Crypto Giant Digital Currency Group Reaches $10 Billion Valuation in Latest Capital Raise

November 3, 2021 The Daily Hodl

Digital Currency Group sells $700M of shares for investors to take profits

November 1, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Digital Currency Group sells 0M of shares for investors to take profits

Digital Currency Group CEO and founder Barry Silbert didn’t sell any stock in the latest round.

Digital Currency Group (DCG), one of the largest companies in the cryptocurrency industry, has completed a major secondary investment round led by Japanese financial giant SoftBank.

DCG has sold $700 million worth of shares to companies like Google’s parent company, Alphabet, to bring its valuation to more than $10 billion, the company officially announced Monday.

“Proud to welcome SoftBank, CapitalG, Ribbit, GIC, Tribe and Emory to an already fantastic list of DCG shareholders. And even more proud of over 1,000 employees of DCG and our wholly-owned subsidiaries that made this happen,” DCG CEO and founder Barry Silbert said.

In a Wall Street Journal interview, Silbert emphasized that the investment wasn’t about raising capital for DCG but rather an “opportunity for some for some early investors to exit and take profits.” All the raised money went to the selling shareholders, and none of them sold their entire stake, the company said. Silbert, who owns about 40% in the firm, said that he didn’t sell any stock in the latest round.

Silbert noted that the company hasn't ruled out a potential initial public offering, but it’s “not in the plans and not being discussed right now.” LDCG has been profitable and is on track to top $1 billion in revenue for the year, the CEO said.

DCG is a major crypto industry company, known for operating Grayscale Investments, the world’s biggest digital asset manager with $50 billion under management. In mid-October, Silbert hinted that the company is making plans to convert its Bitcoin Trust into a spot-settled Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.

Digital Currency Group Raises $700M at $10B Valuation

November 1, 2021 The Crypto Briefing

Blockchain Intelligence Company Elliptic Raises $60 Million — Evolution Equity Partners, Softbank Bolster Series C

October 12, 2021 Bitcoin.com

Elliptic raise $60M to advance crypto analytics service

October 11, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Elliptic raise M to advance crypto analytics service

Coin Telegraph

The blockchain analytics firm have amassed data points on 98% of the market's digital assets.

Cryptocurrency risk management firm Elliptic have announced a $60 million Series C funding round led by Evolution Equity Partners and supported by a panoply of venture capital firms including SoftBank Vision Fund 2, as well as existing relations AlbionVC, Digital Currency Group, Wells Fargo Strategic Capital and SBI Group, amongst others.

Elliptic's history of funding charts a consistent increase, with their debut funding raise in 2016 totalling $5 million, while their second raise across late 2019 to early 2020 raising an additional $28 million.

Founded in 2013 and headquartered in London, Elliptic captures analytical data from the blockchain sector to provide anti money laundering and compliance services to fintech institutions, governmental and legislative groups and crypto organizations from financial crime, in addition to enhancing their tolerability to risk.

According to the company’s announcement, two thirds of all cryptocurrency volume traded worldwide occurs on exchanges that utilize Elliptic’s risk management and analytical data solution. In addition to this, the firm boasts to have attained 20 billion data points across a span of 98% of the sector’s assets by market capitalization.

Simone Maini, CEO of Elliptic, spoke on the importance of safety in accessing crypto assets, and also added:

“This fundraising round is an endorsement of the opportunity for crypto assets in the financial industry - and our absolutely critical role in the ecosystem.”

In June 2020, Elliptic was recognized by the World Economic Forum as one of 100 early to growth-stage projects at the cutting-edge of technological innovation. The firm was designated into the Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies category alongside notable industry figures Chainlink and MakerDAO, as well as Lighting Labs, Ripio and Veridium Labs.

Founder of Evolution Equity Partners, Richard Seewald commented on the potential impact that the funding raise could have on Elliptic’s enterprise ambitions:

“The latest fundraise provides Elliptic more resources to expand their market-leading crypto asset risk management to financial organizations, businesses and regulatory authorities around the world.”

Blockdaemon secures unicorn status with $155M raise

September 23, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Blockdaemon secures unicorn status with 5M raise

Coin Telegraph

In the venture capital world, a privately-held startup company becomes a “unicorn” when its valuation exceeds $1 billion.

Blockchain infrastructure developer Blockdaemon has secured its status as a crypto unicorn after concluding a $155 million Series B fundraiser, putting the company on track to expand its operational footprint in a significant way.

With Series B now closed, Blockdaemon’s valuation has swelled to $1.255 billion, the company announced this week. To date, the company has raised just under $190 million, with the latest funding round led by the Softbank Vision Fund 2. Additional investors included Goldman Sachs , Kraken Ventures, Morgan Creek Digital, CoinFund, Matrix Capital Management and Sapphire Ventures.

