Casey Wagner

<div id="highlights-block_62b2cc0a97167" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>This is the first US-qualified custody solution that can be paired with hot wallets, BitGo said</li>
 <li>Although crypto markets have slumped in recent weeks, BitGo&#8217;s CPO is confident that NFTs will hold on to their momentum</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



BitGo has launched an NFT hot wallet and custody solution for developers, retail marketplaces and institutions, the digital asset security and liquidity provider announced Wednesday. BitGo is launching the solution in partnership with Parallel Finance, a decentralized lending and staking protocol.&nbsp;



This is the first US-qualified custody solution that can be paired with hot wallets, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/?s=BitGo" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BitGo</a> Chief Product Officer Chen Fang said. BitGo currently services 700 institutional clients, Fang said. 



Clients can interact with decentralized marketplaces such as OpenSea and LooksRare through BitGo’s new wallet service, similar to how MetaMask users can integrate their wallets, but Fang said BitGo’s solution is the safer choice. 



“These people using MetaMask are using pretty insecure solutions to store hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars, of NFTs,” Fang said. “[They] will now have this amazing place to keep treasured possessions.”&nbsp;



The hot wallet allows retail and institutional investors to receive, hold and send NFTs (non-fungible tokens). It uses multi-signature security and 24/7 withdrawal access and support, similar to BitGo’s other cryptocurrency custody services, Fang said. 



The expansion of services is reflective of market demand for more sophisticated services, Fang said. Investors are starting to take more ownership over their assets&#8217; storage and security, he added. 



“When there is an institutional investor that&#8217;s throwing in $20 [million] or $30 million, or even $100 million worth of value and converting it into bitcoin, obviously you don&#8217;t really want to keep it on single-signature wallets,” Fang said. “You don’t want to keep these assets on a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_gap_(networking)" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">non-air gapped</a> internet connected device, so this is where BitGo came into existence, and with our technology have welcomed institutional investment in this asset class.” 



Although cryptocurrency markets have experienced a downturn in recent weeks, Fang is confident that the NFT momentum will continue in the long run.&nbsp;



“Given where the prices are, despite overall market conditions, the prices for some of these top tier NFTs are still pretty high,” Fang said. “We&#8217;re talking about a couple hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not a couple millions of dollars of assets that you want to protect. You don&#8217;t want to keep a couple of million dollars worth of assets on your Chrome browser.”



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BitGo Launches First NFT Custody Platform for US Institutions

Jacquelyn Melinek

<div id="highlights-block_61858be799ace" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The capital will be used to expand its team, invest in security auditing, grow the current protocol while also building more DeFi protocols, Ruan said</li>
 <li>“We want to build DeFi solutions for normal people and for mass adoption,” Ruan said. “We want to bring DeFi to the mainstream.”</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Staking and lending protocol Parallel Finance has closed a strategic funding round bringing its valuation to $250 million.



The investment was led by Sequoia and Founders Fund with participation from Shima Capital.&nbsp; The company raised “a couple million” for the round, but Parallel Finance’s CEO Yubo Ruan declined to disclose a specific amount during an interview with Blockworks.&nbsp;



This capital raise comes shortly after the company’s Series A round in August. Over the span of three months, Parallel Finance’s valuation has increased about 67% from $150 million to $250 million, Ruan said.&nbsp;



Parallel Finance is a decentralized money market protocol that offers lending, staking and borrowing on the Polkadot and <a href="https://kusama.network/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kusama</a> blockchain ecosystems. Its latest valuation makes the protocol one of the highest-valued projects on Polkadot, the company said in a statement. For reference, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/polkadot-reaches-major-milestone-with-launch-of-parachain-auctions/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Polkadot</a> is a Web3 layer-zero platform that enables people to launch on a blockchain, Ruan said. 



The capital will be used to expand its team, invest in security auditing, grow the current protocol while also building more DeFi protocols, Ruan said.&nbsp;



In the future, the company plans to complete another funding round that “will be quite large,” and bring its valuation higher, Ruan said.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“We want to build DeFi solutions for normal people and for mass adoption,” Ruan said. “We want to bring DeFi to the mainstream,” he added.



“[Ruan] is the Elon Musk-type founder in crypto who will build differentiated DeFi products on any layer 1 protocol he and his team set their minds to,&#8221; said Yida Gao, managing partner of Shima Capital, referring to their decision to invest in the Parallel Finance.