Share this article
Bitcoin and Ether Lender BlockFi Raises $18.3 Million Series A
Winklevoss Capital, Galaxy Digital, and ConsenSys funded the crypto lender's latest round.
Updated Sep 13, 2021, 11:17 a.m. Published Aug 6, 2019, 1:00 p.m.
Crypto lending startup BlockFi received $18.3 million in a Series A funding round led by Valar Ventures, the company announced Tuesday.
Valar, which was founded in part by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, was joined by Winklevoss Capital, Galaxy Digital, ConsenSys, Akuna Capital, Susquehanna, CMT Digital, Morgan Creek, Avon Ventures and PJC. Valar's investment was its first in the cryptocurrency industry following prior investments in other fintech firms like Transferwise, a press release said.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
According to a company statement, BlockFi plans on using the capital for additions to its product line up. The firm’s premier product, yield-bearing bitcoin deposits, launched in March. Besides deposits, BlockFi offers cryptocurrency-backed loans.
Speaking on participating in the Series A closure, Valar general partner James Fitzgerald said BlockFi’s product is bringing cryptocurrency mainstream.
“We are excited to help BlockFi build robust 'picks and shovels' for this emerging asset class," he said.
The Series A funding round comes five months after the launch of its bitcoin yield-bearing loans.
Image via BlockFi
Riding on the backs of a promised 6.2 percent interest rate, the product garnered $25 million in deposits after its March 5 launch. By late April, over $50 million was deposited in BlockFi’s interest-bearing accounts.
The market-topping rate was cut for larger accounts that same month, however. Accounts with deposits over 25 bitcoins or 500 ether had rates reduced to 2 percent annual yield.
BlockFi CEO Zack Prince via CoinDesk archives
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Coinbase Sees Crypto Recovery Ahead as Liquidity Improves and Fed Rate Cut Odds Climb
The crypto exchange also took note of a so-called AI bubble that continues to go strong and a weaker U.S. dollar.
What to know:
- Coinbase Institutional is seeing a potential December recovery in crypto, citing improving liquidity and a shift in macroeconomic conditions that could favor risk assets like bitcoin.
- The firm's optimism is driven by rising odds of Federal Reserve rate cuts, with markets pricing in a 93% chance easing next week, and improving liquidity conditions.
- Several recent institutional developments, including Vanguard's crypto ETF policy reversal and Bank of America's greenlighting of crypto allocations, have contributed to bitcoin's rebound from recent lows.
Top Stories
