/https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/6067809e289dce3f50759d37/0x0.jpg "10 biggest risky rounds in cryptography and blockchain")
In March, three crypto startups raised some of the biggest capital increases in the industry’s history. Here are the top ten.
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The cryptocurrency industry is very hot. The total market value of cryptocurrencies is approaching $ 2 trillion – this is higher than the market value of Amazon, Google and Microsoft. Bitcoin has been trading above $ 50,000 since March 8 and has a market value of $ 1.12 trillion, almost as much as all the silver in the world. Institutions educated by FOMO continue to arrive in space. Tesla will start accepting payments for its electric vehicles in bitcoin, adding the cryptocurrency to its $ 2.5 billion bitcoin treasure. One of America’s oldest banks, BNY Mellon, launched a unit of digital assets, Goldman Sachs relaunched its crypto trading operations, JPMorgan launched an offering of structured notes linked to a basket of shares with exposure to bitcoin, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs became the first major U.S. banks to offer their wealthy customers direct access to bitcoin.
But the risky institutions and firms that are running to profit from the increase do not come empty-handed. Hordes of capital are being poured into crypto startups, creating new unicorns at a breakneck pace. In March alone, three crypto companies raised some of the biggest capital increases in the industry’s short but rich history. There are now at least 18 crypto-native companies with unicorn status, according to the PitchBook data platform.
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At the height of ICOs, companies raised billions, but the advertising campaign was short-lived. Poor quality projects, multiple scams and the lack of institutional and regulatory oversight led to what is now known as the Great Crypto Cry of 2018, when an index that tracks the performance of the 10 largest and most liquid digital assets plummeted by 80%.
The crypto bulls are hoping that this time it will be really different. Publicly traded companies, such as MicroStrategy and Square, have accumulated considerable bitcoin positions on their balance sheets and are seeing this as an alternative to gold. Meanwhile, orders for a U.S. ETF bitcoin are piling up on the SEC’s doorstep and the market is agitated in anticipation of Coinbase’s direct listing scheduled for April 14, the first major public offering for a cryptocurrency company. Amid the frenzy, Forbes analyzed PitchBook data and compiled a list of the top 10 venture capital deals for blockchain and crypto-native companies.
Bitmain: $ 422 million
Date of business: August 7, 2018
Round VC: Series B1
Notable investors: Crimson Capital China, Bluebell (Asia), Jumbo Sheen Group, Lioness Capital, Palace Investment Company, Pavilion Capital
Post-money valuation: $ 15 billion
Previous rating: $ 12 billion
A world leader in the manufacture of bitcoin mining hardware, Bitmain also operates Antpool, one of the largest bitcoin mining pools, accounting for more than 12% of bitcoin’s network hash, or computing power. Shortly after the $ 422 million capital increase, the Beijing-based company filed for an IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in September 2018, but the offer fell amid the bitcoin crash and the market cooling. .
BlockFi: $ 350 million
Date of business: March 11, 2021
Round VC: D Series
Notable investors: Bain Capital Ventures, DST Global partners, Pomp Investments, Tiger Global, Susquehanna Government Products
Post-money valuation: $ 3 billion
Previous rating: $ 435 million
Founded in 2017, New Jersey-based BlockFi is now a leading provider of cryptocurrency loans. Its products cover several categories, including crypto-secured loans and interest-bearing accounts, through which investors can earn interest on their cryptographic assets. Rumors of BlockFi’s potential IPO began circulating last July, after reports of a job opportunity, part of which involved helping the company go public.
Dapper Labs: $ 305 million
Date of business: March 30, 2021
Round VC: 5th round
Notable investors: Coatue Management, Andreessen Horowitz, Michael Jordan, Kevin Durant
Post-money valuation: $ 2.6 billion
Previous rating: N / D
The Vancouver-based startup is best known as the developer of NBA Top Shot, an NFT market for highlights or “moments” of basketball videos. The project, which has already passed the $ 400 million mark in trading volume, is largely responsible for the boom in non-fungible tokens (NFTs), essentially digital evidence of traceable property on a blockchain. Previously, Dapper Labs developed a popular Ethereum game of reproducible collectibles called CryptoKitties.
