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Digital Currency Exchange ShapeShift Raises $ten.4 Million Series A

Digital currency exchange startup�ShapeShift has closed a $10.4m Series A.

Led by Berlin-based Earlybird Venture Capital, the round incorporated participation from Lakestar, Blockchain Capital, Pantera Capital and Access Venture Partners, the firm stated these days.�Existing ShapeShift backers, like FundersClub, Digital Currency Group and Erik Voorhees (the companys founder and CEO) also�took element in the round.

The fresh capital will be utilised to increase the exchanges engineering crew, a move that would come ahead of two exchange-related items set to be released later this yr.

In interview, Voorhees mentioned that many of people hires would come on the engineering side, the two in preparation of those launches as effectively as an anticipate rise in volume. In accordance to ShapeShift, platform growth has averaged 48% per month in the last three years, seeing an regular month-to-month trade volume of about 50,000 bitcoins spread across 40 digital currencies and assets.

Despite the fact that tight-lipped about the precise nature of long term ShapeShift merchandise, Voorhees�indicated that each had been new sorts of exchange, 1 built fully close to wise contracts.

Much more broadly, Voorhees spoke to the exchanges�clear vision of the prospective diversity of cryptocurrency tokens, which was much less well understood by the sector in 2014.

He informed CoinDesk:

"What we noticed when we began was that tokens had been going to grow to be a widespread phenomenon. We believed there would be blockchain tokens representing all kinds of value past currency, and thats grow to be increasingly true, which is why ShapeShifts frictionless exchange is crucial."

Voorhees also stated that ShapeShifts policy of not holding any consumer assets or other particulars aided to give self-assurance that the impact of any hacks or other breaches would be minimum.

"We take buyer protection to a new level by not endangering them in the very first place," he said. "In the hack we suffered a 12 months ago, it was the very first exchange hack where customers werent at chance either in money or individual details."

The funding coincides with a broader uptick in interest for option cryptocurrencies, with this industry going through a latest boom�some suggest is a indicator it is building into a new asset class.

Disclosure:�CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership stake in ShapeShift.�

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Published at Wed, 29 Mar 2017 05:48:39 +0000