Digital asset custody, transfer and settlement platform Fireblocks has raised $550 million in a Series E funding round.
Fireblocks CEO and co-founder Michael Shaulov
The round pegs the firm’s valuation at $8 billion and makes it the highest-valued digital asset infrastructure provider in the world.
The platform has now raised $1 billion in total funding to date and claims to have handled more than $2 trillion in assets in 2021 alone.
The Series E round was led by D1 Capital Partners and Spark Capital and saw participation from new investors General Atlantic, Index Ventures, Mammoth, CapitalG, Altimeter, Iconiq Strategic Partners, Canapi Ventures and Parafi Growth Fund.
Fireblocks says the recent surge in demand for crypto among consumers represents a huge market opportunity for financial services, corporates, fintech firms, new Web3 businesses and exchanges.
Fireblocks unifies a financial institution’s exchanges, OTCs, counterparties, hot wallets and custodians into one platform. Wallets, deposit addresses and API credentials are secured using chip isolation technology and cryptography.
The firm’s CEO and co-founder Michael Shaulov says: “Everything that’s happening at the cross-section of DeFi, NFTs, gaming, streaming and entertainment will be the biggest emerging use cases in the next year and a half.”
Shaulov says firms will need to plug into a “future-proof” platform that offers the necessary security, custody and control over assets that can apply to these use cases.
Fireblocks says its customers can expect to see support for a range of new use cases across trading, gaming, NFTs, digital securities and payments, allowing all financial institutions to participate in the digital asset economy.
