Yesterday NYDIG, a Bitcoin investment provider, announced it raised $100 million from Starr Insurance, Liberty Mutual and other insurers. The news comes just a month after unveiling the company had raised $200 million. The March round saw investment from Stone Ridge, Morgan Stanley, New York Life, MassMutual, Soros Fund Management, FS Investments and others.
Taking account of earlier investments, the two recent funding rounds mean the total capital raised to date is more than $400 million.
Last month the company said that insurers have exposure to more than $1 billion in Bitcoin through its platform.
NYDIG was founded by alternative investment manager Stone Ridge, whose CEO is Ross Stevens.
“We’ve been broadly and successfully investing with Ross and the Stone Ridge team across their various initiatives for years, including as a founding NYDIG investor in 2017,” said Hank Greenberg, Chairman and CEO of Starr. “We are excited to continue our tradition of co-investment with them.”
In addition to the funding round, NYDIG also announced that Mike Sapnar, CEO of reinsurer TransRe is joining as Global Head of Insurance Solutions.
Meanwhile, several capital markets institutions are gearing up to provide cryptocurrency services to their clients. Standard Chartered is launching a custody service and BBVA, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and DBS are enabling clients to buy cryptocurrencies or funds, following early adopter Swiss banks such as Julius Baer.
