British cryptocurrency Elwood closes A series for £ 57 million from global banking giants

London-based cryptocurrency trading platform Elwood has completed a $ 70 million (£ 57 million) series of A-series funding co-led by Goldman Sachs and Dawn Capital.

Elwood is a digital asset trading platform specifically designed to support institutional investors, including corporations, neobanks, hedge funds and more.

“Elwood was created to meet the needs of institutions that seek to ensure the exposure of digital assets by providing a stable and transparent platform that provides the highest standards expected in traditional finance,” said Elwood CEO James Stickland.

The platform was created to simplify the process of financial institutions to increase their participation in digital assets. It provides access to global crypto markets as well as customer analysis.

Other players joining the leading investors in financial power in this round of financing include Barclays, Blockfi Ventures, Chimera Ventures, CommerzVentures, Digital Currency Group, Flow Traders and Galaxy Digital Ventures.

“The rich combination of investors involved in this increase confirms the movement of financial institutions working closely with their home digital asset providers,” Stickland said.

“Together, we strive to ensure greater mass market participation in digital assets and cryptocurrencies.

Elwood’s group of investors includes, in particular, a number of more traditional financial institutions, which may be a sign of greater cooperation between cryptocurrency firms and more conventional financing.

The two parallel but sometimes overlapping sectors have previously been seen competing for both clients and a “talent war” in recruitment.

“As institutional demand for cryptocurrency grows, we are actively expanding our market presence and capabilities to cater to customer demand,” said Matthew McDermott, global digital assets manager at Goldman Sachs.

“Our investment in Elwood demonstrates our continued commitment to digital assets and we look forward to partnering to expand our capabilities.”

The $ 70 million investment in the cryptocurrency platform comes at a difficult time for the rest of the industry, with the global crypto market declining significantly, falling to $ 800 billion in one month.