Coin Metrics has completed a $6 million round of funding led by Highland Capital Partners with participation from FMR, LLC, Castle Island Ventures, Communitas Capital, Collaborative Fund, Avon Ventures, Raptor Group, Coinbase Ventures, and Digital Currency Group to grow Institutional crypto data business.
The provider of Cryptoasset Data and Infrastructure for institutional investors will use the capital to strengthen and grow Coin Metrics’ team, expand the product offering and provide enhanced coverage of digital assets. The firm offers a comprehensive and informative suite of crypto-asset data products to enable institutional investors to make informed investment decisions.
Tim Rice, Chief Executive Officer of Coin Metrics, said: “Our ability to distill operational and economic activity occurring on a blockchain network, by running full nodes and performing deep analytics, is imperative for broader institutional investment in this space. Recent crypto asset volatility and the insights we have been able to provide customers highlights the importance of the work we are doing.”
“The foundation we’ve laid to become a provider to traditional capital markets is a key advantage for Coin Metrics, as assets like Bitcoin continue to draw interest and investment from these institutions. These firms have strict due diligence processes before onboarding a data provider, and I am happy to say we have been able meet their requirements. This is a major hurdle for any vendor, much less a start-up, and is key to our continued success”, he added.
Founded in 2017 by Nic Carter and Aleksei Nokhrin as an open-source blockchain network data and analytics project, Coin Metrics. In November 2018, Tim Rice joined as co-founding CEO to drive the commercialization of its products. Rice joined the firm after 30 years of experience in traditional capital markets data, including executive positions at Tradeweb, Moneyline Telerate, Thomson Reuters and Markit (now IHS Markit) where he built out large scale, institutional-grade pricing, and reference data businesses.
From the on, Coin Metrics secured enterprise contracts with tier one traditional asset managers, bulge bracket global investment banks, traditional hedge funds, crypto hedge funds, crypto native asset managers and crypto exchanges. The firm has recently appointed Kerry Yndestad, former Head of Rights Management Technology at Refinitiv as Chief Information Officer. He has worked together with Rice at Thomson Reuters, where they built out the Datascope pricing and reference data platform that grew from $90 million in ARR to $300 million in ARR over a five-year period. The firm also appointed Katie Chase, former Head of Strategy in Fidelity’s Center for Applied Technology (FCAT), as Chief Operating Officer. Her industry experience includes the role of SVP of Corporate Planning and Strategy at Fidelity, where she built strategies relating to crypto and other emerging technology plays. In addition to her strategy role in FCAT, she also led the Blockchain Incubator for the past two years.
Sean Judge, Principal at Highland Capital Partners, commented: “Financial institutions require clean and transparent data to make decisions. These same requirements exist for Bitcoin and other crypto assets that have emerged over the last decade. It’s become clear that Coin Metrics is the premier destination for network and market data.”
