Digital asset custody platform Fireblocks has raised $550 million in Series E funding to become one of the most valuable companies in the blockchain industry and highlights the increasing institutional appetite for crypto products despite extreme price volatility.
The investment round was led by venture capital firms D1 Capital Partners and Spark Capital, with participation from Parafi Growth Fund, Canapi Ventures, Altimeter, General Atlantic, Index Ventures, Mammoth, CapitalG and Iconiq Strategic Partners.
Since its launch in 2019, Fireblocks has raised $799 million from some of the largest blockchain risk companies. The company received $310 million in a Series D funding round that ended in July 2021, Cointelegraph reports. It followed a successful $133 million Series C funding round in March of that year.
Subsequent funding rounds helped Fireblocks expand its service offering to more than 800 institutional clients, including Bank of New York Mellon, Revolut, Galaxy Digital, Crypto.com, BlockFi, SwissBorg, CoinShares, eToro and Three Arrows Capital. As an infrastructure provider, Fireblocks works with crypto exchanges, lenders, and other financial institutions to secure, transfer, and issue digital assets.
Fireblocks prioritizes the use of multi-party computing, also known as MPC, to provide storage and infrastructure solutions to secure digital assets. When asked about the importance of MPC and why Fireblocks are used so much, CEO Michael Shaulof told Cointelegraph that “MPC removes the single bargaining point without hampering the growth operations aspect of the company.” He further explained:
“When it comes to storage, customers want to wake up in the morning and know that their assets are still there. In recent years, digital asset security has evolved to provide better control and transparency – which is why most of us use multilateral computing today.”
Fireblocks’ $550 million raise is one of the largest crypto industries ever in a single round of funding. Over the past 12 months, venture capital firms have poured billions of dollars into blockchain-focused startups. Funding is showing no signs of slowing down despite several sharp sell-offs in cryptocurrencies, as evidenced by Bitcoin (BTC) dropping below $34,000.
Related: Crypto Exchange FTX US Closes $400 Million Funding Round To Raise $8 Billion
Venture capital flows into the crypto sector reflect the growing belief that digital assets will continue to disrupt traditional finance. As a result, over the past year, dozens of crypto startups have been labeled “unicorns,” a term describing early-stage companies worth $1 billion or more.
Shaulov told Cointelegraph that venture investors admit that we are “still in the early stages of this transformation and transformation.” Despite the speculative nature of some cryptocurrency markets, most tech-savvy investors support “non-speculative developments” such as cross-border fund transfers, tokenized securities, GameFi, non-fungible tokens, and other emerging cryptocurrencies. According to Shaulov, from the perspective of Fireblocks, DeFi alone currently makes up 25% of the business.
