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Tradeblock


TradeBlock acquired by CoinDesk to service institutional interest in Bitcoin

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Jan 08, 2021


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Tradeblock

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Jan 08, 2021


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We are very pleased to share that FinTech Collective portfolio company TradeBlock has been acquired by CoinDesk.

FinTech Collective seeded TradeBlock in 2013, ahead of the founders Greg and Jeff Schvey going to Y Combinator (W14) and following which the company attracted capital from Andreessen Horowitz, DCG, Data Collective, and CME.

TradeBlock was our first investment in the blockchain/crypto space and the first investment against our thesis of the ultimate institutionalization of the crypto markets. Bitcoin was trading at ~$570, and at least one of our LPs was actively lobbying against the emerging crypto industry in Washington.

The founders, Greg and Jeff Schvey, had been introduced to us earlier that year, when the business was known as “The Genesis Block”. The brothers went on to found Axoni in 2016, also seeded by FinTech Collective and whose most recent growth round was led by Goldman Sachs and other top-tier institutions.

“The pace of that enormous transformation and the movement toward mass adoption is happening more quickly than most people recognize. It’s fueled by household-name companies, mainstream users in the developing world and, most recently, by deep-pocketed institutional investors. Adoption of crypto assets such as bitcoin by investors will accelerate in 2021.”

Kevin Worth, CoinDesk CEO

Currently, more than $20 billion of investment products use TradeBlock indexes, and billions of dollars in monthly trading volume is quoted against them. With this acquisition, CoinDesk (which is owned by Digital Currency Group) is positioned to be the leading source of crypto news, information and data for the financial industry. CoinDesk now stands as the most trusted, influential media platform for news, events and data serving a growing global community engaged in the transformation of the financial system and the emerging crypto economy.

As a result of the acquisition, TradeBlock will become a wholly owned subsidiary of CoinDesk that will operate completely independently of the media operation. This will allow both firms to maintain TradeBlock's existing commitment to data security and confidentiality for its clients and to safeguard the integrity of CoinDesk’s journalism in keeping with its independence guidelines. The entire TradeBlock team will stay with the company in the acquisition.

We are of course beyond excited about the prospects of TradeBlock's long standing history of institutional quality digital asset data and infrastructure combined with the power of Digital Currency Group’s brand and distribution.

Congratulations to both teams - we will continue to fly the flag!

Brooks, Gareth, and the FTC Team

Media Highlights


Press Release - Read more

WSJ Article - Read more

CoinDesk: Why CoinDesk Acquired TradeBlock - Read more

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