SBI Group launches $75 million digital asset venture fund
SBI Group, along with Sygnum and Azimut Group, has launched a $75 million digital asset venture fund that will help startups involved in the DeFi, DLT, and regulatory technology space with pre-Series A and Series A funding.
With this, the company joins a host of other investors and investment companies that have been piling into the blockchain and crypto industry since the beginning of the year as they have realized that this industry is here to stay and the regulators around the world are also coming around to the idea that it is better to regulate this industry rather than trying to ban it outright. This has led to a kind of FOMO in this space as far as the investors are concerned and this is evident from the fact that 6% of all funding globally since the beginning of the year is focussed on this sector which is more than the 1% that it was, at the same time last year.
CEO and managing director of SBI Ven Capital, Ryosuke Hayashi, said: “DLT and digital assets are at the inflection point of mainstream adoption, and they have the potential to reduce inefficiencies and unlock new capabilities across several sectors, such as financial services and supply chain management. The fund enables us to bring our expertise and networks in the sector to accelerate the growth of promising digital assets companies and to shape the future of financial services.”
SBI already has a crypto dealing desk and a very strong partnership with Ripple and it is clear that they want to delve further into the crypto and blockchain ecosystem.
Blockchain and Crypto are still developing and innovating and there is still a lot of space for growth and expansion. Since they constitute a radical concept which focuses on finance and trade, it has been receiving a lot of attention from investors and regulators alike. It is a call to decide to choose to be on the safe side and ban crypto as the regulators and authorities do not understand how it works or choose to embrace it and see how it can be regulated and made to work for them. This is the choice that lies in front of the regulators but with different countries opting to approach this choice in different ways, so far, the response in total has been a muddle. The blockchain, DLT, and crypto industry would hope that clarity would emerge in due course of time and till that juncture, those involved in the ecosystem would have to put up with the turbulence in the hope of smoother sailing later on.
