenger.

Want to see how OPP Escrow could work for your platform? Get in touch to learn more.