WisdomTree and Monex Group fund back blockchain start-up Securrency of $17.65 million
WisdomTree Investments plans to pursue the integration of blockchain technology into the ETF ecosystem to bring the benefit of the ETFs for many investors and improve the investor experience, through this investment and in cooperation with Securrency.
The office of WisdomTree in New York
WisdomTree, an exchange-traded fund asset manager, has become a leading investor in a fundraising round for a small blockchain startup. WisdomTree becomes the latest mainstream fund manager to lay claim to the fledgling digital asset world. Securrency raised $ 17.65 million in a Series A funding round led by WisdomTree, a $ 44.5 billion exchange-traded fund (ETF), and exchange asset management (ETP).
Other participants in this round include the Monex Group Inc, Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO), Strawberry Creek Ventures, and venture capital firms RRE Ventures, and Panthera Capital Investments.
Founded in 2015, Securrency provides compliance tools for banks and financial service providers to automate the enforcement of regulatory policies. The company hopes the partnership with WisdomTree will help it further improve its technology, especially the Token Aware Token framework and the capacity of multiple ledgers, the CEO of Securrency said.
Securrency’s funding round
The Abu Dhabi Investment Office, a Gulf government agency, also participates in the Securrency financing round, as well as Japanese financial services firm Monex Group and several venture capitalists. This investment is an extension of the previous fundraising that saw Securrency reach $ 7 million in June 2019.
The startup is headquartered in the US but is increasing its presence in Abu Dhabi. It plans to use the new funding for technology development.
ETFs provide public market investors with a way to expose non-tradable assets on an exchange. The potential coordination between ETFs and tokens linked to blockchain has so far been hampered by regulators in the US. The Securities and Exchange Commission, the Wall Street regulator, has repeatedly blocked efforts to create exchange-traded products with cryptocurrency.
The Swiss governing body is one of the few people willing to play ball; a Swiss startup Amun launched a crypto-linked exchange-traded product on SIX Swiss Stock Exchange in October 2019.
Securrency has created a cryptocurrency of its own called Compliance Aware Token, which they say can be used to issue, trade and serve digital assets.
Read more:
- Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR), IBM and Boeing backed cryptocurrency project, downed over 70% since launch
- FOIN token has dropped from $ 3,000 to $ 3 as the unregulated Financial.org has closed down