BlockFi Raises $50M To Expand Crypto Currency Offerings

Financial services company BlockFi landed $50 million in Series C funding to develop products for cryptocurrencies.

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The Jersey City, New Jersey-based company was founded by Zac Prince and Flori Marquez and offers a suite of financial products that seamlessly interact with one another, enabling clients to build and manage wealth through digital asset investments.

The suite’s products include zero-fee trading and crypto-based interest accounts providing a high annual percentage yield on Bitcoin, Ether and StableCoin, as well as crypto-backed loans that allow investors to access liquidity up to 50 percent of an asset’s value in U.S. dollars, Prince told Crunchbase News.

Morgan Creek Digital led the round, which included Valar Ventures, CMT Digital, Castle Island Ventures, Winklevoss Capital, SCB 10X, Avon Ventures, Purple Arch Ventures, Kenetic Capital, HashKey, Matthew Dellavedova and two unnamed university endowments.

The new funding is the third in the past 12 months and comes just six months after BlockFi secured $30 million in Series B funding, led by Valar, which also led the company’s $18.3 million Series A in 2019, according to Crunchbase data. Including this new round, BlockFi has raised approximately $160 million since its inception in 2017.

As part of the investment, Anthony Pompliano, co-founder and partner at Morgan Creek Digital, has joined BlockFi’s board of directors.

“BlockFi’s platform offers investors unparalleled capabilities in the digital asset ecosystem,” he said in a written statement. “We’re excited to back this world-class team as they continue to add new products and expand into incremental areas that are disrupting traditional finance.”

Using previously raised cash infusions, the company worked on launching new products and growing its team across the globe. In addition to offices in New Jersey and New York, BlockFi has locations in Poland and Argentina, and has established its presence in London and Singapore, Prince said. BlockFi has about 175 employees, and Prince said he expects that number to grow to 250 by the end of next year.

The newly secured funds will also be used to grow the team and further expand BlockFi’s business lines, including a bitcoin rewards-based credit card and support for additional assets and currencies.

Meanwhile, the company has experienced a lot of growth in a short period of time. This includes increasing its platform assets from $200 million at the end of last year to $1.5 billion today, Prince said. In addition, the company’s revenue has grown tenfold over the past year, putting the company on pace to reach $100 million in revenue over the next 12 months.

“We are in very early innings in this sector, and everyone is working together to increase the size of the market and make it accessible around the globe,” Prince said. “We are lucky to be in a position where our business is growing rapidly as crypto currency has momentum and relevance right now.”

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias