Blockchain.com has announced that it has raised a $120 million funding round. The company develops a popular cryptocurrency wallet as well as an exchange, an explorer and more.
Moore Strategic Ventures, Kyle Bass, Access Industries, Rovida Advisors, Lightspeed Venture Partners, GV, Lakestar, Eldridge and other unnamed investors participated in today’s funding round. Overall, the company has raised more than $190 million since its creation.
Originally named Blockchain.info, the company started off as a blockchain explorer. An explorer lets you enter the hash of any transaction that occurs on the bitcoin blockchain to get more information about the amount, fees, number of confirmations as well as the wallet addresses of the sender and the receiver. Over time, explorers started adding support for more blockchains and more types of data.
Blockchain.com then built an open-source bitcoin wallet — it now supports more cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. The company’s wallet is a noncustodial wallet, which means that you’re in control of your private keys. Other noncustodial wallets include Coinbase Wallet, Argent, ZenGo, etc.
Many crypto users choose to buy bitcoins on an exchange and leave them on the exchange account. In that case, you don’t control the wallet as the exchange takes care of keeping your crypto assets safe for you. Custodial wallets include Coinbase.com, Binance, Kraken, etc.
There are some advantages and disadvantages with each solution. If an exchange gets hacked or somebody gets your login information through phishing, your assets aren’t safe on a custodial wallet.
If you lose your private key, you can’t access your noncustodial wallet. Blockchain.com and other noncustodial wallet providers have found ways to mitigate the risk of losing access to your wallet by backing up some information.
More recently, Blockchain.com has launched its own exchange so that wallet users can trade assets more easily. It now also offers services to institutional investors so that they can get started with cryptocurrencies. Services include order executions, custody, lending, OTC transactions, etc.
Blockchain.com has also shared some metrics. People have created 65 million wallets on the company’s website or using the mobile apps. Since 2012, 28% of bitcoin transactions have been sent or received by a Blockchain.com-managed wallet.