Reported on Sunday that two of the world’s major investment banks which are US banking giants Goldman Sachs and British powerhouse Barclays made big investment in cryptocurrency trading platform Elwood Technologies.

These two investment banks who are also major Wall Street players participated in a $70 million funding round. Other participating firms were venture capital companies (VC) Dawn Capital and the venture divisions of Germany’s Commerzbank and US crypto billionaire Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital, which is a merchant bank focusing on investing. This funding round was planned well before the collapse of Terra. In the funding round, Elwood was valued at approximately $500 million, marking the first time that the company has sourced outside funds, and the move was done with the hope that $500 million company will be able to attract institutional investment.

Elwood compared Terra's recent failure with funding that is focused on infrastructure instead of short-term returns.

Investing in Elwood follows a trend in which major financial institutions are looking for ways to satisfy the growing demand from their clients for crypto trading and investment services. Recently US asset management giant Fidelity announced plans to allow savers of 401(k) pension accounts to invest up to 20% in bitcoin (BTC) and soon expand to other digital assets. At the same time, cryptocurrency user metrics are trending higher globally.

The CEO of the company Strickland said that they provide a tech platform similar to Bloomberg’s widely used terminal and BlackRock’s portfolio management system “Aladdin.”

About Elwood Technologies :

Formerly crypto trading software provider Elwood Technologies was known as Elwood Asset Management. British hedge fund billionaire Alan Howard had founded Elwood Technologies. The initial aim was of managing his personal fortune of digital assets. Since 2020, Elwood has shifted its focus from asset management to providing market data, trading infrastructure, and asset management software to clients who are looking to invest in digital assets.

Along with selling software to financial institutions, Elwood invests in the crypto sector through significant investments. In order to connect Elwood's proprietary software to current trading platforms, it works with banks, hedge funds, crypto exchanges, and fintech companies that need access to crypto trading data. “As institutional demand for cryptocurrency rises, we have been actively broadening our market presence and capabilities to cater for client demand,” said Goldman Sachs’ digital asset head Matthew McDermott.

Indrani bose

CBW - External Analyst

INDIA