Global financial services provider, Goldman Sachs, has recently backed a series A funding round for blockchain infrastructure firm Blockdaemon, which raised $28 million. Goldman Sachs invested $5 million in this round that was spearheaded by Greenspring Associates. The process also included the participation of crypto lending firm BlockFi, and crypto-asset broker Voyager Digital Ltd.
Goldman Sachs has appeared on multiple occasions previously paying attention to crypto and other digital assets. In May, the bank led a $15 million investment round for a blockchain analytics firm Coin Metrics. It also launched Bitcoin derivatives trading for its institutional clients in the same month.
Blockdaemon is a blockchain node infrastructure service provider for institutional clients including Goldman Sachs. According to the firm, it has averaged more than $5billion in staked assets over the past 12 months and aims to hit $50 billion by the end of this year.
The company offers exposure for institutional clients to various blockchain networks including ETH 2.0, Bitcoin, Polkadot. It also introduces its clients to a variety of protocols such as Dfinity and Near through the Blockdaemon marketplace.
On June 8, Blockdaemon revealed that it plans to expand node infrastructure services and hire new staff members and developers with the raised funds. The head of digital assets at Goldman Sachs in North America, Oli Harris, highlighted:
“We are excited to join them as they continue to provide institutional-grade blockchain technology to all that want to leverage it.”
Although Goldman Sachs has warmed up the crypto space through its continued investments and expanded services, the bank has taken an ambiguous approach to crypto in the media on several occasions.
Reports emerged on June 08 that Goldman Sachs had published a survey suggesting that Bitcoin was the least favorite investment asset among 25 CIOs from different Asian hedge funds. Earlier this month, the global head of commodities research at Goldman Sachs, Jeff Currie, shot down assertions of Bitcoin being “digital-gold” after describing the crypto as a “risk-on” asset similar to copper.
While in May, Goldman Sachs analyst Will Nance reportedly suggested that investing in Coinbase would be the best option to gain exposure to the crypto market and avoid its volatility amid the latest crypto crash.
