Chia founders raise $61 million and plan IPO

Blockchain company Chia Network Inc. raised $61 million in funding. Chia’s valuation in the round stood at $500 million, reports Bloomberg.

The round was led by Richmond Global Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. Also among the participants were Breyer Capital, Slow Ventures, True Ventures, Cygni Capital, Naval Ravikant, Collab+Currency and DHVC.

Gene Hoffman, president and chief operating officer of Chia, said that the funds raised would serve as “rocket fuel” for further expansion of the team and the creation of a payments system whose users would include authorities, banks and other financial institutions.

According to him, by the end of the year the company intends to conduct an initial public offering (IPO), but does not rule out a merger with another company — a SPAC.

“We have always aimed to achieve public status quickly, as this would significantly clarify regulatory conditions and allow clients to use the currency to hedge volatility in public markets,” Hoffman said.

David Frazee, managing partner at Richmond Global Ventures, said that the accessibility of Chia for audits makes it attractive to multinational corporations.

“Chia is what Bitcoin would be if it had been developed with the knowledge gained over the past 13 years,” Frazee added.

As of writing, the total disk space occupied by the Chia cryptocurrency exceeds 12.1 exabytes. The price of XCH is $851.

The Chia Network is based on the Proof-of-Space and Proof-of-Time consensus algorithms (proofs of space and time).

Miners have already created a local shortage of HDDs and SSDs in China.

The equipment shortage is expected to persist until 2023.

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