BlockFi Raises Over $18 Million in Series A Led by PayPal Co-Founders’ Valar Venture

American leading cryptocurrency lending company, BlockFi has announced it has raised an additional $18.3 million in venture capital funding led by Vala Ventures.

In a press release today, the BlockFi Serie A funding saw the participation of various investors including Winklevoss Capital, Galaxy Digital, ConsenSys Ventures, Akuna Capital, Avon Ventures, Susquehanna, CMT Digital, Morgan Creek, and PJC.

BlockFi intends to use the acquired capital to expand into new markets, and also roll-out new products to its platform’s existing services, such as interest-earning accounts for Bitcoin and crypto-backed USD loans.

PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel-owned Valar Venture, which has featured in various Series A funding in multiple sectors, makes its first investment with a cryptocurrency-related firm.

Valar is popularly known for its investment in fintech companies such as money transfer service Transferwise, and mobile banking solutions provider N26.

BlockFi is the first company to receive institutional funding from Galaxy Digital for crypto-based USD loans, in the form of a $50 million lending facility loan.

“We’re excited to continue development at BlockFi that will bring us closer to our vision of a world where access to wealth-building financial products and services are not limited by geography or an individual’s net worth,” stated BlockFi CEO & Founder Zac Prince.

Additionally, the funding gathered would allow BlockFi to expand its team members, who will be focused on creating value in the crypto ecosystem, and diversifying its product offering to reach a wider mainstream audience.

Flori Marquez, Co-founder of BlockFi, stated that the firm has always strived to stay ahead of the competition by focusing on blockchain-related projects.  

“We differentiated ourselves since inception by focusing on building a compliance-focused platform that aims to bridge blockchain technology with the existing financial systems of the world,” BlockFi Co-Founder, Flori Marquez said in the Press Release.