Blockchain.com: 2022 CNBC Disruptor 50

Founders: Peter Smith (CEO), Nic Cary, Ben Reeves
Launched: 2011
Headquarters: Remote control first
Financing: NOW
Valuation: $ 14 billion
Key technologies: Blockchain, decentralized finance (DeFi)
Industry: Fintech
Previous appearances on Disruptor 50 List: 0

Blockchain.com claims to be responsible for about a third of all bitcoin network transactions since 2012. It is best known for its digital wallets, which are used to store cryptocurrencies, but have recently jumped into trading with their own virtual currency exchange. The company derives its name from the eponymous blockchain network that records all bitcoin transactions.

With 37 million verified users in more than 200 countries, 82 million wallets and over $ 1 trillion in platform transactions, the company raised significant capital in 2021, a record year of risk financing. A $ 120 million early 2021 deal – which included Alphabet venture arm GV, early Spotify supporter Lakestar and hedge fund investors Louis Bacon and Kyle Bass – valued the firm at $ 3 billion. It was followed by a $ 300 million deal in March last year that included DST Global Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners and VY Capital, and a $ 100 million investment from Scottish investment giant Baillie Gifford as early as next month, the asset manager’s biggest crypto game and the biggest single. investment ever made in Blockchain.com.

It has also attracted the support of billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson.

As a direct competitor to Coinbase – in which Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood has a remarkable stake – the battle between private valuations and stock market declines has unfolded publicly and between these two crypto companies. The investor recently took a swipe at Blockchain.com and said that their valuation makes “no sense” with a tripling in the last year.

Co-founder Nicolas Cary hit back at Wood and told CNBC “there is definitely a difference between private markets and public markets, and Cathie’s position has taken a pretty big haircut.”

“Our company’s appreciation has tripled, and it was in the context of a global pandemic, a collapse in technology stocks and a land war that broke out in Europe,” he added.

Cary says that Blockchain.com is taking a “patient approach” to being listed and that it is currently “well capitalized.”

It must be patient with a public market that has penalized all fintech deals related to cryptocurrencies that were recently listed, from Coinbase to Robinhood, and the price of ever-volatile bitcoin under selling pressure this year.

It also competes with privately owned peers FTX and Crypto.com.

“Technical stocks have obviously taken a hit, Cathie’s positions are down everywhere, we’ll take our time with that. We need to see the crypto markets in a way better understood by the public markets,” he said.

In the meantime, the company has used its financing to make a number of acquisitions, including further expansion into a Latin American market where there are 200 million unbanked individuals and where it has already been active in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico. It made its largest acquisition ever for the Argentine-based crypto company SeSocio, setting up its first physical operation and staffing in the region. It has also made a number of agreements to strengthen retail and institutional offerings, including the machine learning company Magic Carpet, the consumer startup Storm and the AI ​​company AiX; and funded activity on the bitcoin mining side of the sector, offering a $ 525 million credit facility to Ohio-based bitcoin mining company GRIID in late 2021.