Blockstream secures $210 million to drive Layer 2 growth and expand its bitcoin treasury

Following the buzz around Blockstream and its co-founder and CEO Adam Back’s appearance in the HBO documentary last week, the bitcoin infrastructure developer announced Tuesday that it had secured $210 million via a convertible note financing round led by Fulgur Ventures.

The fresh capital will be used to accelerate the adoption and development of Blockstream’s Bitcoin Layer 2 technologies, expand its mining operations “in preparation for the next bitcoin market cycle,” and boost its bitcoin treasury, the firm said in a statement shared with The Block.

“This latest fundraise represents a defining moment for Blockstream as we embark on a critical new phase of growth to further bridge the gap between Bitcoin and the wider world of finance," Back said.

Blockstream’s Layer 2 solutions include the Liquid Network, a federated Bitcoin sidechain that can deploy multiple types of tokenized assets, and Core Lightning, an implementation of the Lightning Network designed to enable faster and cheaper bitcoin transactions.

Blockstream aims to capitalize on increasing interest in bitcoin as an asset class and broader tokenization potential in general to position Liquid as the "de facto infrastructure" for tokenizing real-world assets within the Bitcoin ecosystem.

The firm claims over $1.8 billion in assets, including stablecoins, tokenized bonds and securities, have been issued on Liquid to date, with over 3,844 BTC (around $250 million) locked onchain. Crypto exchange Bitfinex’s tokenized securities offerings are an example of the products utilizing the platform. Another is STOKR’s issuance of the MicroStrategy Note, CMSTR, fully backed by MicroStrategy shares, which can be traded peer-to-peer against bitcoin on the Liquid DEX SideSwap.

Last month, Blockstream also launched Series 3 of its own BMN2 security token, which provides direct exposure to the firm’s Bitcoin hash rate.

Michael Minkevich joins as COO in leadership expansion

Meanwhile, Blockstream also announced the addition of Michael Minkevich to its leadership team on Tuesday, with the former product engineering lead at global IT service provider Luxoft taking on the role of chief operating officer.

“Blockstream has a unique product portfolio and one of the best engineering teams building reliable Bitcoin solutions, making it perfectly suited to lead the ongoing transformation of the fintech industry,” Minkevich said following his appointment.

“We are especially excited to welcome Michael Minkevich as COO and grateful for the support of Fulgur Ventures, whose combined expertise will be vital, as we look to capitalize on new opportunities across the financial industry and other key sectors,” Back added.