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Bitcoin may have dipped, but big money is still investing in crypto firms

Posted on by admin
16
May
  • Voyager Digital has announced that it has raised $60 million in a private placement offering led by Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research and Digital Currency Group.
  • Elwood, a crypto hedge fund backed by billionaire Alan Howard has also announced a $70 million funding round led by Goldman Sachs.

Bitcoin is struggling to stay above $30,000 as Ethereum fights to stay above $2,000. However, the appetite for crypto companies is still as high as ever and some leading companies are still raising tens of millions of dollars. The latest is Voyager Digital and Elwood which raised $130 million in combined funding from some of the biggest names in crypto and global finance.

Voyager Digital announced today that it had raised $60 million at a price of $2.34 per share in a private placement. The offering was led by Alameda Research, a principal trading firm that’s best known for being founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of FTX exchange and the second-richest man in crypto.

Voyager’s parent company is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. It offers a crypto trading platform that supports over 100 different crypto assets. The parent company also offers interest-bearing accounts similar to BlockFi and Celsius Network.

“We are excited to announce this round of financing led by some of the largest and most important strategic investors in the crypto industry,” said Stephen Ehrlich, CEO, and co-founder of Voyager.

He added:

Deepening our relationships with core leaders in the industry will help us achieve our goals of expanding our staking, rewards and execution programs while assisting with our entry into Web3 and NFTs, all with the vision of bringing the best experience to retail consumers.

Aside from Alameda, the company raised money from the Digital Currency Group, the parent company of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust as well as Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital and Blockdaemon, an institution-focused crypto company.

Elsewhere, a crypto hedge fund and trading platform that’s backed by British hedge fund billionaire Alan Howard have brought in $70 million from some leading companies in crypto and beyond.

Elwood, which the billionaire co-founded in 2018, received the funding from the likes of Goldman Sachs, Barclays Plc, Dawn Capital, Commerzbank AG, and once again, Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital. The funding values the company, founded in 2018 at $500 million.

“The rich mix of investors participating in this raise reaffirms the movement of financial institutions working closely with their native digital asset technology providers,” remarked CEO James Stickland.

Elwood has been focused on institutional investors, offering them a crypto portfolio management system and a trading system connected to exchanges, liquidity providers, and custodians. And with data showing that institutional investors now account for close to half of all crypto traders, the investment in Elwood seems like a good bet.

Related: Bitcoin struggles to stay above $30,000 – here’s who to blame

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