Bitcoin tycoons who founded Blockchain.com in two-bedroom York flat are worth hundreds of millions after cryptocurrency firm was valued at £3.8BILLION
- Three founders are thought to have kept considerable stakes in the company
- Headquartered in London, business has secured over £218million in funding
- CEO Peter Smith announced the £3.8billion post-money valuation on Twitter
- He said company plans to 'aggressively expand products offered to customers'
Three Bitcoin tycoons who founded Blockchain.com are believed to be worth hundreds of millions after their cryptocurrency firm was valued at £3.8billion.
Founders Peter Smith, Nicolas Cary and Ben Reeves are thought to have kept considerable stakes in the company, which is a cryptocurrency marketplace and traces its beginnings to a 'small, crowded' two-bedroom flat in York.
Headquartered in London, the business has secured more than £218million in funding from global investors.
Mr Smith posted on Twitter: 'I’m pleased to share that @Blockchain has raised a Series C, securing $300M (218.6mil) in funding at a $5.2B (£3.8bn) post-money valuation led by DST Global, @lightspeedvp and VY Capital.'
![Chief executive Peter Smith, above. He said: 'I’m pleased to share that @Blockchain has raised a Series C, securing $300M (218.6mil) in funding at a $5.2B (£3.8bn) post-money valuation'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/03/25/16/40936288-9402415-image-m-95_1616688755951.jpg)
Chief executive Peter Smith, above. He said: 'I’m pleased to share that @Blockchain has raised a Series C, securing $300M (218.6mil) in funding at a $5.2B (£3.8bn) post-money valuation'
![Nicolas Cary](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/03/25/16/40936330-9402415-image-a-104_1616688928402.jpg)
![Ben Reeves](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/03/25/16/40936316-9402415-image-m-103_1616688922841.jpg)
Founders Nicolas Cary (pictured left) and Ben Reeves (right), who are thought to have kept considerable stakes in the company, which monitors crypto transactions
A spokesman said that inside shareholders own the majority of the business, reports The Telegraph.
Writing on the company's website, CEO Mr Smith said: 'Since 2011, the Blockchain.com team has been heads down, relentlessly focused on building a company at the intersection of cryptocurrency, institutions, and (most importantly) people around the world.
'We continue to be honored by the trust our consumer and institutional clients put in us each day. Over 31M verified users in over 200 countries use our products, and we’ve seen a 3x increase in active users over the past 12 months alone.
'This round follows our $120M strategic growth round that we announced a month ago, led by a number of the best macro investors in the world.'
The chief executive has previously said the business was founded in a 'small, crowded flat' in York, adding: 'As such, many of our first and longest Wallet users are Brits who were willing to go out on a limb with us, and a network that was more likely to be called insane than investible.'
One of the company's founders, Mr Reeves, attended St Peter's, a private school in Clifton, York, and studied a bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Management and Operations at Newcastle-upon-Tyne University until 2009.
He then went on to achieve a first class Master's degree in Computer Science and became a mobile developer at Engine Room Apps, which builds iPhone apps for businesses, in 2010.
Before founding Blockchain.com, he also worked as the CEO of Qkos Services Ltd, a software development company which was dissolved in 2014.
![Mr Smith's post on Twitter, pictured above. Writing on the company's website, he added: 'This round follows our $120M strategic growth round that we announced a month ago'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/03/25/16/40938634-9402415-image-a-105_1616689293004.jpg)
Mr Smith's post on Twitter, pictured above. Writing on the company's website, he added: 'This round follows our $120M strategic growth round that we announced a month ago'
![The chief executive (pictured above) has previously said the business was founded in a 'small, crowded' two-bedroom flat in York](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/03/25/16/40938610-9402415-image-m-107_1616689369956.jpg)
The chief executive (pictured above) has previously said the business was founded in a 'small, crowded' two-bedroom flat in York
Meanwhile Mr Cary, Blockchain.com co-founder and vice chairman, studied a bachelor's in Business at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, between 2003 and 2007.
He worked as a partner and manager of customer operations at PipelineDeals until 2013, becoming a co-founder at the digital platform skysthelimit.org one year later.
According to his personal website, Mr Cary taught English and carried out poverty reduction assessments in rural India before developing start-ups.
Mr Smith, from America, gained a degree from the University of London and has been part of the UK Finance board.
He lived, studied and worked across the US, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), East Africa and Asia before co-founding Blockchain.com, writes King's College London business club.
Mr Smith said yesterday: 'With one of the most significant balance sheets in the industry, we plan to aggressively expand the products we offer our customers, grow our global team, and pursue M&A opportunities to bring exciting new products and ideas into the company.
![Mr Smith (pictured above), from America, gained a degree from the University of London and has been part of the UK Finance board](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/03/25/16/40938608-9402415-Mr_Smith_above_who_graduated_from_the_University_of_London_wrote-a-112_1616689545012.jpg)
Mr Smith (pictured above), from America, gained a degree from the University of London and has been part of the UK Finance board
'I couldn’t be more proud of the team, I couldn’t be more optimistic about the future of Blockchain.com, our products, and our brand to meet this moment.'
Bitcoins are traded via a decentralised registry system known as a blockchain, and found by so-called Bitcoin 'miners', who enable new Bitcoins to be created, but also to independently verify and record every transaction made with the currency.
More accurately, Bitcoins are the reward miners get for maintaining the transaction record accurately.
The mining works like a lottery that runs every ten minutes, with processing centres around the world racing to compile and submit this record of transactions in a way that is accepted by the system.
They also guess a random number, with the first to submit and record the correct number the winner of the prize, with this becoming the next block in the blockchain.
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