Summary List Placement
The London-based crypto startup has secured $120 million in funding from investors including Moore Strategic Ventures, Kyle Bass, Access Industries, and Rovida Advisors, per TechCrunch.
The startup hasn’t revealed its valuation, but its funding to date now stands at $190 million. Blockchain.com operates an open-source Bitcoin wallet and supports cryptocurrencies as well as stablecoins, with services for consumers and institutions. It will use the fresh capital to boost its offering for institutional investors.
Blockchain.com has established itself as a leading crypto startup, and its recent product suite expansion has likely further accelerated its growth. The startup supports 67 million wallets—for context, Coinbase has 43 million users—and has facilitated over $620 billion in transactions since 2013.
Additionally, since 2012, 28% of all Bitcoin transactions have been sent or received by a Blockchain.com-managed wallet. In March 2020, the startup launched crypto lending for all users, after previously limiting it to institutional investors only. With the service, users can borrow Paxos Standard stablecoin—one of the US’ major stablecoins—against Bitcoin. Blockchain.com plans to expand the service to other assets in the future.
The round comes as part of a revival in blockchain funding—and institutional investors’ interest in crypto is a major driver.
- While blockchain funding remained low in H1 2020, likely due to pandemic-related uncertainty, interest in the segment has picked up significantly since then. In H1 2020, crypto startups raised just $1.2 billion, barely topping the $1.0 billion raised in H1 2019. However, since then investors have been busy pouring money into blockchain startups: Chainalysis raised $100 million last November, BlockFi netted $50 million in August, and Wintermute secured $20 million in February. At this pace, it’s likely that 2021 will be a new record year, partly fueled by banks and venture capitalists launching funds dedicated to the crypto segment.
- This renewed interest owes partly to increased institutional investor demand for crypto services, and Blockchain.com is in a good position to benefit from this trend. Insider Intelligence expects that by the end of 2021, 4 in 10 US institutional investors will have some portfolio exposure to digital assets, up from 26% in March 2020. Coinbase’s institutional assets under management have already grown to $45 billion, from $20 billion last November. As such, focusing on institutional investment services will enable Blockchain.com to ensure sustained growth as the market heats up.
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Originally published at https://www.businessinsider.com/blockchain-industry-heats-up-with-another-mega-round-2021-2 on .
