Canadian Bitcoin miner Blockstream joins crypto unicorns with $3.2B valuation

Blockstream has secured $210 million in fresh investment from a U.K. private equity firm and crypto exchange Bitfinex’s operator.

Canada-based Bitcoin (BTC) infrastructure firm Blockstream, co-founded by cryptographer and cypherpunk Adam Back, has hit unicorn status with its latest valuation at $3.2 billion.

The company, which focuses on various Bitcoin-related areas — including operating as a mining service provider and developing renewables-based infrastructure intended to “green” the veteran cryptocurrency — has raised $210 million in its latest financing round, according to the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail.

Blockstream’s new backers, which join existing investors like Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, are the United Kingdom-based private equity firm Baillie Gifford and Hong Kong-based iFinex, the operator of crypto exchange Bitfinex.

In a statement about the grounds for Blockstream’s $3.2 billion valuation and the fresh capital investment, Baillie Gifford wrote that it has “enormous respect for Blockstream’s founders and management team” and believes that “its settlement network for Bitcoin-based assets and securities has the potential to transform the design and operation of capital markets.”

Blockstream Chief Strategy Officer Samson Mow has reportedly said that the investment will support the company’s further growth and help it to expand its mining operations. The company has recently acquired ASIC maker Spondoolies and, according to Mow, plans to develop its own ASIC miner to use for its own operations and to sell on the retail market “sometime in 2022.”

Mow also disclosed that Blockstream aims to raise more capital in the coming months to expand its various initiatives. These have to date included the Blockstream Satellite network, which broadcasts the Bitcoin blockchain worldwide 24/7 and the launch of a service called Blockstream Energy, which allows energy producers to sell surplus electricity to proof-of-work miners.

In March of this year, Blockstream announced the launch of a security token backed by the company’s mining operations, intended to serve as a more flexible alternative to investing in Bitcoin mining stocks or physical mining infrastructure.