Pomp’s Morgan Creek Leads $50M Investment in Crypto Lender BlockFi

BlockFi, a major American cryptocurrency lending startup, has completed another funding round featuring major industry investors.

The company has raised $50 million in a Series C round led by Anthony Pompliano’s crypto asset management firm Morgan Creek Digital, BlockFi announced on Aug. 20.

Also known as Pomp, Morgan Creek’s co-founder Pompliano is joining BlockFi’s board of directors following the investment.

The appointment comes after Morgan Creek participated in all three of BlockFi’s funding rounds over the past 12 months, including the $18 million Series A round in August 2019 and the $30 million Series B round in February 2020.

The funding round also featured some established BlockFi investors like Winklevoss Capital, venture capital fund Valar Ventures and CMT Digital. Other participating investors included Castle Island Ventures, SCB 10X, Avon Ventures, Purple Arch Ventures, Kenetic Capital, HashKey, and NBA player Matthew Dellavedova.

As announced, the new funding comes amid BlockFi seeing a 10-fold revenue increase over the past year. The company now has $100 million in revenues over the past year, while managed assets account for more than $1.5 billion to date, BlockFi’s representatives said.

Similarly to previous funding round announcements, BlockFi outlined that the newly raised funds will be used to further grow the company as well as the upcoming release of a Bitcoin (BTC) rewards credit card.

BlockFi revealed plans for the card in early 2020, positioning it as the “world’s first ever crypto-rewards credit card.” Similarly to existing crypto reward apps like Lolli, BlockFi wants to provide global customers with cashback in cryptos like Bitcoin. The card is expected to be released in Q3 or Q4 2020, with CEO Zac Prince claiming that the crypto rewards would amount to somewhere between 1.5% and 3% from purchases in fiat.