Point72; Shayanne Gal/Insider
- Steve Cohen's Point72 Ventures has made its first foray into the cryptocurrency space.
- The hedge fund led a $21 million funding round for market intelligence startup Messari.
- The funding will help Messari expand its product suites, triple the size of its teams, and introduce new offerings.
- Sign up here for our daily newsletter, 10 Things Before the Opening Bell.
Billionaire Steve Cohen's Point72 Ventures has made its first foray into the cryptocurrency space by leading a $21 million funding round for market intelligence company Messari.
The series A funding, announced Thursday, will help Messari expand its product suites, triple the size of engineering and research teams, and introduce new product offerings.
The round was led by the venture capital arm of Point72 Asset Management – which has $21.8 billion of assets under management as of August – and included support from existing investors such as Coinbase Ventures, Uncork Capital, and Underscore VC.
It was also backed by new investors such as Alameda Capital, Blockchain Ventures, and Kraken Ventures, as well as angel investors like Tom Glocer, former Thomson Reuters CEO, and Diogo Monica, Anchorage co-founder and president.
Adam Carson, an operating partner at Point72 Ventures, joined the Messari board.
"While investor participation in the crypto industry has grown exponentially over the past three years, current crypto research and analysis tools are still lacking," Carson said in a statement. "Messari is filling that much-needed space."
The three-year-old startup has gained the trust of Coinbase, Gemini, BlockTower, and Chainalysis since its founding in January 2018 thanks to its wide range of qualitative and quantitative data, research, and compliance products.
Earlier this year, Cohen was said to be planning a major entrance into the cryptocurrency market, The Block first reported.
Cohen's resume spans decades in finance. He founded two hedge funds that led to the creation of more than 80 other firms, making him a billionaire in the process. One of those was SAC Capital, which he founded in 1992. It operated until it was closed down for insider trading in 2013.