ConsenSys Ventures Leads Investment into BlockFi to Bring Lending to the Cryptoasset Market

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BlockFi, a New York-based, fintech company, has raised USD 1.55 million in funds from investors led by ConsenSys Ventures, the venture capital arm ConsenSys, which develops apps and tools based on Ethereum, according to a statement released today. BlockFi aims to use the funds to develop its first product, a secured loan for cryptoasset owners, bringing additional liquidity to the blockchain asset sector.

“This market needs access to debt beyond fragmented, short term margin trading options in order to reduce volatility, facilitate scale and put the financial infrastructure for this ecosystem on par with other asset classes,” said Kavita Gupta, Founding Managing Partner at ConsenSys Capital and a member of BlockFi’s Board of Directors, in a statement. “We’re happy to have BlockFi as part of the ConsenSys family and see tremendous growth opportunities for their platform.”

A secured lender, holding clients’ cryptoassets with a registered custodian and issuing loans in USD to their bank accounts, BlockFi is currently operating in beta and is operational in 35 US states, according to the statement.

Kenetic Capital, PJC, SoFi,  Purple Arch Ventures and Lumenary have also contributed funds to BlockFi’s plans to bridge the gap between traditional debt capital markets and the cryptoasset ecosystem, the company stated.

“Cryptoassets are natively digital and global by design, which creates opportunities that haven’t existed before from a lending perspective, said BlockFi CEO and Founder, Zac Prince, in a statement. “By bringing institutional-quality technology infrastructure, data science, risk management and operations to the cryptoasset market, we aim to be the leading lender in the cryptoasset market and a leading provider of low cost credit globally.”

BlockFI claims that, with the cryptoasset market growing exponentially and capitalization of all crytpoassets increasing from USD 10 billion to over USD 400 billion In just the last twelve months, there is still room for massive growth within the industry when compared to traditional asset classes.

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