The cryptocurrency market has witnessed sheer crypto winter which still continues. This affected the broader crypto market but a small portion of the space continued to sustain. Several projects and firms working within crypto went on to receive fundings and grew gradually.
Bitcoin and blockchain technologies development startup Blockstream also added to the list of growing companies despite adverse situations. The firm reportedly raised a funding of 167.3 million CAD, equivalent to 125 million USD. The funding came in the form of convertible note and secure loan financing.
The convertible note funding was led by London based investment management firm, Kingsway Capital. While venture capital firm Fulgur Ventures and several others also joined the round.
Montréal based company intends to use the funds to optimize during the volatile environment within the crypto industry. According to the company, given the strong demand for institutional hosting services of Blockstream, the capital brought after the recent investment will be used to expand its mining facilities.
In addition to enabling trustless Bitcoin swap settlements and smart contracts, Blockstream’s sidechain technology, known as Liquid Network, also permits financial institutions to tokenize assets. Blockstream was founded in 2014. With a focus on blockchain technology, Blockstream Mining offers colocation services to miners across a number of enterprise-class mining facilities.
Due to Blockstream’s “excellent track record and large scale, coupled with an industry-wide shortage of accessible power capacity, the demand for its hosting services continues to be robust despite market volatility for cryptocurrencies.
According to Blockstream, “Hosting has remained a resilient market segment as opposed to ‘prop’ miners (and their lenders), who have been more directly vulnerable to bitcoin price volatility and constricted margins.”
Blockstream raised 266 million CAD, or 210 million USD in 2021 in what it referred to as the first closing of its Series B transaction. Firm’s value increased to 4 billion USD as a result of the financing.
Then CSO Samson Mow informed a news organization that the business planned to raise between 300 million USD and 400 million USD for its Series B investment, even though the company hasn’t disclosed any fresh funding since then.
According to a December 2022 Bloomberg article, Blockstream was soliciting fresh capital at a lower valuation than its Series B round from 2021. People with knowledge of the situation told the publication that the valuation may be lower than 1 billion USD, which would rob Blockstream of its unicorn status.
