The valuation has increased by 8 times in half a year. Why is BlockFi worth US$3 billion?

The valuation has increased by 8 times in half a year. Why is BlockFi worth US billion?

Loading

BlockFi’s leaked webpage in advance showed that its latest valuation reached US$3 billion, compared to only US$400 million in the last round of financing in August last year. Why is it so valuable? We got first hand information.

Written by: Zhang Jingjing

A webpage leaked ahead of time by the crypto asset lending platform BlockFi shows that BlockFi completed a $350 million Series D financing at a valuation of $3 billion. This round of financing was funded by new investors including Bain Capital Ventures, DST Global partners, Pomp Investments, and Tiger Global. Investors led the investment.

In July 2020, Zac Prince stated that the company would go public in the second half of 2021 at the earliest. Therefore, this round may be the last round of financing before BlockFi goes public.

Other investors in this round of financing also include many traditional and cryptocurrency capital parties, namely Susquehanna Government Products, LLLP, Bracket Capital, Paradigm, Valar Ventures, Morgan Creek Digital, Akuna Capital, PJC, Hudson River Trading, ParaFi Capital, Jump Capital, Pacific Century Group, Gaingels, Third Prime, Kenetic, CMS Holdings, Breyer Capital, The Venture Collective and Castle Island Ventures.

“In less than half a year after we completed the C round of financing, Bitcoin and other digital assets have occupied a core position in the investment portfolios of many investors and the broader financial market. We firmly believe that digital assets are the future of finance. Our number of users proves this. Our number of users has increased by 10 times in 2020, and has more than doubled since the end of 2020.” BlockFi CEO and co-founder Zac Prince said, “Digital assets serve as Tools to hedge against inflation and expansionary monetary policy will continue to promote the innovation of financial technology and the democratization of finance.”

BlockFi said that the D round of financing will promote further innovation in its product suite, accelerate expansion into new markets, and will be used as a capital reserve for potential investment opportunities. BlockFi will also use the financing amount to enhance the performance of core products, such as providing more attractive digital asset “savings” yields, more convenient trading of more types of digital assets, and direct use of digital assets in the account as collateral Initiation of loans in legal currency (USD), etc.

BlockFi also disclosed some core business data when it announced the news of this round of financing. In more than a year since the end of 2019, the number of BlockFi users has increased by more than 20 times from about 10,000, and now it has reached about 225,000. The company’s monthly revenue has exceeded the 50 million U.S. dollar mark, its accumulated assets have now exceeded 15 billion U.S. dollars, and the number of its team has exceeded 500.

BlockFi’s business line

Although BlockFi started as a lending business, it has gradually expanded into a comprehensive cryptocurrency financial service provider, and its business line has formed a full coverage from retail investors to ultra-high net worth customers. At present, BlockFi’s main business includes BlockFi interest-bearing account (BIA), commission-free trading platform (BlockFi Trading), bitcoin cashback credit card, OTC trading platform and bitcoin trust fund (BlockFi Bitcoin Trust), etc.

BlockFi is the first company to provide cryptocurrency (deposit) income. Users can manage their crypto assets on their interest-bearing account (BIA). At present, mainstream crypto assets such as BTC, ETH, LTC, USDC, GUSD and PAX accrue interest. “Save” services are all online, users can get 8.6% APY (annual return) from them, interest income will be paid to users in the form of Bitcoin or Ethereum every month, and users do not need to pay additional management fees .

BlockFi’s commission-free trading platform, BlockFi Trading, supports real-time transactions of encrypted assets. Users can directly recharge BlockFi accounts through banks or encrypted wallets. Currently, it supports multiple assets including BTC, ETH, LTC, U.S. dollars, PAX and GUSD. There are also no fees for this type of transaction.

BlockFi’s Bitcoin Rewards Credit Card is similar to the regular credit card points cashback business. BlockFi converts the cash returned to the user into Bitcoin and deposits it into the BlockFi account.

BlockFi’s OTC trading platform mainly serves global institutions and ultra-high net worth customers. BlockFi will act as an execution partner, providing spot transactions, credit functions and margin trading products. The OTC trading platform supports Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and other mainstream cryptocurrencies.

BlockFi Bitcoin Trust has a trust management fee of 1.75%. BlockFi stated that the initial users of the trust may include BlockFi and certain institutional investors, who can use BTC to subscribe for trust shares. The BTC in the trust will be provided by Fidelity Digital Assets with custody services, and the index and price data will be provided by Coin Metrics.

The valuation has increased by 8 times in half a year. Why is BlockFi worth US$3 billion?

Financing history

Before the D round of financing, BlockFi had conducted 6 rounds of financing, and the total amount of financing has reached 150 million US dollars.

In February 2018, BlockFi received $1.55 million in seed round financing from ConsenSys Venture, Kenetic Capitai, PLJ, SoFi, Purple Arch Ventures and Lumenary.

In July 2018, BlockFi received US$52.5 million in financing led by Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital.

In December 2018, BlockFi received a US$4 million investment led by Akuna Capital. The financing was conducted in the form of convertible bond investment. Fidelity’s Devonshire Investors, Galaxy Digital, Morgan Creek Digital, and Susquehanna participated in this round of financing.

In August 2019, BlockFi received a US$18.3 million Series A financing led by Peter Thiel’s venture capital Valar Ventures, and Morgan Creek, Galaxy Digital and Fidelity re-invested. This is also the first investment of lead investor Valar Ventures in the field of cryptocurrency. The financing amount was used to expand the company’s scale, actively promote the company’s business upgrade, launched the Bitcoin reward credit card, and supplemented the cryptocurrency lending and interest account products.

In February 2020, BlockFi received a US$30 million Series B financing led by Valar Ventures. Other investors include Morgan Creek Digital, Avon Ventures, Winklevoss Capital, and HashKey Capital. One of the investors in the Series A, Galaxy Digital, did not participate. This round of investment. BlockFi used the funds to expand the number of employees and develop more products. After the B round of financing, BlockFi officially expanded the Singapore market with the help of blockchain investment agency HashKey Capital.

In August 2020, BlockFi’s C round of financing was completed, led by Bain Capital Ventures and Morgan Creek Digital. The financing amount was US$50 million. The current round of valuation is about US$400 million. Other investors include Valar Ventures, CMT Digital, Castle Island Ventures, Winklevoss Capital, etc.

Disclaimer: As a blockchain information platform, the articles published on this site only represent the author’s personal views, and have nothing to do with the position of ChainNews. The information, opinions, etc. in the article are for reference only, and are not intended as or regarded as actual investment advice.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)