Andreessen Horowitz leads $40M investment round into crypto-trading platform

Talos, an up-and-coming institutional technology provider for cryptocurrency trading, has secured $40 million in Series A funding from some of the biggest venture capitalists in the digital asset market. 

The raise, which was led by Andreessen Horowitz, also had participation from PayPal Ventures, Fidelity Investments, Galaxy Digital, Elefund, Illuminate Financial and Steadfast Capital Ventures.

Talos said the Series A funding will help bootstrap the expansion of its institutional trading platform. The company provides fund managers and other institutions with liquidity sourcing, direct market access, and clearing and settlement services. Its clients include buy-side institutions and financial service providers such as banks, broker-dealers, over-the-counter desks, custodians and exchanges.

Anton Katz, Talos’ co-founder and CEO, said in a statement that the firm has “gained significant traction over the last two years” in attracting new institutional clients, adding:

"Now, by partnering with some of the most prominent players in the global financial markets, we can realize our goal of providing the fabric for institutional trading of digital assets around the world."

Arianna Simpson, partner at Andreessen Horowitz, said, “We have reached an inflection point where widespread institutional adoption will progress only with robust, expansive and institutional-grade market infrastructure in place.”

PayPal Ventures managing partner Peter Sanborn touted digital assets as playing a “key role” in the global financial system, adding that Talos’ software "provides that critical market structure support and enables institutions to reliably interact with digital currencies."

Andreessen Horowitz has made a big splash in the digital currency market this year, backing layer-two scaling solutions, NFT marketplaces and privacy-focused blockchain protocols to the tune of $76 million. The venture capital firm has also unveiled plans for a $1 billion crypto fund that will be used to bootstrap various up-and-coming digital asset companies.