Paxos, an NYC startup that claims to have created the first fully regulated cryptocurrency exchange powered by blockchain, announced Thursday it closed on a $142 million Series C funding round led by Declaration Partners. This brings the company’s total funding to more than $240 million.
Founded in 2012, Paxos works with fintech giants like PayPal, Credit Suisse and Revolut to create a more modern, decentralized financial system. Its platform allows all assets — money, commodities, cryptocurrency — to be digitized and moved around the world instantaneously and safely, whether they’re physical or digital.
“In order for the financial system of the future to be truly open, it should be token-based, versus the traditional account-based system,” Paxos’ co-founder and CEO Charles Cascarilla explained in a recent blog post. “To facilitate the transition to this system, Paxos has to build the most effective, high-volume rails to move us into that future.”
Paxos appears to be making good headway on this front. In 2020 alone, the company managed to launch its crypto brokerage platform, issue more than $7.5 billion in stablecoins (a type of cryptocurrency designed to minimize price volatility) and confirm more than $3.5 trillion in commodities trades with its Post-Trade automation service. Paxos also became the first company of its kind to settle U.S. equity trades in blockchain outside of legacy systems.
This funding news comes at a time when the use of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin has reached unprecedented heights. Chainalysis, another NYC startup that prevents cryptocurrency-related crime, raised $150 million this year and just reached a $1 billion valuation — perhaps indicating an even larger shift toward mainstream adoption of cryptocurrency.
Looking ahead, Cascarilla wrote that this latest Series C will be helpful in accelerating the company’s growth while maintaining its security and trustworthiness.
A company representative also told Built In via email that Paxos plans to double its current headcount of 130 people during the next year. Most of these hires will be at its NYC headquarters, although, in light of the pandemic, the representative said many of the roles can be remote too.
