Fireblocks has raised $310 million, securing the cryptocurrency custody platform’s unicorn status with a $2 billion valuation.
Announced Tuesday, the Fireblocks Series D round was co-led by heavy hitter tech VCs Sequoia Capital, Stripes, Spark Capital, Coatue and DRW. Also a co-leader on the round was SCB 10X, the venture arm of Thailand’s oldest bank, Siam Commercial Bank (now the third global bank to invest in Fireblocks alongside BNY Mellon and SVB Capital).
Technology firms that specialize in the safekeeping of cryptocurrencies and tokens have become desirable items on the shopping lists of banks and large fintech players eyeing the digital asset space. Firms like Fireblocks that can provide cryptographic key sharding technology such as multi-party computation (MPC), are seen as particularly valuable, and there have been some acquisitions and partnerships.
Fireblocks, which partnered with BNY Mellon early this year to help custody digital assets for the bank, said its solid $2 billion valuation signals to the market that the company is probably not in the range to be acquired.
It’s not the first time Fireblocks CEO Michael Shaulov has pointed to his plan to stay the course as an independent firm.
“On the back of the consolidation that we’ve seen in the market in the recent months, a lot of the customers became a bit sort of nervous, especially when custody infrastructure is concerned,” said Shaulov in an interview, adding:
“It was very important for us to show the customers that we have the balance sheet and valuation to stay independent. It helps increase trust with our existing clients and partner with banks who know they can invest in something that’s not going to end up in the hands of their competitors.”
The Series D round brings the total Fireblocks has raised since launch in 2019 to $489 million, which has included backing from Cyberstarts, Eight Roads, Tenaya Capital, Swisscom, Paradigm, Ribbit Capital and Coatue.
Source: Coindesk
