Crypto firm Fireblocks raises $550 million, company valued at $8 billion
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[January 27, 2022] By
Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fireblocks, a digital
asset infrastructure provider, said on Thursday it raised $550 million
from institutional investors, making it one of the largest financing
rounds in the cryptocurrency sector in the last few years.
The latest investment valued the company at $8 billion.
The funding was led by D1 Capital Partners and Spark Capital, with
participation from investors such as General Atlantic, Altimeter, Index
Ventures and CapitalG, Alphabet's growth fund, Fireblocks said in a
statement.
All firms confirmed their investment in emails to Reuters.
"We're going to use the capital for further investment into new use
cases in the digital asset space such as decentralized finance,
non-fungible tokens, gaming, entertainment, and music," Michael Shaulov,
Fireblocks chief executive officer told Reuters in a phone interview.
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Decentralized finance refers to that segment of the market which
facilitates crypto-denominated financial transactions outside of
traditional banks.
Non-fungible tokens, on the other hand, are unique digital assets that
cannot be replaced.
Fireblocks works with companies and financial institution that want to
build cryptocurrencies and digital assets, providing the infrastructure
- including wallets - to make the digital assets safe and secure.
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A representation of virtual currency Bitcoin is seen in front of a
stock graph in this illustration taken January 8, 2021. REUTERS/Dado
Ruvic//File Photo
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Shaulov said his company's goal is to make every business a crypto enterprise.
U.S.-based Fireblocks cited a recent Gartner report which showed about one-fifth
of major organizations will utilize digital currencies by 2024, suggesting the
adoption of crypto by large corporations will accelerate in 2022 and beyond.
Shaulov said Fireblocks has a network which connects its members to the digital
currency capital markets and enables instant settlements of payments and fund
transfers.
He said Fireblocks aims to facilitate fund transfers in "a secure way because a
lot of the hacks are not happening when you're storing it, but when you're
moving or selling it."
An estimated 15% of daily crypto transaction volume as been secured through
Fireblock's infrastructure, according to Dan Sundheim, founder of New York-based
D1, one of the lead investors in the latest funding round.
(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
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