Institutional and venture capital are pouring into crypto despite the market downturn
It may be “crypto winter” out there, but investments in the sector keep coming, indicating a belief in the industry’s ability to bounce back and turn a profit.
The North Zone
In one of the biggest moves into the crypto space recently, London-based venture capital giant Northzone has raised €1 billion (around $1 billion) to form a fund that will focus on crypto and fintech startups.
The company, which previously invested in companies such as Spotify and Klarna, and web3 and DeFi startups such as Sunscreen, Gro and Magic Labs, plans to fund companies from early stages to IPOs.
Wendy Xiao Schadeck, a partner at Northzone, said the fund considers the digital asset industry its “core sector” for them. “We have an incredibly open mind for the next generation of founders to define brand new categories as well,” she added.
Fidelity’s Crypto History
Fidelity Investments, one of the most prominent US stockbrokers, is considering allowing trading in Bitcoin for individual investors, sources say. There hasn’t been an official announcement to clients yet, but Fidelity plans to offer the service to their over 34.3 million brokerage accounts.
The CEO of a digital banking and crypto services platform, Galaxy Digital, Mike Novogratz, hinted that Fidelity could become its client in the near future.
“A bird told me that Fidelity, a little bird in my ear, is going to move its retail clients to crypto soon enough. I hope that bird is right. And so we see this institutional march,” he said during the SALT conference in New York .
Fidelity “got into” Bitcoin back in 2018 by offering a Bitcoin trading business to their hedge funds and institutional investors back in 2018. Earlier this year, it launched 401(k) retirement offerings for corporate clients.
JPMorgan & Ownera
JPMorgan, along with private asset management firm LRC Group, has participated in a $20 million round for tokenized asset infrastructure startup Ownera.
Ownera, an open source protocol that supports security tokenization on either public or private blockchain, plans to connect tokenized platforms and traditional financial companies.
Last year, JPMorgan became one of the first major US banks to offer crypto trading to its clients. The company started giving its wealth management clients access to cryptocurrency funds and raised about $45 million to offer the service through two different funds.
KKR & Securitize
Securitize, a San Francisco-based securities firm, has become the first company to offer tokenized exposure to a global investment fund, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., or KKR.
The Securitize Fund is managed by Securitize’s digital asset management arm, Securitize Capital, which will provide exposure to KKR’s Health Care Strategic Growth Fund II (“HCSG II”) using the Avalanche public blockchain.
The digital asset security platform leverages blockchain to raise capital, issue tokenized assets, onboard investors and offer secondary trading.
Dan Parant, managing director and co-head of US Private Wealth at KKR, explains the global fund’s desire to try blockchain: “With its ability to digitize operational inefficiencies and increase ease of use for individual investors, blockchain technology has the potential to play an important role in the future of private markets.”
EDX Markets
A marketplace EDXM backed by financial industry giants such as Fidelity Digital Assets, Charles Schwab, Sequoia Capital, Citadel Securities and Virtu Financial has become fully operational.
EDXM is a platform that supports the trading of digital assets through trusted intermediaries available to US individuals and institutional investors. The platform will be powered by MEMX technology, a customer-centric marketplace operator founded in 2019.
The representatives of the platform say they have big plans for EDXM’s future, with other significant players joining the board shortly.
We look forward to welcoming more participants to the exchange, who will drive ongoing trading in this important asset class while creating a virtuous cycle of continuously improved liquidity and efficiency supported by MEMX’s technology,” said CEO of EDX Markets Jamil Nazarali.
Web3 is also supported
But it’s not just trading platforms and digital asset services that are getting funding right now. According to the latest DappRadar report, metaverse and web3 gaming projects have raised $748 million in investment since August from investment giants such as Temasek.
“The amount of investment shows that despite the challenging and uncertain conditions in the digital asset markets, large investment entities remain positive about the GameFi industry,” the DappRadar report said.
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