JPMorgan Unit, Tiger Global Join Blockchain Firm’s Funding Round

(Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase Strategic Investments and Tiger Global Management announced investments in blockchain-infrastructure company Blockdaemon, as traditional financial institutions seek a foothold in the burgeoning area of decentralized finance.

Blockdaemon already counts Softbank Group Corp. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. among existing backers and in September had said the Series B round valued it at $1.255 billion. The firm, which connects commercial stakeholders to blockchains and helps manage nodes -- a network’s stakeholders or devices such as computers -- said in a statement Wednesday that revenue expand 20-fold as more large investors seek to get into the crypto space. 

The company is filling a crucial role for businesses looking to get into crypto, basically making it easier for them to play a part in the larger ecosystem. Blockdaemon supports more than 40 blockchain networks including Ethereum 2.0, Bitcoin, Solana, Terra, Cardano, Polkadot and the Lightning Network. It’s used by exchanges, custodians, crypto platforms, financial institutions and developers -- everyone from CoinShares to BTC Markets -- and handles things like blockchain infrastructure, which can often be daunting for any but the most tech-savvy. 

“We have seen growth across every dimension, customer count, contract size, capital on nodes, team members etc.,” Konstantin Richter, chief executive officer and founder of Blockdaemon, said in an interview by email. Richter pointed to the 2,000% growth year to date in nodes managed by the company, saying it points to demand for consistent participation in protocols.

Blockdaemon’s rapid growth is part of what made it attractive as an investment, said John Curtius, partner at Tiger Global, in the statement. Umar Farooq, chief executive officer of Onyx by J.P. Morgan, the firm’s blockchain division, said the appeal was in its own “multi-layered approach” to investing in blockchain technology.

“The institutional demand has driven massive changes around security and compliance,” Richter said. “We always want to be ahead of regulatory and security concerns, so have invested massively in these areas, ranging from bringing on in-house legal/regulatory functions, compliance officers, CISO and -- most unique in the crypto staking space specifically -- audited financials.”

Blockdaemon also announced Wednesday that it is acquiring German company Anyblock Analytics, an infrastructure platform providing things such as on-chain analytic tools and node hosting services across various blockchain networks. Anyblock will help Blockdaemon support the non-fungible token (NFT) space, according to the statement.

Next steps for Blockdaemon in the coming months include launching Blockdaemon OS, a complete node stack for institutions to transact, pull data, stake and earn yield via one dashboard, Richter said.

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