Blockchain.comslatest funding round has reportedly cut its valuation by more than half. <\/p>\n
The cryptocurrency exchangeannouncedTuesday (Nov. 14) that it had raised $110 million in a Series E round led by Kingsway Capital. Areportby Bloomberg News citing a source familiar with the matter says the new financing values Blockchain.com at under half of the$14 billionit reached last year. <\/p>\n
That was before a downturn in the crypto market left the company and others like it on shaky ground. Blockchain.com announced in July of last year that it was letting go of 150 people a number that amounted to aquarter of its staff. <\/p>\n
Those layoffs followed the companys $270 million loss to Three Arrows Capital, a crypto hedge fund that had an estimated $10 billion in assets and made a number of extremely risky bets on decentralized finance projects such as the Terra\/LUNA algorithmic stablecoin. <\/p>\n
The company cut another28% of its workforceearlier this year, joining a number of other crypto firms in shrinking their staffing levels. <\/p>\n
The crypto ecosystem is facing significant headwinds as its course corrects from the challenges of the last year, Blockchain.com said in an email to Coindesk in January. To better balance product offerings with demand, weve made the difficult decision to reduce operating costs and headcount to rightsize the company. <\/p>\n
The Bloomberg report notes that the companys new funding round is a sign that investors have gained more confidence in the crypto sector, asbitcoins price has risenin anticipation that exchange-traded funds investing in the currency will be approved. <\/p>\n
However, a recent research report by JPMorgan Chasequestions the excitementabout the possible approval of spot bitcoin ETFs. <\/p>\n
The enthusiasm is based on the idea that the approval would both draw new investors to the crypto markets, and would soften the attitude of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) attitude toward digital currencies. <\/p>\n
But JPMorgan analysts wrote that they are skeptical about both arguments, predicting that its more likely that existing money will move from current bitcoin products into ETFs rather than new investors jumping on the crypto bandwagon. <\/p>\n
And while the SEC has suffered somerecent courtroom losses, it is far from clear that the regulatory tightening of the crypto industry will lessen significantly going forward given how unregulated this industry is, the report said. <\/p>\n
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Report: Blockchain.com Funding Round Cuts Valuation in Half - PYMNTS.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Blockchain.comslatest funding round has reportedly cut its valuation by more than half. Continue reading