Jacquelyn Melinek

<div id="highlights-block_614a5ef36b22c" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Over the past year, Blockdaemon has increased its valuation over 70 times and had a 20 times increase in revenue, it said</li>
 <li>One of the largest industrial-scale Bitcoin mining companies, Genesis Digital Assets, plans to expand mining operations in the US and Nordic countries</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Blockchain infrastructure company Blockdaemon has raised $155 million in a Series B round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, the company said in an announcement Tuesday.&nbsp;



The new fundraising brings Blockdaemon’s total valuation to $1.255 billion, adding it to the list of companies that have reached unicorn status, which consists of having a valuation of $1 billion or greater.&nbsp;



Over the past year, Blockdaemon has increased its valuation over 70 times and had a 20 times increase in revenue. Additionally it has averaged more than $10 billion in staked assets across the over 40 protocols it supports, the company said.&nbsp;



Additional participants in this round were Matrix Capital Management, Sapphire Ventures, and Morgan Creek Digital. Pre-existing seed round investors who also increased their investments this round are Boldstart Ventures, Goldman Sachs, Greenspring Associates, CoinFund, Kenetic, Kraken Ventures, Borderless Capital and Lerer Hippeau.



“We are committed to a future of decentralized financial infrastructure and accelerating the ease of integration to bridge traditional banking to the crypto ecosystem. As regulations get further defined, a backer of the caliber of SoftBank and Masa’s experience is crucial,” said Konstantin Richter, CEO and founder of Blockdaemon, in a statement.



The capital will be used to expand the company’s presence in Singapore, Japan, the United Kingdom and Germany. Additionally, it will help the company make acquisitions to build out its tech stack.



“Blockdaemon will also expand into providing liquidity solutions for large scale institutional adoption, starting with ETH 2.0, where Blockdaemon is active and running over 12,000 validators. This makes Blockdaemon the largest operator in the ETH 2.0 space,” according to a company blog <a href="https://blockdaemon.com/blog/announcing-blockdaemons-155-million-series-b-funding/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">post</a>. Since each validator requires 32 $ETH staked on Ethereum&#8217;s &#8220;beacon chain&#8221; (which is planned to merge with the current Ethereum mainnet in early 2022), that represents some 384,000 ether locked, worth over $1.1 billion as of today&#8217;s $ETH price. 



Tuesday was a busy day for SoftBank. Separately, the Japanese-based firm <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/softbank-leads-680m-series-b-for-nft-soccer-platform-sorare/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">also announced</a> it led the latest $680 million round for the NFT soccer platform Sorare. Paris-based Sorare will use the new funding to recruit new talent in Europe and the US, sign new partnerships, accelerate on mobile and marketing, and expand into new sports in 2022, beyond the world of soccer. 



In May, SoftBank tripled the size of its Vision Fund 2 to $30 billion, according to a previous statement by Navneet Govil, chief financial officer of SoftBank Investment Advisers. The fund is the company’s second massive venture capital-based portfolio.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Genesis Digital Assets New Funding&nbsp;</h3>



One of the largest industrial-scale bitcoin mining companies, Genesis Digital Assets, has announced a strategic raise of $431 million on Tuesday.&nbsp;



The round was led by Paradigm and included investments from NYDIG, Stoneridge, FTX, Ribbit, Electric Capital, Skybridge, and Kingsway Capital, who invested <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/genesis-digital-assets-lolli-and-prime-trust-raise-new-capital/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$125 million</a> in a previous round earlier this year. Investors in Kingsway Capital include the family offices of Paul Tudor Jones, Paul Marshall, and Winter Capital, the company said.&nbsp;



In addition to the round, Matt Huang, co-founder and managing partner of Paradigm, joined the company’s board of directors.&nbsp;



The company has been around since 2013, just a few years after the crypto industry began. Since then it has built over 20 industrial-scale mining farms and brought over 300,000 miners online. To date, it has mined over $1 billion in bitcoin, Blockworks previously <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/genesis-digital-assets-lolli-and-prime-trust-raise-new-capital/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>.&nbsp;



&#8220;As we work towards our goal of bringing 1.4 gigawatts online by 2023, the capital raised from this round will be used to expand our bitcoin mining operations in locations where clean energy is easily accessible,” which includes the US and Nordic countries, Marco Streng, CEO and co-founder of Genesis Digital Assets, said.&nbsp;



As of September, the company’s data center capacity was over 170 megawatts, which equates to a total hashrate of more than 3.3 exahashes or about 2.4% of the global bitcoin mining hashrate, it said.&nbsp;



During the next 12 months, the Bitcoin mining company expects another 8.6 exahashes to go online and by the end of 2023 it anticipates reaching a capacity of over 1.4 gigawatts.



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Funding News: Blockdaemon Secures $155M, Genesis Digital Assets Raises $431M

<div id="highlights-block_61017a80f73e2" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>One of the largest industrial-scale bitcoin mining operators in the world, Genesis Digital Assets, announced a $125 million round of funding to support its expansion plans</li>
 <li>The cryptocurrency market has experienced a huge uptick in fundraising, with blockchain start-ups raising a record $4.38 billion in Q2 of this year, according to data from CB Insights</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Today was another big day for venture capitals and crypto companies as the industry saw even more funding for companies like Genesis Digital Assets, Lolli, Prime Trust and Biconomy.&nbsp;



In general, the venture capital world has been accelerating its growth into the cryptocurrency world. Just this week alone, Blockworks has reported about $700 million in funding news and it’s not even Friday.&nbsp;



Here’s a rundown of the news:&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Genesis Digital Assets raises $125 million to expand bitcoin mining&nbsp;</h3>



