Institutional Spotlight: SoftBank Bets $200 Million on Brazil’s Mercado Bitcoin, Chainalysis Valued at $4.2 Billion

The cryptocurrency industry is attracting an ever-larger number of institutional players. That is evident in both new investments in infrastructure and the growing attention that companies are paying to Bitcoin as an asset class. The most important developments of recent weeks are in ForkLog’s roundup.

Chainalysis valuation hits $4.2 billion after new funding round

The analytics firm Chainalysis raised $100 million in a Series E round, valuing the company at $4.2 billion.

According to a blog post, existing investors — Benchmark, Accel, Addition, Dragoneer, Durable Capital Partners and 9Yards Capital — increased their stakes in the firm. The round also included Altimeter, Blackstone, GIC, Pictet, Sequoia Heritage and SVB Capital.

The funding will be used to enhance its existing tools and applications. The firm also announced the hiring of \”hundreds of professionals\” across various fields and ongoing global expansion.

BitDAO raises $230 million from Peter Thiel and Alan Howard

The decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) BitDAO raised $230 million in a private funding round and announced the start of its operations.

The fundraising was led by the organisation’s primary partners — Founders Fund, Pantera Capital, Dragonfly Capital and Peter Thiel. It was also supported by Alan Howard, Spartan Group, Jump Capital, Fenbushi and Kai Warwick of Synthetix.

Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund invests $70 million in BC Technology Group, operator of OSL

Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund invested 543.19 million Hong Kong dollars (~$70 million at current rates) in BC Technology Group, the operator of the institutional platform for digital assets OSL.

According to documents, the fund acquired more than 31.9 million shares in the company at HK$17 per share.

The proceeds will be used to develop and expand the platform’s business. A portion will be retained as reserves for future expansion into the UK, Singapore and the US.

PayPal and Visa become partners of the Blockchain Capital investment fund

The San Francisco-based venture firm Blockchain Capital attracted $300 million for its fifth investment fund. Visa and PayPal joined as partners of the fund’s limited partnership (LP) structure.

\”PayPal aims to foster the development of an ecosystem of companies that make digital assets more accessible, useful and secure. Investments in the new Blockchain Capital fund will allow us to collaborate with entrepreneurs shaping the future of the decentralized economy and the new wave of financial services,\” — said Jose Fernandez da Ponte, PayPal vice president.

Visa to acquire fintech platform Tink for €1.8 billion

The payments system Visa reached a deal to acquire the Swedish open-banking platform Tink for €1.8 billion (~$2.15 billion).

2TM Group, the parent company of Brazil’s Mercado Bitcoin, raised $200 million from SoftBank’s Latin America Fund in a Series B round.

As a result, 2TM Group’s valuation rose to $2.1 billion.

The exchange plans to deploy the raised capital to scale the business, develop the infrastructure and expand the team, which it aims to grow to 700 staff by the end of 2021.

TRM Labs raises $14 million from PayPal and other investors

TRM Labs closed a Series A round of $14 million.

Led by venture firm Bessemer Venture Partners with participation from PayPal Ventures, Initialized Capital, Jump Capital, Salesforce Ventures, Y Combinator and others.

dYdX raises $65 million from Paradigm and others

The decentralized crypto derivatives exchange dYdX closed a Series C round of $65 million. It was led by venture firm Paradigm, according to the press release.

The round also included a16z, Polychain Capital, Three Arrows Capital, Wintermute. Among the new strategic investors are QCP Capital, CMS Holdings, CMT Digital, HashKey, Electric Capital, Delphi Digital and others.

The funding will be used to add new assets and features to perpetual contracts, launch a mobile app, forge new partnerships, invest strategically in international growth markets and expand the team.

Amber Group raises $100 million at a $1 billion valuation

The crypto-finance firm Amber Group closed a Series B round of $100 million. The company’s valuation rose to $1 billion.

The round was led by China Renaissance with participation from Tiger Brokers, Tiger Global Management, Arena Holdings, DCM Ventures and Gobi Partners.

It also received direct funding from Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures and Blockchain.com.

The funds will be used to expand operations and develop new solutions.

Polychain Capital leads $6.3 million seed for cross-chain DeFi hub Umee

Umee, a startup building a bridge between DeFi projects across blockchains, closed a seed round of $6.3 million. It was led by Polychain Capital.

Participants included IDEO CoLab, Alameda Research, CMS Holdings, Coinbase Ventures, ConsenSys, Tendermint and CEO BKCM Brian Kelly.

A16z leads $11 million investment for Goldfinch

The DeFi protocol Goldfinch, which provides crypto loans without collateral, closed an Series A round of $11 million. It was led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).

Participants included Mercy Corps Ventures, A Capital, Access Ventures and Divergence Ventures.

The San Francisco-based startup will use the funds to build a network of borrowers and lenders. Talks are under way with marketers and underwriting specialists to expand regional presence.

Bitwise raises $70 million at a $500 million valuation

Bitwise Asset Management raised $70 million in a Series B round. Investors valued it at $500 million.

The round was led by venture firm Electric Capital and angel investor Elad Gil. It was also supported by KKR founder Henry Kravis, Dan Loeb’s Third Point hedge fund, Compound founder Robert Leshner, Bridgewater’s David McCormick, billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller and others.

Bitwise will deploy the funds to strengthen its balance sheet, attract new users, develop its research team, and expand its sales, marketing and customer service functions.

Morgan Stanley backs Securitize tokenization platform in $48m round

The security-token issuance technology provider Securitize raised $48 million in a Series B round.

The round was led by Blockchain Capital and Morgan Stanley Tactical Value. Pedro Teixeira, co-head of investments at the latter, will join the startup’s board of directors.

The funding also came from Ava Labs, IDC Ventures, Migration Capital, NTT Data, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank (SMTB), Blockchain Ventures, Borderless Capital, Global Brain, Mouro Capital, Ripio, Ripple and SPiCE VC.

NFT marketplace Rarible raises $14.2 million to build network protocol

NFT platform Rarible closed a Series A round of $14.2 million.

The round was led by U.S. funds Venrock and CoinFund with participation from 01 Advisors.

Rarible’s funds will be used to expand the team, build a mobile app and the open-source network protocol. The latter will help users create their own NFT projects.

ForkLog also reported:

• NFT marketplace Mintable, backed by Mark Cuban, raised $13 million.
• The NFT game developer raised $50 million from Coinbase and other investors.
• Valkyrie’s Bitcoin ETF, awaiting approval, raised $10 million.
• Kaiko, a crypto data analytics company, raised $24 million.
• VanEck’s subsidiary invested in the CryptoCompare analytics service.
• a16z led an investment round of $12 million in Nansen.
• Stronghold Digital Mining raised $105 million in investments.

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