The Institutional Ledger: JPMorgan-led ConsenSys funding round, blockchain IPO and DCG’s fourth subsidiary

The traditional August lull does not dampen investment activity in crypto companies. Here is our regular digest of the past weeks’ most significant developments.

JPMorgan led a $50 million funding round for ConsenSys and sold the Quorum blockchain platform

The leading US financial holding sold the Quorum Ethereum blockchain platform from ConsenSys.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The transaction included strategic investments by the bank in the Brooklyn-based firm.

According to former JPMorgan executive Will Martini, the size exceeded the proceeds from the sale of Quorum. The financial holding went ahead with the sale of the blockchain platform because of its scalability challenges, Martini says.

ConsenSys will continue to service Quorum, on which JPMorgan’s Interbank Information Network (IIN), launched in 2017, operates. Its clients include more than 300 banks.

Earlier reports said the bank led a new investment round for ConsenSys. The deal was expected to close by the end of August and total $50 million.

FTX acquires Blockfolio for $150 million

On Tuesday, August 25, Cointelegraph reported that FTX, the crypto-derivatives exchange, would acquire Blockfolio, a portfolio-management service for digital assets. The publication pegged the deal at $150 million.

The post was almost immediately removed, but the community noticed it. Presumably, it violated the embargo on publishing the news before the designated time.

FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried confirmed the deal the following day, without disputing the stated figure.

Barry Silbert’s Digital Currency Group enters Bitcoin mining

The American mining company Foundry became a 100% subsidiary of Digital Currency Group (DCG), founded and led by Barry Silbert.

DCG committed to invest $100 million in Foundry during 2021.

According to the press release, the firm, founded in 2019, already counts itself among the largest Bitcoin miners in North America.

In addition to Foundry, DCG is the parent company of Grayscale Investments, the leading asset manager in the digital-asset industry, the prime broker Genesis, and the industry publication CoinDesk.

INX, run by Barry Silbert’s brother, conducts a $117 million blockchain IPO

The Gibraltar-based cryptocurrency exchange INX is conducting a blockchain-based initial public offering (IPO).

The exchange plans to issue 130 million tokens at $0.90 each. The minimum investment is $1,000.

Funds raised will be used to develop INX Trading Solutions, a platform for trading digital assets, and to establish a reserve fund to insure against risks.

According to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), INX tokens are a hybrid solution — both utility- and security-tokens. Holders will be able to use them to pay trading fees on the platform and as shares.

The sale of security tokens began on August 25 on the Tokensoft platform. According to representatives of the platform, this is the first of its kind foreign blockchain IPO in the United States in the form of an F-1 filing approved by the SEC.

BlockFi raises $50 million from Morgan Creek and the Winklevoss twins

BlockFi completed a Series C financing round, raising $50 million.

The round was led by Morgan Creek Digital. Other investors included Winklevoss Capital, Valar Ventures, Avon Ventures, Purple Arch Ventures, Kenetic Capital and HashKey.

Together with the funds raised over the past 12 months the startup has attracted almost $100 million from investors.

Binance Labs leads $2.8 million round for 1inch

The 1inch announced the successful completion of a $2.8 million financing round with participation from institutional investors.

The round was led by Binance Labs. Other participants included: Galaxy Digital, Greenfield One, Libertus Capital, Dragonfly Capital, FTX, IOSG, LAUNCHub Ventures, Divergence Ventures, Kyber Network founder Loi Luu, and NEAR Protocol co-founder Illia Polosukhin.

1inch is a liquidity aggregator for decentralized exchanges. It has integrated support for leading platforms including Uniswap, Kyber Network, Airswap, Oasis, Bancor, Balancer, Curve and others.

Celsius Network raises $20.2 million in crowdfunding

Celsius Network has brought the amount raised in the crowdfunding campaign to $20.2 million. Funding via the BankToTheFuture platform was provided by 1,006 investors.

The amount raised was more than double the initial target of $10 million. In late July, the target was revised to $17 million, but by then Celsius had already attracted $18.8 million.

According to founder Alex Mashinsky, the current extension of the crowdfunding campaign is ‘final’. On its first day in June the project raised $10.7 million from 39 investors.

It took another 44 days to surpass $20 million.

ForkLog also reported:

• The DeFi project Acala on Polkadot raised $7 million.
• BitMEX invested in Vietnam’s leading Bitcoin exchange.
• Frontier, the DeFi protocol-aggregator, raised $1.85 million.
• Multicoin Capital led a $1.8 million funding round for the DeFi project Perpetual Protocol.
• Pantera Capital raised $164.7 million for its third venture fund.
• The DeFi-focused venture fund Framework Labs raised $8 million.

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