Blockchain.com: $ 300 million
Date of business: March 24, 2021
Round VC: C Series
Notable investors: Global STD, Lightspeed Venture Partners, VY Capital
Post-money valuation: $ 5.2 billion
Previous rating: $ 3 billion
Blockchain.com provides a variety of cryptographic services for retail and institutional customers, but is most famous for its non-custodial digital wallets. Unlike their third party controlled counterparts, these portfolios provide users with complete control over their private keys that represent ownership of cryptographic assets. The London-based company claims that it has processed 28% of all bitcoin transactions since 2012.
Bakkt: $ 300 million
Date of business: March 16, 2020
Round VC: Serie B
Notable investors: Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), BCG Digital Ventures, PayU
Post-money valuation: N / D
Previous rating: N / D
In February 2020, the cryptographic venture of ICE (owner of the New York Stock Exchange) announced the acquisition of Bridge2 Solutions, a loyalty program provider, to boost Bakkt’s one-stop retail platform. Called the Bakkt App, the service allows users to aggregate multiple digital assets, including loyalty points, reward programs, game assets and cryptocurrencies, all in one wallet. In January, Bakkt announced that it would go public through a merger of SPAC and VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings for a business value of about $ 2.1 billion. After closing the deal in the second quarter of 2021, the combined company will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange as Bakkt Holdings, Inc.
Coinbase: $ 300 million
Date of business: October 30, 2018
Round VC: E Series
Notable investors: Tiger Global Management, Andreessen Horowitz, Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), Polychain Capital
Post-money valuation: $ 8.04 billion
Previous rating: $ 1.71 billion
On February 25, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States requested a direct listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Coinbase has been valued at $ 68 billion, based on recent records. On March 19, the company was fined $ 6.5 million by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for allegations of false transaction reports and laundering negotiations between 2015 and 2018 on its GDAX platform, later renamed Coinbase Pro. The direct listing of the stock exchange is scheduled for April 14.
Bitmain: $ 292.7 million
Date of business: June 19, 2018
Round VC: Serie B
Notable investors: Sequoia Capital, Coatue Management, China Taijia, Blue Lighthouse Services
Post-money valuation: $ 12 billion
Previous rating: $ 100 million
Hangzhou Qulian technology: $ 235 million
Date of business: June 4, 2018
Round VC: Serie B
Notable investors: Xinhu Zhongbao Company, China Gaoxin Investment Group, State Development and Investment Corporation
Post-money valuation: $ 470.25 million
Previous rating: $ 40.33 million
Qulian Technology provides blockchain products to China’s main organizations and institutions, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the State Network and local governments. Its one-stop open-block BaaS service platform, FiLoop, is used by some of China’s largest banks, including China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China and China Merchants Bank, according to the company. Qulian Technology partners also include Google and Microsoft.
Bithumb: $ 200 million
Date of business: April 19, 2019
Round VC: 2nd round
Notable investors: Seer, ID Ventures (South Korea), ST Blockchain Fund
Post-money valuation: N / A, valued at $ 888.27 million in January 2021
Previous rating: $ 868.42 million
In September 2020, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency reportedly broke into the offices of one of South Korea’s largest crypto exchanges under allegations of fraud, linked to a symbolic $ 25 million sale that never materialized and led to losses to investors.
Ripple Labs: $ 200 million
Date of business: October 1, 2020
Round VC: C Series
Notable investors: Tetragon Financial Group, SBI Holdings, Transform Capital, 10X Capital
Post-money valuation: $ 10 billion
Previous rating: $ 410 million (2016)
In December, Ripple Labs and its top executives were accused by the US Securities and Exchange Commission of selling $ 1.3 billion of XRP, the native payment network asset developed by the company, as an unregistered security. Following the accusations, several exchanges and trading platforms, including Coinbase, Binance.US and eToro, removed XRP from the list and suspended their trading. In January, British investment firm Tetragon Financial Group filed a lawsuit to rescue its equity at Ripple, but ended up losing the case. Despite the consequences, XRP remains one of the most traded digital assets.