Crypto currency
- The funding round raised $10 million for the crypto startup specializing in token sales.
- The move comes months Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey launched Square Crypto.
- The startup could turn out to be a competitor to Cash app.
Months after announcing a Bitcoin-focused initiative by the Square financial services firm (Square Crypto), Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is doubling down in the space by investing in token sales management platform CoinList.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Dorsey recently participated in a funding round that raised $10 million for the crypto startup. This is Dorsey’s first investment in the cryptocurrency startup that is around two years old. The investment round was led by cryptocurrency hedge fund Polychain Capital.
Crypto currency What exactly does CoinList do?
On its website, CoinList claims to be a platform where the ‘best digital asset companies manage their token sales’. Since August 2017, the startup has conducted more than 50 token sales where over half a billion dollars has been raised.
Blockchain platforms and protocols that have used CoinList’s infrastructure include Algorand, Ocean, TrustToken, Origin, Dfinity, Props, Blockstack and Filecoin.
Besides being a platform to run token sales, CoinList also offers infrastructure to borrow or lend cryptocurrencies. Currently, interest rates range between 4% and 15%.
The digital assets available for lending or borrowing range from the well-established cryptocurrencies to little-known ones. Stablecoins such as Paxos Standard, USDC, Gemini Dollar and TrueUSD are also available for lending and borrowing.
Crypto currency Jack Dorsey digs Bitcoin
Other than launching the Square Crypto initiative, the financial services firm where Dorsey serves as CEO too last year allowed trading of Bitcoin on its Cash app. The Bitcoin-trading feature has proved to be a hit with the volumes being spent on purchasing the leading cryptocurrency growing by double-digit figures quarter-on-quarter the entire 2018.
Speaking with the Journal, Dorsey revealed that future plans for CoinList include launching a cryptocurrency trading exchange. Depending on how it is rolled out, it could prove to be either complementary to the Bitcoin trading feature of Cash app or a competitor.
But while Dorsey’s affinity for Bitcoin is well-known, he has also made known his distance for Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency. As Facebook’s partners such as PayPal, Mastercard and Visa flee the Libra Association, the Twitter CEO said ‘hell no’ to joining the group.
Crypto currency Giving back to the community
But while Bitcoin trading on the Cash app and the investment in CoinList are profit motivated, Dorsey’s Square Crypto initiative is ‘a small way to give back’. While announcing the initiative in March, Dorsey stated that it is an effort to ‘make the broader crypto ecosystem better’.
The Twitter and Square CEO also promised that the resulting work that Square Crypto will do will remain ‘open and free’. This, Dorsey said, is to ensure a ‘more accessible global financial system for the internet’. Dorsey has previously expressed hopes that Bitcoin will emerge as the internet’s native currency.
This article was edited by Samburaj Das.
