Two world’s major investment banks made big investment in cryptocurrency trading platform Elwood Technologies


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