UPDATED 13:03 EDT / MARCH 24 2021

BLOCKCHAIN

Crypto wallet Blockchain.com raises $300M round on $5.2B valuation

Blockchain.com, a provider of cryptocurrency wallet and related services, today announced that it has raised $300 million in a new funding round.

The Series C round was led by partners of DST Global, Lightspeed Venture Partners and VY Capital. It raises the valuation of the company to an estimated $5.2 billion.

Blockchain.com currently claims to host more than 70 million wallets across 200 different countries. It’s a cryptocurrency service that offers custodial services for tokens, such as bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, for trading and numerous other crypto-related services for its 31 million customers.

According to the company has seen a three-fold increase in active users within the past 12 months alone.

This round follows a “strategic” funding round in February of $120 million and at the time the company’s valuation was $3 billion, meaning its valuation has risen by more than $2 billion since last month.

The company intends to take its newfound capital and greatly expand its services and employee pool to take advantage of the current cryptocurrency industry which is seeing increased interest — or as co-founder and Chief Executive Peter Smith calls it, “times of hyper-growth.”

Bitcoin hit record highs in 2021, breaking $40,000 on Feb. 8 and then $50,000 on Feb. 16 – pushing bitcoin’s market cap across the $1 trillion milestone. That has caused a great deal of interest across the entire cryptocurrency industry and not just bitcoin. Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, and others also saw significant market cap raises.

All this created greatly increased interest from services, investors and others from numerous industries, creating a flurry of investments, including Fireblocks Inc.’s $133 million Series C round for cryptocurrency custodial wallet services to support banks in holding bitcoin. The business has also seen the rise of bitcoin wallet service companies such as Curv Inc., acquired by PayPal Inc. for $200 million to help the company support digital assets.

According to research from CB Insights, this investment would be tied for the third-largest in the crypto industry’s history. In 2018, Bitmain Technologies raised $400 million. Earlier this year, BlockFi Lending LLC raised $350 million, and in March 2020, Bakkt LLC raised $300 million.

The company intends to spend the new capital on expanding its products and hiring new employees to support that growth.

Image: Pixabay

A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Support our mission to keep content open and free by engaging with theCUBE community. Join theCUBE’s Alumni Trust Network, where technology leaders connect, share intelligence and create opportunities.

  • 15M+ viewers of theCUBE videos, powering conversations across AI, cloud, cybersecurity and more
  • 11.4k+ theCUBE alumni — Connect with more than 11,400 tech and business leaders shaping the future through a unique trusted-based network.
About SiliconANGLE Media
SiliconANGLE Media is a recognized leader in digital media innovation, uniting breakthrough technology, strategic insights and real-time audience engagement. As the parent company of SiliconANGLE, theCUBE Network, theCUBE Research, CUBE365, theCUBE AI and theCUBE SuperStudios — with flagship locations in Silicon Valley and the New York Stock Exchange — SiliconANGLE Media operates at the intersection of media, technology and AI.

Founded by tech visionaries John Furrier and Dave Vellante, SiliconANGLE Media has built a dynamic ecosystem of industry-leading digital media brands that reach 15+ million elite tech professionals. Our new proprietary theCUBE AI Video Cloud is breaking ground in audience interaction, leveraging theCUBEai.com neural network to help technology companies make data-driven decisions and stay at the forefront of industry conversations.