Konstantin Richter, Blockdaemon’s founder and CEO, said the capital injection will be used to further expand DeFi infrastructure and bridge the gap between digital assets and traditional banking. The company noted that, over the past 90 days, it has more than doubled its managed node count to 18,000.

Blockdaemon provides blockchain infrastructure services to several networks, including Ethereum, Solana, Cardano and Polkadot.

Blockchain infrastructure providers have seen their valuations swell thanks to growing mainstream and institutional interest in digital assets. As Cointelegraph reported, Canada-based Bitcoin (BTC) infrastructure provider Blockstream concluded a $210 million investment round in August, bringing its total valuation to a whopping $3.2 billion. The company followed up that announcement by partnering with a major Australian investment bank around a new carbon-neutral mining facility.

Blockchain technology made its way into the United States infrastructure bill last month, albeit not in the manner that many had hoped. As digital assets become more mainstream, the technology that underpins them could increasingly be viewed as infrastructure.

Revolut Lands $33BN Valuation After SoftBank Raise

July 15, 2021 The Crypto Briefing

Softbank leads $800M investment for banking app Revolut

July 15, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Softbank leads 0M investment for banking app Revolut

Coin Telegraph

Now valued at $33 billion, Revolut didn’t rule out a potential IPO this year, but the firm's CFO suggested that it was unlikely.

Revolut, a major British banking app featuring cryptocurrency investment, has secured $800 million in a new funding round.

The new investment round is led by Japanese financial giant SoftBank and United States hedge fund Tiger Global, which collectively hold around 5% in Revolut, CNBC reported Thursday.

The round values Revolut at $33 billion, marking a sixfold increase from the company’s valuation of $5.5 billion in 2020. The newly secured funding will help Revolut continue international expansion as well as further improve marketing and product development, Revolut chief financial officer Mikko Salovaara noted. The company is particularly focused on rolling out services in the U.S. and India, he added.

The latest financing round reportedly makes Revolut the second-largest fintech unicorn in Europe behind Swedish fintech company Klarna. It is also now the biggest fintech in the United Kingdom, flipping major payments firm Checkout.com.

Despite Revolut posting massive growth over the past year, the company has no immediate plans for an initial public offering. Salovaara said that Revolut did not rule out a potential IPO this year but suggested it was unlikely.

Revolut did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.

Revolut reported nearly $240 million in annual losses last year, higher than the $140 million the company lost in 2019. Revolut CEO and co-founder Nik Storonsky previously said that the main reason for mounting losses in 2019 was an aggressive investment in global expansion and new product offerings. Revolut will continue its expansion into new services like crypto and stock trading to reach profitability in the long run, the CEO said recently.

Fantasy soccer NFT platform Sorare reportedly closing in on $532M in funding

July 15, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Fantasy soccer NFT platform Sorare reportedly closing in on 2M in funding

$532 funding round

Sorare is reportedly closing in a half a billion dollar funding round with a valuation of at least $3.8 billion.

Reports have surfaced that French NFT-based soccer trading card game developer Sorare is closing in on a $532 million funding round with a valuation of at least $3.8 billion.

According to unnamed sources in Business Insider, the latest funding round is expected to be led by Japanese telecommunications giant SoftBank, along with participation from European venture capital firm Atomico.

Other backers thought to be in the mix include European investment firm Eurazeo, and Blisce, a fund founded by French entrepreneur Alexandre Mars.

Sorare was founded in 2018 and the firm’s NFT-based soccer collectible card game now has 142 licensed teams from top leagues across the world, such as Liverpool from the English Premier League, Real Madrid of the La Liga in Spain, Paris Saint-German from Ligue 1 in France and Bayern Munich of the German Bundesliga.

Sorare CEO Nicolas Julia has reportedly denied that a funding round was being conducted, in contrast to Insider’s unnamed insiders which claim the round is close to being finalized. SoftBank and Atomico are yet to comment on the reports.

If confirmed, the half a billion dollar funding round would signify a meteoric rise for Sorare in 2021, who previously raised $50 million in Series A funding in February, which included backing from Twitter, Instagram, Discord, and French soccer star Antoine Griezmann to name a few.

According to data from DappRadar, Sorare is ranked sixth on the list of top NFT collectible projects and has seen $12.37 million worth of sales volume over the past 30 days from a total of 9251 traders.

Data from CryptoSlam shows the project’s tokens performs well on secondary markets too, with a rolling 30 day average of $6.4 million in sales from 6,111 buyers.

In June Cointelegraph reported the platform had stitched up its first national team licensing deals including partnerships with the German and French national teams amid the 2020 European Championship.

The firm also onboarded F.C Barcelona’s star defender Gerard Piqué as a strategic advisor in December 2020, to help the platform target a young audience of soccer fans and card collectors.

Softbank Invests $200 Million in Brazilian Crypto Trading Platform Mercado Bitcoin

July 2, 2021 Bitcoin.com

Softbank

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