The valuation of the company has risen above $3 billion after completing the Series B round in which some of the participants included iFinex and Baillie Gifford. Blockstream aims to use the funds towards manufacturing mining chips.
- As reported by Canadian media on August 24th, Blockstream has further solidified its positioning as a cryptocurrency unicorn firm following the latest funding.
- The UK private equity firm Baillie Gifford and iFinex, the parent company of Bitfinex and Tether, participated in the round, while other organizations were not named.
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“We have enormous respect for Blockstream’s founders and management team. We believe its settlement network for bitcoin-based assets and securities has the potential to transform the design and operation of capital markets.” – reads a statement from the UK company.
- Blockstream’s Chief Strategy Officer, Samson Mow, promised that the fresh funds will be utilized to enhance the firm’s mining operations.
- The Canadian-based company has also acquired an Israeli manufacturer of ASICs – Spondoolies for an undisclosed sum. The latter’s team will join Blockstream to build a brand new ASIC arm – devices geared to mine Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies employing the proof of work consensus mechanism.
- Mow indicated that the new branch could arrive “some time” next year, so “there’s a long-time horizon before we will be able to get it to market.”
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“I’m confident [we] will be able to work together to get greater efficiency in ASICs and our ability to mine Bitcoin.” – Mow added.
- Earlier this year, Blockstream partnered with Jack Dorsey’s Square to release a solar-powered BTC mining facility in the US.