Institutional bulletin: Blockchain.com raises $110m at $7b valuation; Blast raises $20m

The cryptocurrency industry is drawing more and more institutional players. This is reflected in new investments in infrastructure and in the growing attention that companies are paying to Bitcoin as an asset class. ForkLog’s review covers the most important events of the past weeks.

Blockchain.com raised $110 million at a $7 billion valuation

Blockchain.com closed a Series E funding round of $110 million at a $7 billion valuation.

It was led by Kingsway Capital with participation from Baillie Gifford, Lakestar, LSVP, GV, Access Industries, Moore Capital, Prudence, Freeman Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Pledge Ventures and others.

Its value may have fallen by as much as half from March 2022. According to Bloomberg sources, the exchange was valued at $14 billion at that time.

Fnality raises $95 million from Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas

London-based blockchain company Fnality raised $95 million in a round led by Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas.

Among other investors: DTCC, Euroclear, Nomura, WisdomTree, Banco Santander, BNY Mellon, Barclays, CIBC, Commerzbank, ING, Lloyds Banking Group, Nasdaq Ventures, State Street, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and UBS.

The company creates tokenised versions of fiat currencies backed by cash held in central-bank custody.

L2 project Blast raises $20 million from Paradigm and Standard Crypto

The Blast raised $20 million from Paradigm and Standard Crypto to create ‘a single L2-solution on Ethereum with native yield in ETH and stablecoins’.

Paradigm backs the infrastructure Web3 startup Privy in an $18 million round

The blockchain-instrument startup Privy closed an $18 million Series A financing round. It was led by Paradigm.

Existing investors Sequoia, Blue Yard, Archetype, and a number of angel investors also contributed.

Paradigm co-founder and managing partner Matt Huang joined the company’s board.

Privy will use the funding to recruit specialists and expand its developer library.

Blockchain startup from the founder of Compound raises $14 million

The Superstate startup, focused on managing tokenised RWA assets raised $14 million.

The round was led by CoinFund and Distributed Global. Participants included: Arrington Capital, Breyer Capital, CMT Digital, Folius Ventures, Galaxy Digital, HackVC, Modular Capital, Nascent, Road Capital Management and the XYZ division.

Led by DeFi platform founder Robert Leshner, the startup will use the funds to expand the team and create regulated private funds for institutional investors in the United States.

Web3 startup Modhaus focused on K-pop raises $8 million

South Korean Web3 project Modhaus, which promotes artists in the K-pop genre, closed an $8 million Series A financing round.

The lead investor was the US venture firm Sfermion, with participation from SM Culture Partners, Laguna Investment, KDDI Open Innovation Fund III and Foresight Ventures.

Modhaus positions itself as an “entertainment Web3 agency”. The main platform — Cosmo — uses blockchain technology and allows users to purchase digital images of groups or individual artists.