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Blockdaemon which provides infrastructure including blockchain nodes and cryptocurrency staking services, announced the addition of Citi Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Telstra Ventures, and Invicta Growth as new investors. It did not disclose the amount raised.
In January, the company announced a $207 million Series C investment round at a $3.25 billion post money valuation, bringing total funds raised to almost $400 million. Existing investors include Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and Tiger Global.
“Some of the most elite investors in the world have put their confidence in Blockdaemon, as we enable financial institutions around the world to engage in the cryptocurrency ecosystem through our stable and secure blockchain infrastructure,” said Konstantin Richter, CEO and Founder, Blockdaemon.
The company is best known for providing validator nodes to large token holders for proof of stake blockchains. It supports 50 blockchains, of which half are proof of stake. So far, it has launched more than 40,000 nodes and averages $10 billion in monthly staked assets.
“As digital assets become more mainstream with financial institutions and retail investors, it’s critical that stability, reliability and security are top priorities,” said Luis Valdich of Citi Ventures. “Citi Ventures is proud to make Blockdaemon our first investment in blockchain infrastructure, the backbone that makes cryptocurrencies possible.”
So who are Blockdaemon’s competitors? One is ConsenSys which offers staking through Infura and has raised a significant amount of funding. But it’s a profitable business, so some of the other players are apparently bootstrapped.
In Europe, Chorus One says it has more than $3 billion staked, and US-based Allnodes, founded by Russia’s Konstantin Boyko-Romanovsky, has $3.9 billion staked and more than 32,000 nodes. While LinkedIn isn’t necessarily an accurate indicator of staff numbers as many techies don’t use it, Blockdaemon shows more than 200 staff, Chorus One just over 20, and Allnodes just three.
