Crypto infrastructure firm Fireblocks valued at $8B following $550M raise

cointelegraph.com:

Digital asset custody platform Fireblocks has raised $550 million in Series E funding to become one of the blockchain industry’s most valuable companies, underscoring heightened institutional appetite for cryptocurrency products despite extreme price volatility. 

The investment round was co-led by venture firms D1 Capital Partners and Spark Capital, with participation from Parafi Growth Fund, Canapi Ventures, Altimeter, General Atlantic, Index Ventures, Mammoth, CapitalG and Iconiq Strategic Partners.

Since launching in 2019, Fireblocks has raised a cumulative $799 million from some of blockchain’s leading venture firms. As Cointelegraph reported, the company secured $310 million in a Series D funding round that concluded in July 2021. That followed a successful Series C funding round in March of the same year that was valued at $133 million.

The successive funding rounds have helped Fireblocks expand its service offerings to over 800 institutional clients, including Bank of New York Mellon, Revolut, Galaxy Digital, Crypto.com, BlockFi, SwissBorg, CoinShares, eToro and Three Arrows Capital. As an infrastructure provider, Fireblocks works with crypto exchanges, lenders and other financial institutions to secure, transfer and issue digital assets.

Fireblocks has prioritized the use of multi-party computation, also known as MPC, in providing custody and infrastructure solutions to secure digital assets. When asked about the importance of MPC and why it is utilized so heavily by Fireblocks, CEO Michael Shaulov told Cointelegraph that "MPC removes the single point of compromise without inhibiting the operational arm of the business that is responsible for driving growth." He further explained:

Fireblocks' $550 million raise is