The crypto-ecosystem has been evolving at a rapid pace lately, with many new entrants trying to bring innovative products to the space. Fireblocks is one of them, with the crypto-custody and transfer startup in the news today after it completed another round of funding, one amounting to $133 million from investors. The startup received support from prestigious institutions like the Bank of New York Mellon and Silicon Valley Bank.
The Series C venture capital funding round was led by Coatue, Ribbit, and Stripes, as per reports, pushing the raised venture capital to $179 million. The startup has previously received support from Paradigm, Galaxy Digital, and Swisscom Ventures too.
It must be noted, however, that the total investment value remains unknown, with the company revealing that it is yet to touch a valuation of $1 billion, despite being close to becoming a unicorn.
FireBlocks provides several products and services to allow clients to store, transfer, and issue digital assets. It mainly focuses on providing custody for institutional investors and currently, it stores nearly $400 billion in cryptos.
The products are mainly aimed at banks, fintech startups, and other financial institutions. With the crypto-market booming and interest rates remaining close to 0% for a while now, interest among financial institutions to store crypto and diversify portfolios is bound to grow even more.
The fact that its funding round attracted interest from the likes of BNY Mellon, the oldest bank in America, is a big deal. In fact, the banking giant’s Digital Assets unit recently announced that it will deliver a secure infrastructure for transferring, safekeeping, and issuing digital assets.
When reached out to for a comment on the present development, BNY Mellon told the media,
“This strategic investment is the logical next step in our journey to being an asset servicer for all asset classes.”
The Bank’s own digital custody will be made available later this year, pending required approvals. Although not a lot has been revealed about Fireblocks’ underlying tech and how it will change the new digital assets platform, it will be “an important part,” BNY added.
