Crypto “staking” services provider Figment today announced it raised $50 million in new funding led by Senator Investment Group and Liberty City Ventures to grow its team and diversify the number of blockchains the company supports.

Galaxy Digital, Anchorage, Declaration Partner, Bonfire Ventures and GSR also participated in the Series B round. Figment has raised $55 million in total funding to date.

Staking involves participating in transaction validation on a proof-of-stake blockchain by setting aside tokens as a “stake” in the blockchain. When users lock up tokens in this manner, proving they have a stake in the security of the blockchain, they then can earn them crypto token rewards each time a new block is added to the chain.

“This funding round marks the start of a new chapter at Figment that aligns with the evolution of the industry,” said Lorien Gabel, chief executive of Figment. “Proof-of-stake has gone from proof of concept to mainstream and is being adopted by investors and developers at a massive scale.”

This year, Figment exceeded $7 billion in digital assets staked on its infrastructure across more than 40 supported networks for its more than 100 institutional clients. Figment supports numerous PoS blockchains and protocols including Avalanche, Tezos, Polkadot and Solana.

“Proof-of-stake and the ability to earn yield will be an important catalyst in driving further institutional interest in the digital asset industry,” said Mike Novogratz, founder and chief executive of Galaxy Digital.

A recent report from JPMorgan Chase & Co. estimated that crypto staking could become a $40 billion market by 2025 given its current trajectory.

Much of this is expected to be driven by the Ethereum blockchain transitioning to proof-of-stake, through a series of upcoming upgrades. As the second-largest blockchain globally – with a market cap of $377 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.com — that will represent a seismic shift in market share for PoS.

That’s especially likely because Ethereum is the foundation for a significant portion of the decentralized finance and nonfungible token markets. The NFT market alone cleared $2.5 billion in sales during the first six months of 2021. As a result, Figment predicts when Ethereum rolls out its transition the market cap of the PoS segment will “double overnight.”

“Our belief is that the majority of value and data will be exchanged, settled, and stored on PoS blockchains,” said Gabel. “We will continue to make this space more accessible and approachable to the next generation of Web 3.0 investors and developers.”

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