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Coinbase competitor Blockchain.com raises $300 million in crypto funding frenzy

Just one month removed from a $120 million dollar financing round, London-based cryptocurrency giant Blockchain.com announced Wednesday it raised another $300 million to reach a $5.2 billion post-money valuation.

The Series C funding round comes as the 10-year-old crypto company reported hitting 31 million verified users across 200 countries. Blockchain.com CEO Peter Smith said the company has been able to raise $1.5 billion since its founding as institutional interest continues to swell with bitcoin holding above $50,000.

"In the last 12 months, between debt and equity, we've raised over $1.5 billion," he told Yahoo Finance Live. "I think that's really driven by the fact that experienced and sophisticated investors are seeing for the first time not just consumers in the crypto market, but institutions as well. And when they see a business like ours that's profitable on both the consumer basis as well as on the institutional basis as well as profitable overall they want to be a part of that growth story."

The company, which originally launched as a block explorer for users to view public transactions, now offers other services beyond its popular open-source wallet for customers to trade and store cryptocurrencies. The company has grown to add financial services like credit and structured products. Smith highlighted that part of the business focused on offerings for institutional investors as an area of personal focus.

Blockchain Co-Founder & CEO Peter Smith speaks during the Web Summit 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal on November 6, 2018. (Photo by Pedro Fiúza/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Blockchain Co-Founder & CEO Peter Smith speaks during the Web Summit 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal on November 6, 2018. (Photo by Pedro Fiúza/NurPhoto via Getty Images) (NurPhoto via Getty Images)

"I'm spending a lot of time with clients trying to figure out what they are going to need over the next two or three years to become long-term, active participants in the crypto market," he said.

Blockchain.com now has another $300 million to work with to build out those offerings, but that new capital hasn't caused Smith to rule out an expedited route to follow competitor Coinbase to the public market.

"We haven't needed to raise capital in quite a while because the business is very profitable, but we continue to be very active about thinking about the best way to position the company for long-term success," Smith said. "And that may involve going public soon."

Blockchain.com's funding round follows other recent large deals in the crypto space, including the $350 million crypto digital exchange and banking platform BlockFi was able to raise earlier this year in its Series D.

Zack Guzman is an anchor for Yahoo Finance Live as well as a senior writer covering entrepreneurship, cannabis, cryptocurrency, and breaking news at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @zGuz.

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