BlockFi Raised $30M in Series B Round After a Period of Rapid Growth

The crypto trading and lending platform BlockFi, announced that they have managed to raise $30 million in its Series B funding. The round was led by the Thiel-backed venture fund – Valar Ventures.

The latest round of funding comes just six months after BlockFi raised $18.3 million in its Series A round. Some of the other investors that participated in the second round are Akuna Capital, Avon Ventures, Arrington XRP Capital, Castle Island Ventures, CMT Digital, HashKey Capital, Kenetic Capital, Morgan Creek Digital, PJC, Purple Arch Ventures and Winklevoss Capital, among others.

Andrew McCormack, general partner at Valar Ventures shared his thoughts:

“We were proud to have made our first investment in the crypto sector with BlockFi, and we’re excited to continue propelling the company forward as they define the industry standard for what a modern financial services company for cryptocurrency looks like,” adding that “To say the least, BlockFi has been one of the most successful companies we’ve invested in right out of the gate.”

New-Jersey-based BlockFi has around $650 million in assets and provides the only suite for financial services that have smooth interaction in-between the products, which include:

• Loans backed by crypto which allow investors to reach liquidity up to 50% of an asset’s USD value.
• Interest accounts that are based on crypto and provide up to an 8.6% annual yield on Bitcoin, Ether, and stablecoins.
• Trading without any fees.

What is fascinating is that the company has a 0% loss rate across its whole loan portfolio since their service started in January 2018. In 2019 BlockFi increased its revenue 20 times which probably catalyzed the investment round. The raised funds will be used to increase staff number and make BlockFi’s products accessible to a wider audience.

Co-founder and chief executive officer Zac Prince noted the company’s objectives for 2020:

 “Thematically, this year for us is all about being able to target folks who aren’t already heavy cryptocurrency users. We’re going to be going after more mainstream adoption, which is great for us but also great for the sector.”

“For most people, cryptocurrencies are something out of speculative fiction. Adoption of these assets is limited by the average consumer’s ability to understand how to use them,” said Flori Marquez, VP of Operations and Co-Founder. “We’ve demonstrated that we can build financial products around cryptocurrency that can look and feel like the apps you already have on your phone, and we’re well-positioned to drive mainstream adoption.”

BlockFi is expanding quickly in their work with institutions as well, as its clients include 50 of the most distinguished institutional customers in the crypto market. During the first half of 2020 BlockFi also intends to open a new office in Singapore that will serve clients from the Asia Pacific region.