In This Article:
Key Insights:
-
Goldman Sachs and Barclays invested in a $70 million funding round for Elwood Technologies.
-
The crypto trading platform’s CEO said the investment marks “another validation of the longevity of crypto.”
-
The success of the funding round comes despite the recent crypto market turmoil.
Two of the world’s major investment banks just made a big investment in cryptocurrency trading platform Elwood Technologies, The Financial Times reported on Sunday.
US banking giant Goldman Sachs and British powerhouse Barclays participated in a $70 million funding round alongside venture capitalist (VC) Dawn Capital and the VC divisions of Germany’s Commerzbank and US crypto billionaire Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital.
The funding round valued Elwood at around $500 million and marked the first time that Elwood Technologies has sourced outside financing.
Similar to Bloomberg’s terminal
Elwood Technologies was founded by British hedge fund billionaire Alan Howard with the initial aim of managing his personal fortune of digital assets.
Since 2020, Elwood has pivoted from being asset management focused to selling market data, trading infrastructure and asset management software to clients who want to invest in digital assets.
According to The Financial Times, the company’s CEO Strickland said that they provide a tech platform similar to Bloomberg’s widely used terminal and BlackRock’s portfolio management system “Aladdin.”
A bullish sign for crypto
Elwood Technologies CEO James Strickland told the Financial Times that the success of the latest funding round, which comes despite the recent turmoil in crypto markets, is “another validation of the longevity of crypto.”
“We’re getting investment from financial institutions that aren’t expecting to get massive returns in 15 minutes,” he continued, adding that “I think it’s a reassurance message.”
Meanwhile, “as institutional demand for cryptocurrency rises, we have been actively broadening our market presence and capabilities to cater for client demand,” noted Goldman Sachs’ global head of digital assets Mathew McDermott. He said the latest investment in Elwood demonstrated the bank’s “continued commitment” to the digital asset space.
Crypto analysts framed the latest news as another bullish sign for the long-term mainstream adoption of crypto and digital assets.
Cryptocurrency markets have been volatile in recent weeks. Since the start of April, the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies has fallen from over $2.1 trillion to under $1.3 trillion, a nearly 40% decline, with almost 20% of that coming just this week, at the time of writing.