Crypto-focused venture capital firm Polychain Capital has led a seed financing round for Altonomy, a Singapore-based crypto market maker, to raise $7 million.
According to a Forbes' report published on Monday, the company will use the raised capital to bolster its trading services targeted to investors and also expand its international presence.
“We focus on institutional investors of all sizes that have a need for Liquidity , either through OTC or exchange-based transactions, on a wide range of crypto assets with varying market cap sizes,” Ricky Li, co-founder of the company, told the publication.
Targeting institutions
With the rebound in crypto prices, the interest of institutions in the crypto market was also boosted. Many players are now only focusing on lucrative institutional clients.
“Recently, we have started to witness flows from previously-exited funds and family offices that are now re-entering market. We have also seen a considerable uptick in the number of institutions starting to purchase BTC as their first entry of crypto market, having remained on the sidelines during the recent bear market period,” Li added.
Launched in 2018, the liquidity provider has made a mark on the cryptocurrency industry. The company already worked with around 60 cryptocurrency exchanges, over-the-counter (OTC) desks, and Stablecoin providers including USDC, Tether, and TrueUSD.
Commenting on the demand for Bitcoin futures in the market, Li said: “CME is certainly leading the regulated bitcoin futures contract trading market, despite rising competition from ErisX, Bakkt, TrueDigital, etc. Its robust infrastructure, wide customer base and first mover advantage all attributes of its success.”
“Other exchanges, like Bitmex, Okex and Huobi DM are attracting more retail investors for speculative investing. They have all rolled out market maker programs to attract institutional liquidity, with Altonomy contributing to those programs as well.”
Though headquartered in Singapore, Altonomy has already opened a branch in New York and is planning to open a new office in Shenzhen to lure crypto miners on the platform.
Founded in 2016, Polychain Capitals quickly grabbed headlines as it was founded by Olaf Carlson-Wee, one of the first employees of Silicon Valley-based Coinbase.
Last year, Polychain became the first crypto-linked fund with more than $1 billion in assets under management. However, its portfolio was hit by the dominating bear in the market and dropped by 40 percent to $594.5 million earlier this year.
