Major Brazilian crypto asset manager secures $26M funding

May 12, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Brazil

Coinbase and SoftBank have participated in a $26 million funding round for Latin America’s largest crypto asset management firm.

Hashdex, the Rio de Janeiro-based crypto asset manager with over 4 billion Brazilian real ($765 million) in assets under management, has raised $26 million in new funding round from investors.

According to Bloomberg on Wednesday, venture capital firm Valor Capital Group led the funding round with participation from Coinbase Ventures — the VC arm of American exchange giant Coinbase — and Softbank.

The $26 million capital influx comes as Hashdex is set to pursue its expansion outside Brazil. Indeed, the company is reportedly planning to open as many as 75 new locations across the world before the end of the year.

Hashdex also wants to increase its crypto offerings catalog with co-founder Marcelo Sampaio stating that investors are warming up to cryptocurrencies. “Investors are still getting to know crypto and we see room to offer more products in Brazil,” the former Microsoft executive told Bloomberg in an interview.

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Hashdex teamed up with Nasdaq to issue to crypto exchange-traded fund product in Bermuda back in September 2020. The Bermuda Stock Exchange approved the composite crypto ETF in February 2021.

Hashdex also teamed up with Nasdaq to create the Nasdaq Crypto Index for cryptocurrencies with the most liquidity on major exchanges and custodians like Coinbase, Kraken, BitGo and Fidelity. The NCI consists of six cryptos, namely: Bitcoin, Ether (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), Chainlink (LINK), and Stellar (XLM).

Hashdex is also a crypto ETF issuer in Brazil with the company obtaining approval to list a composite cryptocurrency ETF product that tracks the NCI back in March.

Brazil and Canada remain the only two countries to approve a Bitcoin ETF with several BTC ETF hopefuls submitting applications in the United States. Earlier in May, the Chicago Board Options Exchange filed a Form 19b-4 to become the exchange partner for Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust Bitcoin ETF.

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Bitso reportedly becomes Latin America’s first billion-dollar crypto exchange

May 5, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Argentina

The startup has a total value of $2.2 billion following its latest Series C investment round.

Mexican cryptocurrency exchange Bitso has concluded a $250 million Series C capital raise, putting it in the upper echelons of Latin America’s fintech industry.

The latest investment round gives Bitso a total value of $2.2 billion, making it the first Latin American cryptocurrency exchange to be worth over $1 billion. It’s also the third-most valuable fintech company on the continent.

The raise was led by Tiger Global and Coatue, with additional contributions from Valor Capital Group, BOND and Paradigm.

Daniel Vogel, Bitso’s co-founder and CEO, said it took his exchange six years to get its first million customers and less than ten months to reach 2 million. As Cointelegraph previously reported, Bitso registered its one-millionth user in July 2020.

“People in Latin America are using this technology in their everyday lives,” Vogel said, referring to his cryptocurrency exchange. “We are proud to grow with the industry and continue to make these powerful financial enablers available to everyone.”

He explained that the latest investment round will be used to grow company capabilities as the exchange continues to expand its regional operations:

“Last week we launched operations in Brazil. This round will be used to expand our capabilities, our product offering, and to continue to make cryptocurrencies useful throughout Latin America.”

Launched in 2014, Bitso offers cryptocurrency exchange services settled in Mexican pesos. The platform processes deposits and withdrawals using the Ripple payment gateway and is available in both desktop and mobile versions.

The Series C fundraiser follows a successful Series B raise in December 2020 that brought in $62 million from various investment funds, including Kaszek Ventures and QED Investors. At the time, Vogel said the funds would be used to further expand company capabilities across Latin America.

Argentina was one of Bitso’s first expansion targets in 2019 after the company deployed investment funds obtained from a Ripple-led capital raise. It took the exchange just six months to become Argentina’s most popular Bitcoin trading platform.

Crypto is flourishing in Argentina as locals cope with a crumbling economy, high fiscal pressure and the sharp devaluation of the peso. Capital controls during the pandemic also hastened Bitcoin adoption as more people sought to navigate around a troubled banking system.

Latin America