Crypto Infrastructure Company Blockdaemon Grabs $207M Funding

Despite the crypto market’s ongoing bleeding situation, unicorn valuations persist, with Blockdaemon being the most recent one to get added to the list.

Following a $207 million Series C led by Sapphire and Tiger Global on Wednesday, the blockchain infrastructure firm said it had a $3.25 billion post-money valuation.

In its September 2021 Series B, Blockdaemon was valued at $1.3 billion. As TheCoinRise reported, FTX US announced a $400 million investment round on Wednesday, valuing the company at $8 billion.

“The digital asset class is here to stay, especially as financial services and publicly traded companies continue to enter the fray,” Jai Das from Sapphire said in a statement. He pointed to the need for an albeit unsexy, secure infrastructure service for “compliant and scalable participation in Web3/DeFi.”

Blockdaemon is a backend service provider for a variety of blockchain projects, offering it all from node operations to staking. The company is one of a class of backend platforms that includes Infura and Alchemy that underpins much of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Infura, which is owned by ConsenSys, is widely regarded as the Ethereum venture studio’s crown jewel; Alchemy was valued at $3.5 billion in a $250 million investment round disclosed in October last year.

Blockdaemon to use funding in expansion

Blockdaemon, for its part, will use its newest funding infusion to expand into other domains. The company is launching a DeFi Fund to “make structured investments in the crypto and blockchain ecosystem,” according to the company.

Similarly, it has teamed up with StakeWise to provide institution-friendly decentralized finance (DeFi) services. As buttoned-up investors look for yield, platforms like Aave have been leading the push in producing DeFi versions that service huge clients with sophisticated compliance concerns; Blockdaemon appears to be following suit.

A company’s representative said that both the DeFi Fund and the StakeWise partnership are fresh.