The depths of a bear market may not be the best time to raise funds, but that’s exactly what Blockstream is doing.
The crypto infrastructure company is seeking new funding, but at a much lower valuation than in previous cycles, according to a December 7 Bloomberg report.
Blockstream was valued at $3.2 billion in its last Series B funding round, raising $210 million in August 2021. Today, that valuation may have fallen nearly 70% to less than $1 billion. dollars according to report.
The company, founded in 2014, raised a total of $299 million in funding in four rounds, according to CrunchBase.
Blockstream CEO and cryptographer Adam Back did not share details of the latest funding round, but did reveal that the capital will be invested in expanding the company’s mining capacity.
“We quickly sold out the full capacity and have a large backlog of existing and new customers with miners looking for large-scale hosting with us.”
The company works with Jack Dorsey’s Block (formerly Square) to develop a solar-powered bitcoin mining facility. The mining farm will have an electrical capacity of 3.8 megawatts (MW) using Tesla’s solar technology and its 12 MWh lithium-ion “Megapack,” as Cointelegraph reported in April.
Back acknowledged that BTC prices and mining profitability were down, but added that “hosting rates have increased over the last few quarters and our mining services are a rapidly expanding corporate business. and high margin for us”.
Bitcoin miners are currently suffering a triple whammy of high hash rates and difficulties, high energy prices and low BTC prices. According Hashrate index.
Related: Blockstream CEO Adam Back talks about Bitcoin during a game of Jenga
In his monthly newsletter on December 5, Blockstream revealed that its Blockstream Mining Note (BMN) token had gained around 5.37 BTC in cumulative returns nearly halfway through its three-year tenure.
BMN is EU Compliant security token which offers qualified investors access to the Bitcoin hash rate in the company’s US mining operation.
The company also promoted a new limited-edition “Jade Transparent” hardware wallet. affirming that it “keeps our Bitcoin into the 2090s and beyond”.