Crypto Lender Nexo Participates in $16M Round For Digital Asset Custodian Qredo

Nexo has championed itself as the first to offer an Instant Crypto Credit Line, one of the company’s many attempts to lure big banks and institutional investors to the asset class.

article-image

Source: Shutterstock

share

key takeaways

  • Qredo raised $11M in seed funding back in May.
  • Coinbase, Prime Ledger and Figment have all previously invested in Qredo.

Nexo, a regulated institution for digital assets, is joining Coinbase, Figment and Ledger Prime as a leading strategic backer, by jumping into a $16 million investment round in digital asset custodian Qredo in the run-up to its public token sale on July 8.

“DeFi’s rapid growth has been luring institutional investors for the past years, yet disruptive fintech companies have been held to a rigorous regulatory standard, hampering direct institutional engagement,” Nexo’s Head of Corporate Finance, Tatiana Metodieva, said to Blockworks. 

Nexo has championed itself as the first to offer an Instant Crypto Credit Line, one of the company’s many attempts to lure big banks and institutional investors to the asset class. Nexo offers loans in more than 40 fiat currencies, according to its website

Nexo had $1 billion in AUM in March 2020 and has $15 billion now, CoinDesk reported in May.

Qredo will be launching its initial coin offering (ICO) on July 8 via Coinlist, with 112,160,000 of its tokens up for sale. Each will go for $0.225, according to a report by Economy Watch.

“This funding will mean we can rapidly integrate more layer 1 blockchains into the Qredo ecosystem, enhancing the cross-chain functionality that it brings,” added Qredo COO Josh Goodbody. “Additionally, it will give us the development resources we need to accelerate the path to decentralization, which will increase the overall security of the Qredo Network.”

Metodieva, CFA, described Nexo and Qredo’s “strategic liaison” as “simply the best of both worlds.”

“It combines the highest industry standards in terms of compliance thanks to Nexo’s experience in following the traditional licensing and regulatory path for the better part of the past three years with Qredo’s undisputed technological advancement – using a next-generation blockchain protocol to allow institutions secure exposure to the decentralized network,” the head of corporate finance said.

Qredo recently raised $11 million in seed funding back in May and has previously attracted big-name investors like Coinbase, Prime Ledger and Figment.

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

REPORT_Template.png

Research

The Sonic blockchain is leveraging redesigned airdrop incentives and its FeeM program to propel DeFi activity and attract institutional capital, setting the stage for ecosystem growth. Within this environment, leading protocols Shadow Exchange and Silo are poised to asymmetrically benefit due to innovative features and favorable valuations, despite facing ecosystem dependency and competitive pressures. This positions them as compelling, potentially shorter-term, investment opportunities contingent on Sonic's sustained success.

article-image

The tentative agreement China and the US penned last month appears to be in a precarious position

article-image

Fineqia’s Matteo Greco says Circle’s targeting a valuation in line with market expectations to avoid a post-launch drop like Coinbase

article-image

The President’s son reportedly said his family may pursue legal action

article-image

One lets everyone see your trades. The other hides everything. Which design wins in crypto’s next perps arena?

article-image

Celebrating Bitcoin’s “zero to 1,000%” moment

article-image

K33 analyst Vetle Lunde warned of potential volatility ahead