One of the largest industrial-scale bitcoin mining operators in the world, Genesis Digital Assets, announced a $125 million round of funding to support its expansion plans.&nbsp;



The funding comes from a United Kingdom-based private equity fund, Kingsway Capital, that focuses on emerging markets with over $2 billion in assets under management, it said.&nbsp;



The company has been around since 2013, just a few years after the crypto industry began. Since then it has built over 20 industrial-scale mining farms and put over 300,000 miners online. To date, it has mined over $1 billion in bitcoin.&nbsp;



&#8220;Bitcoin is going to be the most important technology for financial inclusion of the global poor and unbanked and mining provides security to make this possible,” said Manuel Stotz, CEO of Kingsway Capital.&nbsp;



The funding will be used to purchase equipment and build new data centers in the US and nordic region, the company said.&nbsp;



The company plans to continue providing infrastructure to “power the open-source monetary system revolution” as it continues scaling its mining operations, said Executive Chairman and Co-founder of Genesis Digital Assets, Abdumalik Mirakhmedov.



As of July, the company’s data center capacity exceeds 150 megawatts, bringing the total hashrate over 2.6 exahashes, which is more than 2.6% of the global bitcoin mining hashrate. The company expects another 5.5 exahashes to be online in the next 12 months and by the end of 2023, it expects to reach a capacity of over 1 gigawatt.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Lolli closes $10 million Series A round&nbsp;&nbsp;</h3>



Bitcoin rewards company Lolli completed a $10 million Series A financing round led by Acrew Capital.&nbsp;



“Acrew&#8217;s sizable bet on Lolli says two things: bitcoin business is booming, and as the original bitcoin rewards platform, Lolli has the best team to increase adoption in the long run,&#8221; said CTO and Co-founder of Lolli Matt Senter.&nbsp;



The company was founded in 2018 to make “bitcoin accessible to all by offering bitcoin rewards to shoppers on everyday purchases,” it said. Earlier this year, Lolli raised $5 million in a pre-Series A funding round, Blockworks <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/lolli-raises-5m-from-new-investor-class-internet-celebrities/">reported</a>.&nbsp;



Recently, the company released its mobile shopping app, which allows users to earn bitcoin when they shop at more than 1,000 retailers including Microsoft, Kroger and Booking.com. To date, users have earned more than $3.5 million in bitcoin rewards, the company said.&nbsp;



Other investors include Banana Capital, Up North Management and Animal Capital, the Generation Z-focused venture capital fund founded by social media stars Josh Richards, Griffin Johnson and Noah Beck.&nbsp;



The funding round includes investments from independent influencers and entrepreneurs including YouTuber Logan Paul, Chantel Jeffries, Lauren Riihimaki of LaurDIY, Kenny Beecham, and Baron Davis. Early investors Seven Seven Six, 3K VC, Gabriel Leydon, and Forerunner Ventures also contributed to the raise.



The funding will contribute to international expansion of the company, hiring, partnerships and further development of the recent mobile app, the company said.&nbsp;



“Lolli is leading the way to mainstreaming Bitcoin and making it accessible to the general public. I’m thrilled to be investing and helping to fuel the growth of a company that allows users to earn and learn about this new asset class,” Paul said.&nbsp;



While many <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/tiktok-influencers-abound-crypto-traders-beware/">TikTok</a> and internet stars contributed to the round, CEO and Co-founder of Lolli Alex Adelman said, “We’re thrilled by the support of so many incredible investors and fellow entrepreneurs who believe in our mission of making bitcoin more accessible for all. We believe it’s imperative to align with top creators to both educate, distribute, and amplify the power of bitcoin to the masses.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Financial infrastructure Prime Trust raises $64 million</h3>



Prime Trust, a financial infrastructure for FinTech innovators, closed its $64 million Series A round led by Mercato Partners, coinciding with the firm crossing $100 million in annual revenue run rate, the company said in a statement.&nbsp;



The round also included participation from Samsung Next, Nationwide, Commerce Ventures, Ayon Capital, Kraken Ventures, STCAP, s20 Capital, Seven Peaks Ventures, Diverse Angels, University Growth Fund and Nevcaut Ventures.&nbsp;



Although the company is not a crypto-based institution, it powers crypto exchanges, non-fungible token creators, digital wallets and more. It plans to use the funding toward expanding further into the crypto space.&nbsp;



&#8220;The funding will be used to add systems and personnel who are working on expanding the company&#8217;s B2B market share in crypto, including digital asset exchanges, banks, consumer retailers, OTC desks, tokenized assets and wallets, and in crowdfunding, including broker-dealers, crowdfunding portals and real estate syndicators,” it said.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Booming capital&nbsp;</h3>



The cryptocurrency market has experienced a huge uptick in fundraising, with blockchain start-ups raising a record $4.38 billion in Q2 of this year, according to <a href="https://www.cbinsights.com/research/report/fintech-trends-q2-2021/">data</a> from CB Insights.



Additionally, the global FinTech industry saw 88 rounds of deals worth over $100 million, up from 60 rounds in the first quarter of the year, the data showed. Although not all those deals noted in the report went toward cryptocurrency, the money and news speaks for itself as announcements pile in almost daily about new funding rounds in the crypto space.



This week, Blockworks reported digital asset platform Fireblocks raised a whopping <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/funding-news-fireblocks-eco-and-saber-labs-all-raise-millions/">$310 million </a>in Series D funding further enhancing its unicorn status, while Eco, Saber Labs, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/a16z-leads-20m-series-a-for-digital-wallet-valora/">Hedgehog Markets, Valora</a> and <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/biconomy-raises-9m-in-private-funding-aims-to-simplify-crypto-transactions/">Biconomy</a> also announced noteworthy fundraising rounds for their respective companies.



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