BlocksInform
Blockstream, a leading bitcoin infrastructure provider, announced on January 24 that it had raised $125 million in financing to expand its bitcoin extracting institutional services.
This fundraising was carried out by kingsway capital, a private equity fund based in the United Kingdom, and included the involvement of other investors such as fulgur ventures and cohen.
This is the first fundraising for Blockstream since its 2021 Series B round, where the company raised $210 million to accelerate the construction of enterprise-class mining facilities with hosting capabilities for institutional clients. As a result of that round of funding, the blockstream has grown to $3.2 billion.
Blockstream points to bitcoin banking services institutions.
The company experienced increased demand for its accommodation services due to its strong track record and significant scope, as well as a shortage of available electrical capacity across the industry. This hosting service remained a resilient market segment compared to "prop" miners, who saw their transactions impacted by the volatility of Bitcoin prices and the crypto market.
Erik Svenson, Blockstream’s President & CFO, said that this new fundraising would allow the company to accelerate its YoY revenue growth and continue building better infrastructure that contributes to the economic future of Bitcoin.
Svenson stressed the company's emphasis on "risk reduction for institutional minors" by building high-value use cases on the safest blockchain on the planet, Bitcoin.
2022: Year in which we learn not to rely on centralized projects.
Adam Back, Chief Executive Officer of Blockstream, declared 2022 as a year of market learning, referencing the many failed projects and scams that have caused huge losses of money and the closure of several cryptography companies. He believes that these bad experiences should be used as learning opportunities to "reduce the need for third-party involvement.”
He encouraged players in the crypto ecosystem to turn to decentralized structures and architectures not focused on bitcoin, such as Liquid's simple contracts, in order to have full custody of their funds.
Back also highlighted the fact that Liquid's simple contracts allow active traders to maintain confidence in themselves through offline limit orders, non-custodial options, and secured mortgages, all this since the security of the merchant's material portfolio protected by its own keys. It is compatible with decentralised and centralised exchanges of order-books.
Additionally, the recent market failures and scams remind the importance of decentralization and self-custody in the crypto ecosystem.
While 2022 was a year full of bad experiences for many enthusiasts in the crypto ecosystem, it undoubtedly served as a learning experience for the crypto community to understand that there will always be malicious actors lurking to take advantage of innocent —and experienced— people.
