Coinbase competitor Blockchain.com raises $300 million in crypto funding frenzy

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Just one month removed from a $120 million dollar financing round, London-based cryptocurrency giant Blockchain.com announced Wednesday it raised another $300 million to reach a $5.2 billion post-money valuation.

The Series C funding round comes as the 10-year-old crypto company reported hitting 31 million verified users across 200 countries. Blockchain.com CEO Peter Smith said the company has been able to raise $1.5 billion since its founding as institutional interest continues to swell with bitcoin holding above $50,000.

“In the last 12 months, between debt and equity, we’ve raised over $1.5 billion,” he told Yahoo Finance Live. “I think that’s really driven by the fact that experienced and sophisticated investors are seeing for the first time not just consumers in the crypto market, but institutions as well. And when they see a business like ours that’s profitable on both the consumer basis as well as on the institutional basis as well as profitable overall they want to be a part of that growth story.”

The company, which originally launched as a block explorer for users to view public transactions, now offers other services beyond its popular open-source wallet for customers to trade and store cryptocurrencies. The company has grown to add financial services like credit and structured products. Smith highlighted that part of the business focused on offerings for institutional investors as an area of personal focus.

Blockchain Co-Founder & CEO Peter Smith speaks during the Web Summit 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal on November 6, 2018. (Photo by Pedro Fiúza/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“I’m spending a lot of time with clients trying to figure out what they are going to need over the next two or three years to become long-term, active participants in the crypto market,” he said.

Blockchain.com now has another $300 million to work with to build out those offerings, but that new capital hasn’t caused Smith to rule out an expedited route to follow competitor Coinbase to the public market.

“We haven’t needed to raise capital in quite a while because the business is very profitable, but we continue to be very active about thinking about the best way to position the company for long-term success,” Smith said. “And that may involve going public soon.”

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Blockchain.com’s funding round follows other recent large deals in the crypto space, including the $350 million crypto digital exchange and banking platform BlockFi was able to raise earlier this year in its Series D.

Zack Guzman is an anchor for Yahoo Finance Live as well as a senior writer covering entrepreneurship, cannabis, cryptocurrency, and breaking news at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @zGuz.

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Crypto wallet and exchange company Blockchain.com raises $300 million at $5.2 billion valuation

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As Coinbase is about to go public in the U.S., another cryptocurrency company is having a blockbuster first quarter of 2021. Blockchain.com, the company behind a popular cryptocurrency wallet, an exchange, a block explorer and more has raised a $300 million Series C round.

If you’ve been paying attention, you may remember that I wrote about Blockchain.com last month. At the time, the company announced a $120 million funding round. In other words, the company is raising once again just a few weeks after its previous funding round.

This time DST Global, Lightspeed Venture Partners and VY Capital are leading the round. Existing investors also participated. Following today’s funding round, the company has reached a post-money valuation of $5.2 billion.

Originally named Blockchain.info, the company first launched a blockchain explorer. If you’re not familiar with the blockchain industry, an explorer lets you enter the hash of any transaction that occurs on a blockchain to get more information — you can retrieve the transaction amount, the number of confirmations, the wallet addresses of the sender and the receiver, etc.

But Blockchain.com is better known for its open-source wallet. The company offers a noncustodial wallet, which means that you’re in control of your private keys. Blockchain.com can’t directly access your funds.

Thirty-one million users have verified their identities on Blockchain.com. The number of active users have tripled over the past 12 months.

Blockchain.com has diversified its activities over time. It has launched an exchange so that you can buy and sell cryptocurrencies from Blockchain.com directly. The startup also offers services to institutional investors. Blockchain.com can help you when it comes to buying and selling cryptocurrencies, custody, large over-the-counter transactions, etc.

When it comes to revenue, “Blockchain.com is highly profitable across each of our business lines,” co-founder and CEO Peter Smith wrote. The new influx of funding is all about working with late-stage investors and growing rapidly. You can expect some Blockchain.com acquisitions down the road for instance.

Crypto firm Blockchain.com raises US$300 million, valued at US$5.2 billion

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Cryptocurrency firm Blockchain.com said on Wednesday it had raised US$300 million in its latest funding round at a valuation of US$5.2 billion.

LONDON: Cryptocurrency firm Blockchain.com said on Wednesday it had raised US$300 million in its latest funding round at a valuation of US$5.2 billion.

The round was led by DST Global, Lightspeed Venture Partners and VY Capital, the London-based company said

Blockchain.com offers digital wallets for storage of cryptocurrencies as well as retail trading and other services for larger investors.

Bitcoin soared to a record just shy of US$62,000 this month as mainstream firms and investors increasingly embrace cryptocurrencies, leading to ballooning valuations of related companies.

Blockchain.com said last month it raised about US$120 million, with investments from Alphabet Inc’s venture capital unit.

(Reporting by Tom Wilson; Editing by Edmund Blair)

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