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Bain Capital Ventures, Pomp Investments, Tiger Global, and partners of DST Global have led investors in a $350 million series D funding round for the crypto lending firm BlockFi, according to an announcement on March 11.

The company indicated that with the addition of these funds, as well as $100 million raised via three earlier funding rounds in the last two years, BlockFi is now valued at $3 billion. The secured funds will reportedly be used to expand the crypto offerings at the firm, including a Bitcoin (BTC) rewards credit card and a Bitcoin trust.

“In less than six months since we completed our Series C, Bitcoin and other digital assets have assumed a central role in many investors’ portfolios and in broader financial markets," said BlockFi co-founder and CEO Zac Prince. "Digital assets will continue to democratize finance, serve as a hedge against inflation and expansionary monetary policy, and promote innovation in financial technology and accessibility to financial services."

The announcement comes the same week that BlockFi temporarily blocked new user registrations following reports a “malicious actor” used real email accounts to deliver profanity-laced messages to users of the crypto lending platform. The platform re-enabled signups for new customers yesterday

PayPal has announced its first acquisition in the cryptocurrency and digital asset space: the security-focused startup Curv.

The acquisition was announced Monday in a press release. PayPal said it "expects to complete the acquisition in the first half of 2021" but did not disclose details of the deal.

"In October 2020, PayPal announced its commitment to help shape the role that digital currencies will play in the future of financial services and commerce. To drive sustained growth and innovation in this area, the company recently created a business unit focused on blockchain, crypto and digital currencies. Curv will join the newly formed group, with its strong team of technologists adding technical expertise to PayPal," the payments firm said in a statement.

PayPal has long been rumored to be scouting the crypto space for potential acquisitions as part of a bid to boost its in-house capabilities. PayPal said earlier this month that it was investing significant resources into its burgeoning crypto unit after formally unveiling its services in October.

Reports emerged last week about PayPal's bid to acquire Curv.

Curv's services center around multi-party computation, an emerging thread of cryptography now being applied to cryptocurrency security. The Block's Ryan Weeks recently interviewed Curv co-founder and CEO Itay Malinger, who spoke about the firm's technological approach and security ethos.

“We were the first to announce a product in MPC,” Malinger told The Block at the time. “I’m happy to see that others have come through. I think that for the software-based solutions, it is becoming the standard.” 

this news brought to you by Michael McSweeney