Blockchain reserves $ 50 million to invest in cryptocurrency startups

Blockchain.com, known for their wallet and blockexplorer, has started a fund of 50 million dollars to invest in startups.

Sam Harrison leads fund

Yahoo Finance reported on this news on Wednesday and cited two sources that confirm that Sam Harrison of Blockchain is leading the fund.

The Harrison LinkedIn profile shows that he came to Naschain Ventures in July 2018 and that he is co-founder of Blockchain Ventures. Blockchain Ventures includes Origin Protocol, Coindirect, Sliver.tv, Nodle and DappRadar.

Increase advertising revenue

Blockchain primarily earns by allowing ads on their platforms. A logical step is therefore to expand the number of business units in order to increase the income from advertisements. Peter Smith, CEO of Blockchain, recently told Fortune that they are just advertising on their block explorer “generating six figures per month in advertising revenue.” An example of a new business unit is The Pit, a crypto exchange. In their own words, the fastest exchange in the world.

Nicole Sherrod, head of trade products at Blockchain said about The Pit: “While other crypto-trade engines have milliseconds (one thousandth of a second), The Pit performs the work in a microsecond (one millionth of a second).

Big names invest

Blockchain is one of the first crypto companies and is also mentioned and praised in the book Digital Gold (recommended). Founded in 2011, the company has been supported by notable investors from the outset, including Roger Ver, the Digital Currency Group of Barry Silbert, Lakestar and Google Ventures. The company already raised $ 30.5 million in 2014. Three years later another $ 40 million was added.

Airdrop not a success

Last year the company made the news because of an airdrop. An airdrop actually means that you get free coins. Free sounds good but you have to do something for it, namely identify with passport. For this you received from Blockchain and Stellar for 25 dollars in XLM deposited in your Blockchain.com wallet. At the time, Stellar would have reserved $ 125 million in XLM.

You could draw the conclusion that the airdrop was not a success, since there has not been a single airdrop on Blockchain since. Did the airdrop influence the XLM course?

With 50 million dollars you can invest in many startups. We are curious about which brand names and companies will be added to the Blockchain.com portfolio.