Despite its bear market, venture capitalists are still finding plenty of reasons, and money, to pour into the cryptocurrency industry. Smart securities Blockchain startup Symbiont today announced a $20 million Series B funding round, led by Nasdaq Ventures.
This bodes well for the future of the New York-based-based platform as Nasdaq plans to make a grand entry into the crypto landscape. Symbiont already works with Nasdaq to develop a new platform dedicated to enabling startups or new projects to offers regulated security tokens in compliance with US law.
Symbiont plans to use the funding to finance its strategic growth initiatives, including accelerating product innovation and increasing hiring.
The startup is an offshoot of Counterparty, a protocol designed to support the decentralized transfer of assets by leveraging Bitcoin ’s blockchain.
Wall Street Warms to Crypto
Nasdaq is looking to offer a future contract that is different from what Cboe and CME Group are offering now. One way Nasdaq seeks to differentiate itself and pit against the two bigger competitors seems to be in the amount of data it uses for pricing the digital currency contracts.
Nasdaq, which is a comparatively small player in the futures market, would base its price off of 50 bitcoin sources from around the world, while CBOE is currently using one and the CME is using four.
The news is noteworthy as the second-largest exchange in the world is already supporting existing crypto exchanges which lends more credence to that notion. Further, the Nasdaq-powered exchange, DX Exchange, went on a marketing blitz and managed to onboard 500,000 registered users.
Also earlier last year, Nasdaq hosted a meeting in Chicago where about half a dozen cryptocurrency and mainstream companies discussed ‘how to encourage the cryptocurrency industry to do [a] thing that will improve its image and validate its potential role in global markets.’
Nasdaq has already collaborated with cryptocurrency exchange Gemini to tap its SMARTS Market Surveillance, an industry benchmark technology used across Wall Street, to add more security and identify criminal trading behavior in its venue. It also partnered with San Diego based ETF firm, Reality Shares, to launch two blockchain-related funds.
