Elwood Technologies, a cryptocurrency exchange platform, has just received a large investment from two of the world's largest financial institutions.
Goldman Sachs and Barclays, as well as venture investor Dawn Capital and the VC units of Germany's Commerzbank and United States crypto millionaire Mike Novogratz's Galaxy Digital, joined in a $70 million investment deal.
Elwood Technologies was valued at roughly $500 million in the investment round, which was the company's first outside investment.
Alan Howard, a British hedge fund millionaire, launched Elwood Technologies with the intended goal of handling his personal virtual assets portfolio.
Elwood has shifted its concentration from asset management to supplying market information, trading network, and asset control software to clients interested in digital properties since 2020.
The company's CEO, Strickland said that they provide a technology platform analogous to Bloomberg's highly utilized interface and BlackRock's asset management software "Aladdin."
According to Elwood Technologies CEO James Strickland, the latest investment round's achievement is another affirmation of the endurance of crypto, despite recent market volatility.
"I believe it's a comforting message," he continued, "that we're receiving funding from banking companies that aren't expecting enormous profits in 15 minutes."
Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs' global director of digital assets Mathew McDermott stated, "As institutional interest for cryptocurrencies grows, we have been actively increasing our market footprint and capabilities to account for customer needs."
He claimed that the bank's latest investment in Elwood reflected its ongoing commitment to the digital asset area.
The current news has been interpreted by crypto analysts as yet another positive indication of the long-term widespread acceptance of crypto and digital assets.
Over the last week, cryptocurrency prices have been quite turbulent. The overall market valuation of cryptocurrencies has dropped from over $2.1 trillion to under $1.3 trillion since the beginning of April, an almost 40% drop, with nearly 20% of it occurring just this week, at the moment of writing.
For the first moment since early February 2021, the worldwide crypto market cap dipped below $1.1 trillion earlier this week.
Concerns about the global economy faltering at a time when significant international central banks are bent on swiftly raising interest rates to manage excessive inflation have been identified as the primary reason for the current drop.
Cryptocurrencies are still perceived as risky and unpredictable assets, making them vulnerable to risk-off movements. They are also sensitive to increasing interest rates, as this increases the opportunity cost of keeping non-yielding investments like crypto.
