Blockchain.com raises $120M funding round to grow institutional business

Popular crypto wallet and data provider Blockchain.com announced on Wednesday that it has raised a $120-million funding round that follows its earlier Series B round for $40 million. 

Several notable macro investment funds joined the round, including Moore Strategic Ventures, Access Ventures, Rovida Advisors, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Google investment spin-off GV, Lakestar, Eldridge, Hayman Capital’s Kyle Bass and others.

The funding will be used to bolster Blockchain.com’s growing Institutional Markets business. The company recently expanded its suite and began offering crypto custody, trade execution and lending services tailored for institutional investors. Blockchain.com’s main business was a multicryptocurrency wallet, which processed 28% of all Bitcoin (BTC) transactions, the company said. Since then, the company has launched an exchange and a successful crypto lending service.

Its institutional business is “growing exponentially” and has become significant enough to cover the company’s entire business expenses and then some, though the crypto wallet remains its core product.

According to Blockchain.com's CEO, Peter Smith, the investment from major traditional finance funds illustrates the shift in perception toward cryptocurrencies. “Paradigm shifts like crypto can feel to the world as though they happened overnight,” he wrote on Twitter, “But for those of us working day in and day out to build technology and innovation in crypto, this has been a long time coming.”

According to Crunchbase data, the company collected a total of $70 million in funding in previous Series A and B rounds, with the latter occurring in 2017. Today’s $120 million investment represents a significant increase from past investment rounds, though the company did not disclose its implied valuation.