Unchained Capital, a crypto-finance company that lends cash to long-term crypto-investors, today announced it has closed a $2,995,000 seed round of venture capital. The funding will go toward expanding Unchained Capital’s team and innovating its proprietary financial services and wealth management offerings.
“Crypto assets are now a nearly $500 billion asset class, but are functionally invisible to the existing financial system,” said Ezra Galston, Founder of Starting Line. “Holdings won’t enable consumers to obtain a mortgage, gain credit or serve as collateral. Unchained is bridging that gap.”
Unchained Capital has brought on a number of strategic investors as part of this venture round, including Michael Komaransky, formerly of Cumberland Mining; Brian Spaly, prolific angel investor and co-founder of Bonobos and Trunk Club; Mike W. Erwin and Whurley of Ecliptic Capital; and Ezra Galston of Starting Line, an early venture investor in the crypto sector. In addition to making investments in the seed round, Komaransky, Erwin, and Galston will join Unchained Capital’s board.
“Crypto-finance is redefining the concept of the traditional long-term investment thesis,” said Mike W. Erwin, Founder of Ecliptic Capital. “Unchained Capital is building the financial infrastructure for the wealth management of tomorrow, yet available for savvy crypto investors today.”
Availability of Ethereum-Collateralized Loan Capabilities
Unchained Capital has expanded its lending capabilities by announcing Ethereum-collateralized (ETH) loans in addition to its previous ability to lend against Bitcoin (BTC). By accepting ETH and BTC, individuals and businesses who want to both hold crypto-coins and access immediate fiat funds have greater choice.
“Accepting ETH as collateral has been high on our priority list since the beginning—lots of customers have asked for it,” said Joe Kelly, CEO, Unchained Capital. “When it comes to accepting new forms of collateral, our first thoughts go toward security. Unlike other crypto-lenders out there who utilize exchanges, third parties or single sig addresses for collateral storage, we wanted to make sure we offered the most secure storage solution possible before opening up lending publicly.”
Using an open-source smart contract for the cold storage of collateral funds, Unchained Capital’s vault requires multiple signatures and hardware wallets for maximum security. With a $150,000 bug bounty running for two months and a complete security audit by Hosho, a leading blockchain security firm, no other crypto-backed lender offers a more thorough, comprehensive custody and security solution.
Crypto-collateralized loans have wide-ranging applications: anything that requires USD can now be purchased with an Ethereum-collateralized loan. For example, crypto-enthusiasts looking to diversify USD-driven investments such as real estate can now drive transactions with ETH. Startups that have completed an ICO can access USD while maintaining their ETH holdings. Wherever cryptocurrency is locked away, Unchained Capital aims to free it.
Existing customers can access Unchained Capital’s new capabilities automatically, no longer having to convert ETH holdings in their portfolio to BTC to access USD loans. Ethereum loans are available at the company’s standard terms: $10,000-$1,000,000, 50 percent LTV, 12-18 percent APR, three months to five years.