Blockchain-Powered Trust Paxos Raises $65 Mln From Investors

Paxos, an American financial technology startup, has attracted $65 mln from investors, including venture capital firms RRE Ventures and Liberty City Ventures, and private equity executive Jay Jordan, Reuters reported May 31.

The company was initially founded in 2012 as Bitcoin exchange itBit and later rebranded as Paxos, a business focused on providing services using blockchain technology. Paxos holds a trust company charter in the state of New York, which gives it some of the same privileges as a bank, including the ability to take custody of mainstream financial assets.

Paxos reportedly aims to use the raised funds to bolster its operations, such as providing blockchain-based services to financial institutions, and to operate digital currency exchange and custodian itBit. Chief Executive Charles Cascarilla said that the startup has been “pouring a lot of resources into it for the past nine months,” adding that the company is looking to launch more products. He said:

“We will use the capital to help grow the business which is broadly our settlement business on the Paxos side and the crypto asset exchange and custodian on the itBit side.”

In 2016, Paxos announced its strategic partnership with Belgium-based asset and securities settlement cooperative Euroclear to deploy a blockchain settlement service for gold markets. While the joint venture came to an end in 2017, Paxos has continued to develop and test the system with other financial institutions.

The system was tested with at least 16 market participants including Citi, Société Générale, MKS PAMP Group, INTL FCStone Ltd, Barrick Gold Corporation, NEX EBS BrokerTec and ED&F Man. The pilot program saw over 100,000 settlements.