Yesterday Blockdaemon announced it raised a $28 million funding round led by Greenspring Associates, including Goldman Sachs, BlockFi, Warburg Serres, and others.
Blockdaeomon is a public blockchain infrastructure provider that manages nodes or servers across 40 different blockchain networks.
The company is best known for providing validator nodes to large token holders for proof of stake blockchains. Securing a network by staking tokens instead of energy-hungry proof of work means that bad behavior can result in the loss of some or all tokens. Sometimes a malfunctioning node can result in this kind of ‘slashing’, hence the need to ensure that nodes operate well. Token holders earn a return for taking the risk, hence the interest from a firm like Goldman Sachs.
Blockdaemon has deployed more than 10,000 nodes in the past year, and the company claims the servers manage more than $5 billion in staked assets and expects ten times that by the end of the year.
“Blockchain is a key driver of innovation in the financial services industry and Blockdaemon is powering its infrastructure. We are excited to join them as they continue to provide institutional-grade blockchain technology to all that want to leverage it,” said Oli Harris, North America head of digital assets at Goldman Sachs.
The startup recently did a deal with CoinShares to enable it to offer staking services to CoinShares clients. Apart from staking services, Blockdaemon also provides developer tools.
One of its big competitors that offers staking nodes is Bison Trails which was acquired by Coinbase back in January.
Last month Goldman Sachs led the Series B round of crypto intelligence firm Coin Metrics. It also started offering cryptocurrency exposure to wealthy clients and re-opened its crypto trading desk. Additionally, the company has blockchain interests aligned with traditional banking and took part in the European Investment Bank‘s recent bond issue on the Ethereum blockchain.
