Today digital assets startup Anchorage Digital announced a $350 million Series D round at a $3 billion valuation led by KKR. The company started out as a custody solution attracting Visa as an early backer but has since extended into trading and staking and become a chartered bank. Other high profile participants in the round include Goldman Sachs, Andreessen Horowitz and PayPal Ventures.
“As more and more institutions look to add crypto services into their offerings, we find ourselves at an inflection point,” said Diogo Mónica, President and Co-Founder of Anchorage Digital, “This funding positions Anchorage Digital to meet the unprecedented institutional demand for this rapidly evolving market.”
In February, Anchorage announced an $80 million Series C led by Singapore government investment vehicle GIC, including a16z, Blockchain Capital, Lux and Indico. To date, the company has raised a total of $487 million.
Anchorage helped Visa acquire a Cryptopunk NFT earlier this year and says it has grown by more than 800% in each of the last two years.
While it’s no longer purely custody-focused, the sector has attracted significant funding rounds. Earlier this month, competitor Fireblocks announced a $400m Series E at an $8 billion valuation and has raised $889 million to date.
Custody competitors include Komainu, co-founded by technology firm Ledger, Nomura and asset management firm Coinshares. Standard Chartered founded Zodia Custody in London underpinned by Metaco technology. And ING launched Pyctor along with several incumbent banks.
Three Israeli crypto technology firms have been acquisition targets. Coinbase recently acquired Goldman Sachs backed Unbound Security which provides critical key management technology. Celsius bought GK8 for $115 million in November. And PayPal acquired Curv for around $200 million in March.
