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Chainalysis, the crypto-currency transaction badysis startup, raised $ 30 million in Series B funds.
The company will use part of its funding to open a new office in London and a research and development lab to strengthen its presence in the UK, where it has worked closely with groups like Barclays, High Street Bank. The funding cycle suggests that investors are still investing in companies in the sector despite the protracted bear market for cryptocurrencies.
The series, led by veteran venture capital firm Accel, included additional investments from Benchmark, which led Chainalysis to $ 16 million from Series A last April. Accel's investment was led by Amit Kumar and Philippe Botteri, who would represent Accel on Chainalysis's board of directors.
Michael Gronager, CEO and co-founder of Chainalysis, said the investment showed a continued interest in a long-term bet on the fundamentals of the emerging crypto ecosystem, telling CoinDesk:
"The investment and the timing show that, despite price fluctuations, some very large venture capitalists are firmly convinced that this is not a short-term game."
The London call
Although companies are worried about the Brexit – the imminent departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union – Gronager emphasized the importance of London as a hub of financial technologies. Chainalysis currently employs over 100 people and has offices in New York, Washington and Copenhagen.
In addition to opening a new office in London, Chainalysis will also explore research partnerships and collaborations with London-based universities, which, according to Gronager, pave the way in some areas of cryptocurrency research.
When asked if it meant University College London (UCL) or Imperial College, he replied, "We did not choose a camp here. We are happy to work with everyone.
Chainalysis' long-standing relationship with Barclays has been an important driver at the beginning of the crypto space, helping to establish a bank account for Circle, for example.
Gronager said middle and upper-tier banks increasingly wanted to work with cryptographic companies, such as stock exchanges (the banking relationship between Barclays and Coinbase is often cited in this regard).
Although it's not named, Gronager says: "There are big banks outside the UK that want to establish banking relationships with cryptographic exchanges, essentially following the same procedure as Barclays."
Do you stablecoin
After launching the real-time AML software Chainalysis KYT ("Know Your Transaction") last year, the Chainalysis team has expanded this field beyond bitcoin, ether and other applications. the litecoin to encompbad the growing trend to stablecoins, or tokens linked in such currencies as the US dollar.
Gronager said that while stable coins do not pose a problem in the same way as the OIC tokens to regulators, concerns remain about the exact destination of stable coins, and namely, whether there is appropriate regulatory oversight.
Chainalysis has progressed rapidly to support different stablecoins, said Gronager, so that providers can properly monitor and show this to regulators, adding,
"We expect this to create a clearer focus on how to regulate them," he told CoinDesk. "Thus, in addition to being able to use them to settle cryptographic exchanges, they can also be used to transfer funds around the world."
Dollar image via Shutterstock
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