The cryptocurrency industry is attracting an increasing number of institutional players. This is evident in both new investments in infrastructure and the growing attention companies devote to Bitcoin as an asset class. The most notable events of the past weeks are in ForkLog’s overview.
Square acquires Jay‑Z’s music streaming service TIDAL
Jack Dorsey’s payments company Square paid заплатила $297 млн in cash and securities for a controlling stake in the streaming service TIDAL.
Jay‑Z, who bought TIDAL in 2015 for $56 million, will join Square’s board. According to Dorsey, the rapper will help run the ‘entire company’, including Square Seller and Cash App.
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Square is acquiring a majority ownership stake in TIDAL through a new joint venture, with the original artists becoming the second largest group of shareholders, and JAY-Z joining the Square board. Why would a music streaming company and a financial services company join forces?!
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— jack (@jack) March 4, 2021
Twitter founder explained that the new acquisition is meant to diversify the business.
“Точно так же, как Square дала продавцам новые инструменты для заработка, доля компании в Tidal поможет артистам найти способы зарабатывать”, — подчеркнул Дорси.
BlockFi raises $350 million in funding at a $3 billion valuation
The crypto-lending platform BlockFi closed a Series D round of $350 million.
The round included Tiger Global, Bain Capital Ventures and Pomp Investments. Investors valued BlockFi at $3 billion.
The funds will be used to expand the workforce and to launch a Bitcoin cashback Visa card in partnership with Visa, and to promote services outside the United States.
NYDIG raises $200 million from Morgan Stanley, MassMutual and others
New York Digital Investment Group’s closed a financing round of $200 million. It was led by its parent company Stone Ridge Holdings Group.
Strategic investors include MassMutual, Soros Fund Management, Morgan Stanley, New York Life and FS Investments. They were joined by Bessemer Venture Partners and FinTech Collective.
“NYDIG will work with these companies on strategic Bitcoin initiatives, including asset management, insurance, banking, clean energy and philanthropy”, the statement said.
Fireblocks, a custodian, raises $133 million
The custodian Fireblocks closed a Series C round of $133 million.
The round included Ribbit Capital, Stripes, Coatue, as well as Galaxy Digital, Swisscom Ventures and Paradigm. They backed Fireblocks at an earlier stage in November.
Strategic investors in the current round included Silicon Valley Bank and the BNY Mellon.
American Express-backed Bitcoin exchange FalconX raises $50 million
The institutional-focused platform for crypto trading FalconX raised $50 million in funding from Tiger Global and B Capital Group.
In December 2020 the exchange received funding from American Express’s venture arm.
As of the latest round, FalconX’s valuation stood at $675 million.
Billionaire Alan Howard backs custodian Komainu in $25 million financing
The custodian service Komainu raised $25 million in a Series A round. It was led by billionaire Alan Howard with participation from Galaxy Digital, NOIA Capital and Nomura Research Institute.
The funds will be used for global expansion, supporting additional assets and providing prime-broker services.
Komainu, focused on institutional investors, was founded in 2018 by Nomura, the developer of the Ledger hardware wallets, and CoinShares.
DeFi Reef Finance on Polkadot raises $20 million
Venture firm Alameda Research acquired Reef Finance project tokens in a $20 million round.
The proceeds will be used to expand the team, fund further development and launch the mainnet. In addition, Reef Finance plans to launch a Bug Bounty program and grant developers.
The project also intends to implement cross-chain integration with the Solana-based Serum decentralized exchange, supported by FTX and Alameda Research.
Shortly after the token sale, a dispute arose between the firms. Alameda even threatened to delist the REEF token on the FTX platform and other leading exchanges.
Reef Finance provides cross-chain solutions and yield farming opportunities on the Polkadot platform, supporting non-custodial and centralized exchanges.
Coinbase Ventures invests in DeFi protocol Vega
The protocol for creating and non-custodial trading of derivatives raised $5 million.
Leading investors were Arrington Capital and Cumberland DRW. Other participants included Coinbase Ventures, ParaFi Capital, Signum Capital, CMT Digital, CMS Holdings and Stani Kulechov, the head of the DeFi project Aave.
Vega operates on Proof-of-Stake and offers incentives for liquidity providers. The developers plan to integrate the protocol with Bitcoin, Polkadot and Cosmos.
CoinShares invests in eco-friendly Bitcoin mining
The Vancouver-based MintGreen, a Canadian mining firm closed a seed financing round, led by CoinShares.
The company develops eco-friendly Bitcoin mining projects. Since 2017 MintGreen has mined using power from renewable sources.
The firm also aims to monetize the heat generated by immersion-cooled equipment, offering it for space heating and hot water without a carbon footprint. MintGreen is already collaborating with several utilities.
The amount raised was not disclosed.
Concordium blockchain company raises $15 million
The privacy-focused Swiss firm Concordium raised $15 million in a private token sale.
“Concordium has attracted strong demand from DeFi projects seeking to build a protocol-level identity blockchain”, said the firm’s chief executive Schroder.
The platform already has a minimally viable product (MVP) aimed at the corporate sector. It uses smart contracts written in Rust.
In the second quarter Concordium plans to launch the mainnet.
Arianee blockchain project raises $9.5 million
The startup Arianee, developing technology to verify authenticity of luxury goods, raised $9.5 million. The seed round was led by France’s national investment bank Bpifrance.
Participants also included ISAI, Cygni Labs, Noia Capital and a group of French tech entrepreneurs. The funds will be spent on creating SaaS tools.
According to Arianee co-founder Luca Jodet, all investors will have access to the ARIA20 token in addition to equity.
Arianee uses its own technology to verify authenticity of luxury goods via blockchain-based provenance, digital passports and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
BCB Group crypto-processing raises $4.5 million
The London-based crypto-processing firm BCB Group raised $4.5 million.
The funding round was led by North Island Ventures and the wallet provider Blockchain.com. It also included Pantera Capital, L1 Digital and Pack Capital.
The company will use the funds to broaden its range of services.
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