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0 CommentsNYDIG, a crypto financial services firm, announced on Tuesday that it raised $1 billion in a funding round led by WestCap, valuing the Morgan Stanley-backed Bitcoin company at more than $7 billion.
According to Reuters, growth equity firm WestCap led the round with other backers like Bessemer Venture Partners, FinTech Collective, Affirm, Fiserv, MassMutual, New York Life, Morgan Stanley, and FIS.
NYDIG said it will use the fresh capital to expand its institutional-grade Bitcoin platform, including support for Lightning Network payments, smart contracts, and asset tokenization, the announcement stated.
The funding announcement comes on the back of significant growth for NYDIG, especially in its push to enable access to Bitcoin for US bank customers. In addition, a substantial piece of the firm’s business is helping large institutions and investors access the Bitcoin market. Notably, NYDIG announced in December last year that it had sold a minority stake in its business to insurance giant Mass Mutual while helping the company to plow $100 million into Bitcoin.
In October, NYDIG acquired British Bitcoin outfit Bottlepay in a $300 million stock purchase. Apart from these partnerships, NYDIG is also looking to expand its workforce with open roles advertised for job functions, including KYC and compliance.
“Our roster of partnerships and strategic investors lays the foundation for NYDIG to become the leading provider of Bitcoin solutions for businesses in any industry, and this new equity capital will further accelerate progress towards making this exciting network accessible – and useful – to all,” commented Robert Gutmann, co-founder and CEO of NYDIG.
By his words, the fresh source of capital will be used to further develop NYDIG’s institutional-grade Bitcoin platform using recent upgrades to the Bitcoin protocol with capabilities such as Bitcoin and lightning payments, asset tokenization, and smart contracts.
Tuesday’s announcement is also another pointer to the massive investment pull associated with crypto businesses in recent times. Despite the prevailing market downturn, crypto-related companies attract significant venture capital backing at astronomical valuations.
