The cryptocurrency market has been in the midst of a massive growth spurt over the past two years, hitting the $2 trillion value before this current crash. At the same time, the various tech startups buoying this industry up have also been hitting new heights — raising hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital and hitting multi-billion dollar valuations while they’re at it.
The latest to do so is crypto custody platform Fireblocks, which announced this week it scored a $550 million Series E, bringing its total funding raised to more than $1 billion. The round was co-led by D1 Capital Partners and Spark Capital, and included a veritable who’s who of participating investors like General Atlantic, Index Ventures and Alphabet’s CapitalG growth fund.
Now, just three years after coming out of stealth with a $16 million Series A, Fireblocks says it is worth $8 billion, reportedly making it the highest-valued digital asset infrastructure provider in the world. This is nearly four times what the startup was valued just six months ago when it raised a $310 million Series D, which incidentally was also one of NYC tech’s biggest funding rounds in 2021.
Put simply, Fireblocks provides financial institutions like Bank of New York Mellon, BlockFi and Revolut with the technological infrastructure they need to run a digital asset business. To date, the startup says its platform has transferred some $2 trillion in digital assets, and now supports more than 20 blockchains across 1,000 cryptocurrency, powering industries like gaming, NFTs and digital securities. In just the last year, Fireblocks claims it went from 150 to more than 800 customers around the world.
Of course, this surge in demand is coming at a time when crypto’s influence over the financial sector has reached a “point of no return,” as Fireblocks put it, especially with the rise of Web3. A recent Gartner report estimated that one-fifth of major organizations will use digital currencies by 2024, indicating that this mass adoption will only accelerate in 2022. And Fireblocks plans to be there.
“The new round of financing will accelerate our ability to support our clients globally, as well as invest in innovation for DeFi, NFTS and payments, and allow new and established financial institutions to employ direct custody rather than relying on third parties, which will increase their competitive advantage.” CEO Michael Shaulov said in a statement. “The adoption of cryptocurrencies across the financial and commercial sectors is going to accelerate in 2022, and Fireblocks’ mission is to be a strategic partner for these new market entrants.”
Fireblocks certainly appears to be in a position to do just that. Some of its biggest competitors in the crypto custody infrastructure space were bought up last year. PayPal announced it was buying Curv in March, crypto exchange Coinbase snapped up Unbound Security in November shortly after making its Wall Street debut at an $85.7 billion valuation; and Gemini, a crypto platform run by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, acquired Shard X in June and later hit a $7 billion valuation.
