Thomson Reuters A man walks past a bitcoin ATM in Vilnius
- BitGo, a blockchain technology company, closed a $42.5 million fundraising round.
- The company, which provides technology for institutional investors to dive into the cryptocurrency market, said the fundraise took just 2 weeks.
BitGo, a US-based blockchain technology company, raised $42.5 million in a Series B fundraising round, the company announced Monday.
BitGo, which is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, said it will use the money to expand its business outside the US to help more companies dive into the nascent digital coin market. Hedge funds and other institutional investors leverage BitGo's technology to overcome some of risk and compliance issues associated with digital currencies.
The fundraise was led by Valor Equity Partners, according to the firm, with DRW, a Chicago-based trading firm, also participating. Already, a number of companies utilize BitGo's technology to power their own cryptocurrency products, including CME Group and The Royal Mint.
A spokesperson for the firm told Business Insider the fundraise took two weeks. The length of the fundraising round is striking, mirroring the speed at which cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin have appreciated in recent months.
"This has been one of the easiest fundraising processes ever," CEO Mike Belshe, an engineer who was among the first to work on the Google Chrome team, told Business Insider in an interview.
Belshe said 2018 will be the year in which traditional asset managers and hedge funds enter the market.
"We need to be prepared for the $1 billion fund which needs our technology," Belshe said.
Crypto-focused hedge funds have launched this year at an eye-popping rate, according to fintech analytics firm Autonomous NEXT. The launch of bitcoin futures by two established exchanges in December could further push the cryptocurrency market, which exceeds $400 billion, to new heights next year.
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