Today, blockchain infrastructure company Paxos closed a $300 million Series D round of funding, one of the largest ever among cryptocurrency and blockchain startups
New Raise Is To Help Scale Operations
Paxos, a major cryptocurrency corporation and PayPal’s crypto partner, has completed a huge fundraising round shortly after securing tentative approval to join a national trust bank.
On Thursday, the company reported a new $300-million Series D funding round taking Paxos’ valuation to $2.4 billion. PayPal Ventures, Declaration Partners, Mithril Capital, Senator Investment Group, Liberty City Ventures, WestCap, and other previous Paxos investors participated in the new funding round.
Paxos will use the newly raised funds to continue investing in enterprise-grade infrastructure, expand operations, and strengthen its commitment to regulation, security, and enforcement.
Paxos also intends to create the Paxos National Trust Bank in the near future, following preliminary approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency last week. The business has also applied to the Securities and Exchange Commission for a clearing agency registration and is seeking a Major Payment Institution license in Singapore.
We're thrilled to announce – we've raised $300M in our Series D with a valuation of $2.4 billion, making us one of the fastest growing fintech startups in the world. Read more here: https://t.co/nAQvt8GkwB
— Paxos (@PaxosGlobal) April 29, 2021
Related article | Paxos Grills Customer for Using a Bitcoin Mixing Service
Charles Cascarilla, co-founder and CEO of Paxos, said that demand for the company’s enterprise solutions has increased above the company’s projections.
In an interview with The Block, Carscarilla cited the company’s existing performance and opportunities as to why it’s raising more money now. It’s not so much price-based, but rather tied to the number of inbounds it is getting from large potential clients. The firm—known for powering the crypto trading offering for PayPal and Venmo—has several similarly sized clients it is engaging with seriously, according to Cascarilla, who cut his teeth as a hedge fund executive during the financial crisis.
“We want to be able to invest in the team and the platform” he said. “Those clients want to make sure we are well-capitalized. These are the things we want to take advantage of in that window of opportunity.”
“We want to transform as many assets as possible and re-platform them into the blockchain-based world,” he added.
Paxos, which was established in 2012, is a major industry player that allows users to tokenize, ownership, exchange, and settle digital assets. Paxos has released stablecoins such as Paxos Standard, which is pegged to the US dollar, and PAX Gold, which is backed by gold.
PayPal partnered with Paxos last year to enable users to buy, sell, and keep cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), Ether, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin. Paxos also aided PayPal-owned payments company Venmo in its recent introduction of cryptocurrency trading.
Paxos announced in October that it would power the back-end of PayPal’s crypto offering, providing the liquidity and regulatory capabilities for crypto buys and sells. While Paxos’ native exchange itBit has sat on the lower end of crypto exchange rankings, it has seen significant growth since it stuck the deal. And new deals could lead to further growth.
Related article | PayPal Forays into Crypto Market as Bitcoin Price Explodes Past $12,400
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