Blockchain analyst firm Elementus is now worth $160 million
Max Galka is the CEO of Elementus, a blockchain analytics firm. Courtesy of Elementus
The sudden collapse of FTX, Celsius, BlockFi and other major crypto firms in 2022 has led skeptics to declare the death of crypto. But amid the rubble, other blockchain companies are quietly expanding.
These include Elementus, a blockchain analytics firm founded in 2018, which announced on Monday that it has raised $10 million in a new funding round led by ParaFi Capital. The new round values the company at $160 million – up from its last valuation of $52 million – with Moonshots Capital, Spitfire Ventures and Colaco Investment Group among the other investors.
“Blockchain technology is at something of an inflection point right now with all the turmoil that happened last year,” said Max Galka, CEO of Elementus, Fortune. “We really want to be one of the companies that help define the next iteration of blockchain, increase the level of sophistication and make it available to a wider and wider group.”
The growth of Elementus reflects a broader interest among investors in companies working deep in the trenches of blockchain, as opposed to flashy projects like new cryptocurrency exchanges. “We believe there are significant value creation opportunities in the data and infrastructure layer of blockchain,” said Ryan Navi, principal at ParaFi Capital, in a press release announcing Elementus’ new capital injection.
Elementus, which doubled its staff from 12 to 24 by 2022, says past clients include consulting giant Deloitte and the Ministry of Defence. Recently, the research firm has begun working for the legal entities representing unsecured creditors in the bankruptcies of Celsius, a crypto lender that owes its customers more than $4.7 billion, and BlockFi, another crypto lender that quickly crumbled after FTX’s collapse.
Galka, the CEO of Elementus who was once a derivatives trader at Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, was careful not to reveal too much about the company’s work for the unsecured creditors. However, he said that Elementus is conducting forensic investigations, mapping the flow of the bankrupt firms’ funds as well as the current whereabouts of the firms’ crypto assets.
In December 2022, Elementus charged more than $400,000 in fees and reimbursements for its analytics services in the Celsius bankruptcy, according to recent court documents.
“These are very important issues that we are working on and we take this very seriously,” Galka said Fortune. He emphasized, however, that analyzing the transactions of high-profile bankrupt companies is not the core of Elementus’ business. “We’re a software company, and that’s really the core of our focus,” he said. “Although in the short term these other deals occupy an outsized portion of our collective headspace.”
Other blockchain analytics and infrastructure firms that have received funding recently include Sovereign Labs, which is working on a developer interface service and which announced a seed round last Monday from Haun Ventures. Blockstream and QuickNode also announced recent cash flows.
