Today digital asset custody startup Fireblocks confirmed it raised a $550m Series E funding at an $8 billion valuation, co-led by D1 Capital Partners and Spark Capital. In December, The Information reported a $400 million Series E round was in the works at the same valuation, so additional investors have joined since. This brings total funds raised by the startup to $1.039 billion.
The company’s first big claim to fame was attracting the largest conventional custodian BNY Mellon as a customer and investor. Other clients include Revolut, Galaxy Digital, Crypto.com, BlockFi, Deribit, eToro, CoinShares, 3 Arrows Capital and B2C2.
Except for BNY Mellon, these Fireblocks clients are the large next-generation institutions. And these are the ones with the volumes today. Those volumes bring experience and drive the platform forward.
In contrast, Swiss headquartered Metaco has only raised $17 million to date, despite boasting several high profile banks as clients such as Standard Chartered, Northern Trust, BBVA, and DBS Bank. In this sector, incumbents don’t yet have the same volumes.
On the topic of volumes, Fireblocks says it has processed $2 billion in transfers since inception and its customers have $45 billion in assets under custody using its platform.
We previously reported that it is working with DeFi lending protocol Aave Arc to create permissioned DeFi pools by acting as a whitelister for participants.
In December, another competitor, Anchorage Digital, raised $350 million at a $3 billion valuation in a round led by KKR.
Other investors in the Fireblocks round include General Atlantic, Index Ventures, Mammoth, CapitalG (Alphabet’s independent growth fund), Altimeter, Iconiq Strategic Partners, Canapi Ventures, and Parafi Growth Fund as well as existing investors that joined the round.
