Blockstream announced the company raised $210 million as part of its Series B financing on a valuation of $3.2 billion, according to a company statement. The round was led by Baillie Gifford and iFinex, the operator of Bitfinex.
According to Blockstream officials, the new investment will help further their mission of building financial infrastructure on Bitcoin. The new capital will go towards several projects, including accelerating Bitcoin mining efforts and the acquisition of Spondoolies to launch an enterprise-grade miner, continuing to scale Bitcoin’s first and most robust sidechain (the Liquid Network) and expanding the team.
Baillie Gifford Investment Manager Allen Farrington joined as a board observer. He has been active in the Bitcoin community for many years and is also a strong believer in the work we are doing with the Liquid Network .
“It is an honor to be involved with such an important company in the space and to be able to drive forward development of and institutionalization of both mining and the Liquid Network,” said Farrington. “:I am convinced of the potential of tokenized securities on the Liquid Network to be transformative for the architecture of capital markets. Bitcoin-based development and Blockstream’s asset issuance and management platforms can contribute to meaningfully decentralizing financial infrastructure, democratizing control over investment products, and firmly embedding openness and programmability in capital markets. I look forward to working closely with Blockstream to make this a reality.”
Engineering Bitcoin Infrastructure
Blockstream was founded by Dr. Adam Back and a group of developers passionate for Bitcoin and its potential to transform money. In 2014 the company raised $21 million in seed funding and began building through the Liquid Network, a Bitcoin sidechain, and c-lightning, one of the main implementations of the Lightning Network. In 2016 they raised $57 million in our Series A round, and followed that with a $11 million convertible note.
The Liquid Network has gathered more than $1.1 billion in network value and has seen impressive ecosystem growth with a wide range of platforms — from venues like Hodl Hodl, SideSwap, and TDEX, to Tether, the leading USD stablecoin — all leveraging the sidechain.
Paolo Ardoino, CTO of Bitfinex, said: “Blockstream is at the forefront of innovation in the Bitcoin space after building on top of the protocol for the last seven years. The potential of how all of the different Blockstream technologies fit together is clear. Just the ability to create Lightning Networks on top of Liquid assets like Tether tokens (USDt) will have a revolutionary impact across the world. We are excited to work more closely with Blockstream in the future to bring this to market.”
Blockstream Finance and Beyond
As the industry is seeing ever increasing interest in security tokens and financial instruments issued on Liquid, Blockstream Finance will serve as an on-ramp for innovative Bitcoin investment products.
Major securities issuances, such as the Blockstream Mining Note (BMN) and EXO, are two examples of the innovation taking place on the Liquid Network.
Bringing together Liquid tokens and Blockstream Mining, the BMN security token enables investors to have exposure to Bitcoin mining with market liquidity via a simple purchase through Luxembourg’s STOKR.
STOKR is a pioneering digital investment marketplace for alternative assets, with tokens like Blockstream’s BMN, game publisher Exordium’s EXO that provides profit share to investors from the space strategy game Infinite Fleet, and many others to come.
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