Swiss Crypto Unicorn 21.Co Sees Valuation Hit $2B After Funding Round

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Swiss invest­ment firm 21.co has raised £25 mil­lion in its lat­est fund­ing round, valu­ing the com­pa­ny at $2 billion.

21.co is the par­ent com­pa­ny of 21Shares, arguably best known for its failed attempts to bring a Bit­coin spot ETF to the U.S. The com­pa­ny is high­ly suc­cess­ful when the Secu­ri­ties and Exchange Com­mis­sion (SEC) is not curb­ing its ambi­tions; the firm acquired over $650 mil­lion in new assets over the past year.

In May 2021 Cathie Wood, of Ark Invest­ments, joined the board of Amun, the pre­vi­ous name for the par­ent com­pa­ny of 21Shares.

Swiss money pot

With anoth­er £25 mil­lion of work­ing cap­i­tal to play with, 21.co can now look ahead to build­ing for the future and dri­ving growth. The com­pa­ny is now “largest cryp­to uni­corn” in Switzer­land, and has the war chest to match.

“With this round of financ­ing, 21.co will con­tin­ue to dri­ve rapid, tar­get­ed growth through first-of-their-kind prod­ucts, key mar­ket expan­sions and strate­gic tal­ent acqui­si­tions,” said the com­pa­ny in a state­ment report­ed by Reuters.

21.co has made sig­nif­i­cant invest­ment in tal­ent since Sept of last year, with the com­pa­ny head­count grow­ing by 75%. Major addi­tions to the firm include Sherif El-Had­dad, who leads the Mid­dle East team from out of Dubai. With addi­tion­al cap­i­tal to play with the firm can now redou­ble its recruit­ment drive.

Collab+Currency, Qui­et Ven­tures, ETFS Cap­i­tal and Val­or Equi­ty Part­ners were among the investors who par­tic­i­pat­ed in the lat­est raise led by Mar­shall Wace.

21Shares end­ed 2021 with “nine-fig­ure rev­enue run rate” that made the com­pa­ny extreme­ly attrac­tive to inward invest­ment. Assets under man­age­ment peaked in Nov 2021 at just over $3 billion.

Troubling times with SEC

21Shares has enjoyed a high­ly suc­cess­ful 12-month peri­od, but it hasn’t all been clear sail­ing for the firm. In Feb, the U.S. Secu­ri­ties and Exchange Com­mis­sion (SEC) reject­ed its pro­pos­al for a Bit­coin spot ETF which it made in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Cathie Wood’s Ark Investments.

The SEC cit­ed a lack of ade­quate investor pro­tec­tion as the rea­son for its rejection.

The 21Shares/Ark Invest­ment ETF finds itself in good com­pa­ny. The SEC has also reject­ed BTC spot ETFs for Wis­domTree, One Riv­er Asset Man­age­ment, VanEck, NYDIG, and Fidelity.

Hes­tor Pierce, for­mer coun­sel to the SEC Com­mis­sion­er Hes­ter Pierce, summed up the sit­u­a­tion suc­cinct­ly in an episode of the Unchained Pod­cast in May when he said, “It’s a source of great frus­tra­tion for folks in the indus­try and for me personally.”

In March, Grayscale CEO Michael Son­nen­shein went fur­ther, sug­gest­ing he may yet bring a law­suit against the SEC should ETF rejec­tions continue.

Swiss crypto hub

21.co is now at the van­guard of the Swiss cryp­tocur­ren­cy indus­try, which itself is one of the major glob­al hubs for the sector.

In Feb 2021 the coun­try passed a blockchain law with the aim of pro­vid­ing a clear reg­u­la­to­ry frame­work for the indus­try. It is esti­mat­ed there are around 960 cryp­to start-ups in the coun­try, with almost half of those locat­ed in the pic­turesque town of Zug – dubbed “Cryp­to Valley.”

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