SoftBank fund joins Goldman in minting latest crypto unicorn

[SINGAPORE] Blockchain infrastructure platform Blockdaemon has become a unicorn with a Series B funding round of US$155 million led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2.

The round, which gives Blockdaemon a valuation of about US$1.26 billion, included participation from Matrix Capital Management, Sapphire Ventures and Morgan Creek Digital, according to a statement. Goldman Sachs Group, Kraken Ventures and Kenetic were among existing investors who boosted their investments, the statement said.

Blockdaemon supports more than 40 blockchain networks including ETH 2.0, Bitcoin, Solana, Terra, Cardano, Polkadot and the Lightning Network. It also powers the institutional backbone for things like digital coin transactions by tens of millions of registered users across some of the world's largest exchanges, custodians and financial institutions.

"We are looking to bring crypto and decentralised finance (DeFi) to a global mass-market, in a regulated, compliant manner," said Konstantin Richter, chief executive officer and founder of Blockdaemon. "We expect that to require extensive resources to work with regulators, as well as rapid international expansion."

The latest funding round is slated to aid Blockdaemon's hiring in places like Singapore, Japan, UK and Germany, and allow for strategic acquisitions, according to the statement.

Blockdaemon hopes that if it can help build products for Goldman it will be able to for other large asset managers, Mr Richter said.

The Information reported earlier on Softbank Vision Fund 2 leading the round.

BLOOMBERG