blockster.com
According to apress release, Anchorage's recent funding round is the first time that KKR will be investing in a crypto company. The equity investment was made via its Next Generation Technology Growth Fund II.
Other participants in the Series D funding include Alameda Research, PayPal, BlackRock, Alameda Research, Delta Blockchain Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, GoldenTree Asset Management, Kraken, and Blockchain Capital, among other companies.
Anchorage stated that the newly injected capital will be used to boost infrastructure, while also expanding its team and product offerings. The digital asset bank boasts of a series of milestones in 2021, part of which includes a headcount growth of 175% in the year.
The crypto custodian earlier in February raised $80 million in a Series C funding round led by Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC. Blockchain Capital, Indico, a16z, and Lux also participated in the funding round.
Commenting on the latest development was the company's co-founder and president, Diogo Monica, who said:
The KKR Senior Leader on Technology Growth Equity team, Ben Pederson, in a statement, said:
Back in January, Anchorage received a federal banking charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), making it the first U.S.-based national crypto bank. The company initially began operations as a digital asset custodian in 2017.
Meanwhile, part of Anchorage's aim is to support increased interest in cryptocurrency by corporations and institutional giants. According to a statement during the announcement of the completion of its Series C funding round, Anchorage said:
Furthermore, Anchorage facilitated Visa's purchase of one of the most well-known non-fungible token ($NFT) series, CryptoPunk 7610, in August. The global payments company bought the $NFT at the time for nearly $150,000 worth of ETH. Interestingly, the purchase was Visa's first foray into the $NFT sector.