Blockstream has raised $210 million in convertible note funding to bolster its Bitcoin operations and to buy BTC ahead of the next market cycle.
According to the Bitcoin infrastructure firm, the funding will help accelerate the company’s layer-2 products.
In a news release, Blockstream also intended to utilize a portion of the funds to increase the amount of Bitcoin it can mine and buy.
MicroStrategy is one business that has used this tactic successfully in the cryptocurrency space thus far. As of this writing, 252,220 BTC have been accumulated by Michael Saylor’s publicly traded company.
Blockstream stated in January this year that it would utilize the proceeds from a $125 million convertible note financing transaction to grow its institutional Bitcoin mining business. The company also applied for $50 million for a related project in August 2023.
Accelerating Layer-2 Networks
As stated in Blockstream’s release from October 15, the $210 million convertible debt offering would support the advancement of Liquid Network and Greenlight, the company’s two core layer-2 products. Blockstream chief executive officer, Adam Back:
This fundraise is pivotal in our journey to bridge Bitcoin with broader finance”
Liquid Network is a Bitcoin layer-2 solution that works with Lightning Network. Liquid, the first sidechain for Bitcoin, was introduced in 2018 and provides the infrastructure needed for asset tokenization on the network.
Blockstream reported that over $1.8 billion worth of assets, including tokenized securities and stablecoins, have been issued on the network. Blockstream reports that 3,844 Bitcoins are locked on-chain in Liquid.
Mexico’s Mifiel has issued $1 billion in promissory notes as part of its rising adoption in the $300 billion real-world asset market.
With Blockstream’s Greenlight solution, developers may enable non-custodial Bitcoin Lightning Network payments for decentralized apps and enterprises.
Michael Minkevich has been named as Blockstream’s new chief operating officer. Minkevich was formerly a product engineer at Luxoft, an engineering platform and digital asset strategy company.
