- Because of the retail and institutional investment boost, BlockFi is flying high with other crypto firms.
- To remain ahead of the competition, several players are extending crypto to other financial items.
- Insider Intelligence produces hundreds of Fintech-related observations, maps, and predictions.
According to TechCrunch, the US-based crypto company raised $350 million at a $3 billion valuation, following a $50 million raise in August at a $450 million valuation
BlockFi announced that it has now 225,000 members, up from 10,000 in late 2019.
BlockFi provides cryptocurrency trading, an 8.6% APY crypto savings account, and crypto-backed loans with interest rates as low as 4.5 percent APR to retail customers.
BlockFi is flying high with other crypto firms.
BlockFi is rapidly expanding as a result of the recent crypto fever that has gripped both retail and institutional clients.
With a cumulative market cap of $1.3 trillion, up from $193 billion in January 2020, cryptocurrency has been the best-performing asset class over the last decade.
Encouraged by the potential of high returns, retail and institutional investors had invested heavily into crypto trading platforms, propelling them to new heights in the past year,
According to TechCrunch, BlockFi’s mega-round comes after it reached $15 billion in assets held on its platform, up from $1 billion in March, and increased its monthly revenues to more than $50 million, up from $1.5 million the previous year.
Grayscale Investment’s AUM, on the other hand, has surpassed $20.1 billion, more than ten times its value at the start of 2020.
Crypto firms are broadening their financial services to stay ahead as more players offer cryptocurrency trading services to capitalize in this field which Illustrates the promotion from Phase one to the second phase of maturity.
First phase: crypto trading is turned into table stakes.
Trading apps such as Revolut and eToro, which added crypto offerings years ago have also seen the business in2020, and With more fintech looking to incorporate crypto trading options, the market is becoming more competitive. Meanwhile, financial incumbents such as Fidelity, BlackRock, and Goldman Sachs are jumping in to better serve institutions.
BlockFi CEO Zac Prince told CoinDesk in an interview.
“I think that a crypto company or multiple crypto companies have the opportunity to replace traditional banks on a global scale for the primary banking relationship with consumers,”
Next phase: More financial institutions are adopting cryptocurrency.
According to Stefan Cohen, Bain Capital Ventures partner and BlockFi investor, if more people own crypto assets, they will look for trading alternatives, such as collecting interest or borrowing against the asset.
As a result, crypto fintech introduces new financial innovations to achieve this goal and remain ahead of non-crypto companies who are adding trading options: Gemini and Luno, both crypto exchanges, now provide crypto-based savings accounts, while BlockFi and Blockchain.com offer crypto-backed lending.
According to TechCrunch, BlockFi will also introduce a credit card next quarter that will enable customers to receive Bitcoin with any purchase.
The latest round of funding will be used to double BlockFi’s 500-person workforce by the end of 2022.