![One in Five Kiwis Bullish on Crypto Investments, New Poll Suggests One in Five Kiwis Bullish on Crypto Investments, New Poll Suggests](https://static.news.bitcoin.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/shutterstock_248418355-768x432.jpg)
Now valued at $1.5 billion, Ledger aims add new products to its hardware and software wallet portfolio.
Following a dramatic increase in its revenues in the first quarter, the cryptocurrency security and infrastructure company Ledger completed a new fundraising round led by 10T Holdings.
Known for its Ledger Nano S and Nano X hardware wallets, Ledger announced the completion of a $380 million Series C fundraising round, which gave the company a valuation of $1.5 billion.
Ledger’s Series B round investors Cathay Innovation, Draper Associates, Draper Dragon, Draper Esprit, DCG, Wicklow Capital attended the new fundraising. Tekne Capital, Uphold Ventures, Felix Capital, Inherent, Financière Agache (Groupe Arnault) and iAngels Technologies were the new investors.
Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier said the Series C investment round would transform Ledger from a digital asset security company to a secure gateway to the entire digital asset ecosystem. “This industry is fast becoming mainstream and reshaping the entire financial sector and beyond,” he added.
Ledger will use the $380 million for developing new products and adding decentralized finance solutions to Ledger Live, the company’s wallet software. The company is also looking to strengthen its Ledger Enterprise Solutions, a cloud-based digital asset custody service.
As digital assets are becoming more mainstream, Ledger expects the assets held on its products will grow in volume, the announcement reads. The company wants to position itself as a secure gateway to the ecosystem as it diversifies to include nonfungible tokens, real estate and other blockchain-based forms of value.
Thanks to the bull market earlier this year, Ledger saw a 500% surge in revenues in the first quarter of 2021. The company hired former eToro and Opera leads, and it is still looking to expand its workforce.
Ledger experienced a major data breach in December 2020 that caused a leak of over 270,000 Ledger customers’ personal information. According to the report, the leak also included 1 million emails of Ledger wallet owners and customers that were signed up to the company’s newsletter service.
More than a quarter of financial advisers intend to recommend crypto investments over the next year.
According to a survey, financial advisers are recommending investments in Bitcoin and crypto assets to their clients more than ever before.
A report by the Financial Planning Association released on June 1 has taken a look at the changing attitudes towards crypto assets. The ‘2021 Trends in Investing Survey’ revealed that more financial advisers than ever are recommending their clients have some crypto in their portfolios.
The survey was conducted in March and received 529 online responses from professional financial advisers who offer clients investment advice and recommendations.
It stated that 14% of financial advisers have already added crypto assets to their clients’ portfolios or are recommending it to them. Even more are planning to do so over the next year.
“More than a quarter (26 percent) of advisers indicated in the 2021 survey that they plan to increase their use/recommendation of cryptocurrencies over the next 12 months.”
The survey revealed that the figure is up significantly from the previous year when less than 1% of advisers were recommending exposure to cryptocurrencies.
Furthermore, 49% of finance professionals indicated that, in the last six months, clients have asked them about investing in cryptocurrencies, a figure that has almost trebled from just 17% in 2020.
Just below half, or 48% of financial advisers, claimed to read occasional news stories on cryptocurrencies and are somewhat comfortable conversing about them, with a third of advisers actively educating themselves on digital assets.
Clients appear to be less concerned with market volatility this year compared to last, the survey found. More than half, or 52%, of financial advisers, stated that their clients inquired about market volatility over the past six months, compared to 76% for the previous year.
Investors may be drawn to crypto assets as a hedge against inflation which has been exacerbated during the pandemic and ongoing fiscal stimulus packages. Inflation in the U.S. is hovering around a 13 year high.
In early May, Cointelegraph reported that financial advisers have been leading an institutional push toward crypto asset adoption.
Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein told Cointelegraph that, “Curiosity and demand from clients are driving financial adviser interest in crypto.” His observations were derived from a survey commissioned by the investment firm showing that more than half of advisers are receiving questions from their clients about cryptocurrencies.
SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son compares the popularity of Bitcoin to diamonds and bonds, but he still remains unsure about it.
Tesla’s tag game with Bitcoin (BTC) might have triggered a race in the corporate world to invest in crypto, however, SoftBank still prefers to take a more cautious approach. Answering questions at SoftBank’s earnings news conference, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son admitted that he doesn’t know whethe crypto is good or bad.
“There’s a lot of discussion over if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, what’s the true value or is it in a bubble — honestly speaking, I don’t know,” Son said, according to Bloomberg.
Son did not comment on the high-volume Bitcoin purchases made by major companies, such as Tesla and Square. Comparing cryptocurrencies to more traditional commodities, he said:
“The popularity of cryptocurrency has made it into a platform that can’t be ignored, like diamonds and bonds.”
He also added that SoftBank is always having internal discussions on cryptocurrencies, and there’s no need to reject them.
Last year, Son mentioned that he was dedicating about five minutes a day to watch how the Bitcoin price fluctuates. But that has proved to be a distraction, preventing him from focusing on his own business, he said. Son also reportedly lost $130 million from his Bitcoin investment in 2019.
Earlier this year, SoftBank Group’s telecommunications arm became a member of the Japanese Security Token Association, a group of advocacy and self-regulatory bodies that exist within the Japanese cryptocurrency and blockchain space.
Known as an early adopter of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general, Japan’s financial ecosystem seems to be focusing on the blockchain part of crypto lately. Three major banks in the country are collaborating with private sector participants on an experiment with a digital yen. This is a move to speed up the adoption of cashless payments in the country, where cash still accounts for about 80% of total transactions.