The Series B fundraise led by Valor Equity Partners highlights the importance of bitcoin private key ownership in a world of custodial risk
Unchained, the leader in financial services for bitcoin holders, has announced its $60 million Series B funding round led by Valor Equity Partners. The initial close, completed on April 11, included participation from existing investors NYDIG, Trammell Venture Partners, Ecliptic Capital, and Highland Capital Partners. The Series B builds further momentum following a $15 million financing led by Ten31 that was completed last fall.
“Using this fresh capital investment to expand our reach and suite of services”
“In the midst of market chaos, Unchained has emerged as a highly trusted provider of bitcoin custody and financial services through superior technology, risk management, regulatory compliance, and client service,” said Vivek Pattipati, a Partner at Valor who will be joining Unchained’s Board of Directors. “Particularly in lending, the company has differentiated itself by minimizing risk to both the lender and the borrower, leading to resilience and an extraordinary opportunity to capture market share.”
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Unchained’s collaborative custody model uses bitcoin’s native multisignature capabilities to provide the benefits of self-custody while mitigating its risks. Clients share control of their bitcoin between private keys they hold themselves and private keys held by Unchained and other financial services companies. This not only eliminates single points of failure, through loss or theft of keys, but also mitigates counterparty risk by sharing it between multiple people and companies. The underlying causes of recent collapses at FTX or BlockFi cannot happen to Unchained’s clients because the company is not able to singularly move or rehypothecate client funds and clients can verify this for themselves at any time.
Unchained’s collaborative custody platform secures over $2 billion in bitcoin across thousands of keys around the globe. The company has originated over $500 million in bitcoin-collateralized loans since 2017, while experiencing zero loan losses. The Unchained trading desk allows clients to buy bitcoin directly to cold storage, and its IRA offering allows clients to hold keys to their bitcoin within tax-advantaged retirement accounts – an industry first.
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Unchained plans to use the new funding to grow its client base and improve upon its core suite of financial services delivered through collaborative custody, as well as expand its product offerings. Unchained believes that while bitcoin continues to grow in adoption, there is a tremendous opportunity for products that bridge into the traditional dollar ecosystem around credit, trading, investment, and other financial services.
Today’s macroeconomic climate is such that new bitcoiners are being created every day – they just don’t know it yet. Unchained is already well-known for bitcoin education and thought leadership. “Using this fresh capital investment to expand our reach and suite of services,” said Unchained CEO Joe Kelly, “we hope to enable new entrants to bitcoin to leapfrog centralized custodians into our safer collaborative custody model.”
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