Blockdaemon, the blockchain infrastructure firm backed by Citi, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, has bought expand.network, its fifth acquisition. Expand provides a unified API to access all sorts of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, including a wide range of decentralized exchanges (DEXs) as well as staking and lending protocols. Expand.network was incubated by Cumberland Labs, which was co-founded by DRW.
Meanwhile, Blockdaemon provides blockchain node infrastructure, staking and MPC wallet solutions to more than 400 institutions.
The expand.network APIs are not purely transactional. They also include pre trade DeFi support such as analytics for liquidity pools and pricing data, and transaction reconciliation post trade.
“Their (expand.network) approach to simplifying Web3 connectivity aligns perfectly with our mission to provide institutional partners with seamless blockchain integration,” said Konstantin Richter, Founder and CEO of Blockdaemon. “This acquisition enhances our ability to offer a comprehensive suite of solutions in a rapidly evolving market. With institutions increasingly exploring DeFi, Blockdaemon is strategically positioned to support and accelerate this shift.”
While this is Blockdaemon’s fifth acquisition, the last one was in 2022 when it acquired Sepior, the security firm. Sepior was one of the first companies to use multi-party computation (MPC) for the security of private keys.
Blockdaemon has raised around $500 million in funding, most of which came in the year to August 2022. Its Series C valuation during that period was $3.25 billion. Some of its high profile backers include Citi Ventures, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Salesforce Ventures, Softbank Vision Fund and Tiger Global. Other users of its platform include Microsoft, stablecoin firm Circle and Metamask Institutional.
