P2P Bitcoin Marketplace Startup Paxos Raises $142 Million in Series C Led By PayPal

Paxos, a New York-regulated financial institution offering a peer-to-peer bitcoin marketplace announced they have raised $142 million in a Series C funding round. The funding round was led by the lead investor Declaration Partners,  RIT Capital Partners, PayPal Ventures, and investment banker Ken Moelis.

The latest funding round also made Paxos one of the top-funded blockchain companies that have raised $240 million in total funding. The year could not have ended any better for Paxos who plans to utilize the funds for expansion.  The blockchain firm is looking to foray into new domains and plans to offer cryptocurrency trading and blockchain-based settlement.

Charles Cascarilla, CEO and Co-Founder of Paxos, commented,

“In the last year, global adoption of crypto and blockchain-based solutions by enterprises has accelerated. We are proud to count among our clients‘ global leaders in payments, banking, trading, and fintech, such as PayPal, Credit Suisse, Societe Generale, and Revolut. Paxos is uniquely positioned to address the digital asset needs of global brands and bring our solutions to enterprises with trillions in assets and billions of end-users. We are grateful for the support of our new investment partners which helps bring us closer to our vision for a more open, accessible economy.”

Paxos Concludes A Busy Year On a High

Paxos has been in the headlines throughout the year for all the right reasons, back in June it became the largest p2p bitcoin marketplace in India. The same month its volume exceeded that of LocalBitcoins for the first time in history. Paxos also partnered with online payment processing giant PayPal earlier this year courtesy of the new Paxos Crypto Brokerage service, an API-based brokerage service that handles regulatory, technological, and liquidity aspects.

The new brokerage API would help PayPal in handling their newly launched crypto services. Apart from PayPal, Revolut is also using the new API brokerage service. It seems the new API launch could help Paxos gain a few more partners in the coming days. Chief executive officer Chad Cascarilla revealed that many financial giants have approached them about the new brokerage service. He said,

“There are many firms that are considering us on the brokerage side — some of the largest ones in the world. But we also have firms that rely on us for our other products — Soc Gen, Credit Suisse, Instinet Nomura,”

Paxos focus on the regulations from the start helped it build a strong position in the market making it one of the best choices for new entrants. The firm aims to expand its reach both in terms of new domains as well as new partners.