Unchained Capital raises $60M to expand its bitcoin financial services

Austin, Texas-based Unchained Capital Inc. today announced it has raised $60 million in fresh funding to expand its financial services for bitcoin holders during what have been chaotic markets.

The Series B funding round was led by Valor Equity Partners, known for early investments in SpaceX and Tesla. The round closed earlier in April with participation from existing investors including NYDIG, Trammell Venture Partners, Ecliptic Capital and Highland Capital Partners. It builds on $15 million raised by the company in the fall of last year led by Ten31.

Unchained Capital uses what is called a “collaborative custody” model for bitcoin holders to store their cryptocurrency. The company’s solution uses an underlying technology in bitcoin that allows multiple parties to maintain private keys and share control of bitcoin holdings between themselves, Unchained or other financial companies.

The technology uses a multisignature concept that essentially requires more than one party to agree to move cryptocurrency before anything can happen. Unchained and any other financial institution cannot act on held cryptocurrency without the say-so of the other signatory, which helps eliminate dangers such as theft or loss of keys, but also prevents anything from happening to holdings if anything happens to one of the signatories.

The recent collapse and bankruptcy of crypto exchange FTX Trading Ltd. and other centralized crypto companies have proved that keeping cryptocurrency with companies can lead to the loss of tokens. However, if they are signed by multiple parties, it reduces the risk that they can be simply moved or used without permission — or that someone simply runs off with them.

The company claims to secure more than $2 billion in bitcoin assets across thousands of keys around the world. Among its financial services, it provides bitcoin-collateralized loans and has originated more than $500 million in lending since 2017, with zero losses. The company also offers a trading desk for clients to buy bitcoin directly into cold storage (a multisignature vault) and it also has an individual retirement account offering that permits clients to hold keys to bitcoin within tax-advantaged accounts.

“In the midst of market chaos, Unchained has emerged as a highly trusted provider of bitcoin custody and financial services through superior technology, risk management, regulatory compliance, and client service,” said Vivek Pattipati, a partner at Valor. “Particularly in lending, the company has differentiated itself by minimizing risk to both the lender and the borrower, leading to resilience and an extraordinary opportunity to capture market share.”

Unchained plans to use the funds to grow its client base and expand its product offerings, especially as bitcoin given bitcoin’s recent market turmoil. Chief Executive Joe Kelly said the funds will go toward doubling down on the product suite and tackling long-requested features, upgrades, security features and quality-of-life enhancements.

Some of the funds will also be used to tap into the growing adoption of bitcoin, with an eye on how people exchange bitcoin for dollars. In light of this, Unchained Capital intends to begin offering dollar-focused products such as checking accounts and credit cards.

“Using this fresh capital investment to expand our reach and suite of services,” said Kelly, “we hope to enable new entrants to bitcoin to leapfrog centralized custodians into our safer collaborative custody model.”

Image: Pixabay