Cryptocurrency investigation firm Chainalysis expects to raise $100 million venture capital at a $1 billion valuation as early as next week, the company told Forbes.
The Series C is being led by VC newcomer Addition with participation expected from Accel, Benchmark and Ribbit, Forbes reported. Those three firms have all invested in earlier Chainalysis rounds.
Once closed, the raise will vault Chainalysis, a blockchain analysis firm that builds crypto tracing tools for governments and exchanges, into cryptocurrency unicorn status. Only a handful of crypto firms have notched $1 billion plus valuation. None have done it from the crypto tracing niche before.
But the tracing industry is by all accounts booming. Governments, banks, exchanges, regulators and investigators are clamoring for tools that help them trace bitcoin. The U.S. government in particular pays millions to Chainalysis every year.
Chainalysis has also reported a surge in new business of late. The firm increased its customer base 65% from Q3 2019 to Q3 2020. Recurring revenue also doubled in that period.
