Since cryptocurrency is such a hot sector, we created a separate offshoot of our Fintech Unicorn list tracking crypto/blockchain startups involved in financial services (see definitions below).

We have not included all crypto companies, only those that have financial services activity as a core part of their offering (eg., crypto exchange, lender, accounting, blockchain infrastructure, and so on).  Conversely, crypto must be the core of what the company does. For example, we haven’t included Square Block because crypto is currently less than 50% of its revenue (47% in Q3 2021).

What’s not included:

  • No pure-play coins such as Bitcoin because they are primarily assets, not financial services
  • No pure-play mining companies

Definitions will evolve, and we may include or exclude certain categories in the future.

Company age:

  • 5 companies founded in past 3 years (2019 to 2021)
  • 19 companies founded 4 to 6 years ago (2016 to 2018)
  • 10 companies founded 7 to 9 years ago (2013 to 2015)
  • 6 companies are 10+ years old (2011 or 2012)

Note: The top company, Binance has no public information about its financing. So we are using a $100B estimate based on what we’ve seen discussed online. It may have dropped in parallel with the sell-off of Coinbase in the past few months.


Table: Crypto Unicorns Providing Financial Services

Rank Company Value ($B) Value Date Founded Country Type
1 Binance $100 Estimate 2017 Malta Exchange
2 Coinbase 52 1 Feb 2022 2012 USA Exchange
3 FTX Exchange 32 Jan 2022 round 2012 USA Exchange
4 Ripple 10 Dec 2019 round 2012 USA Payments
5 Bullish 9.1 July 2021 SPAC (proposed) 2021 Cayman Islands
6 Circle Internet Financial 9.0 July 2021 SPAC (proposed) 2013 USA Payments
7 Fireblocks 8.0 Jan 2022 round 2018 USA Infrastructure
8 Gemini 7.1 Nov 2021 round 2014 USA Exchange
9 NYDIG 7.0 Dec 2021 round 2017 USA
10 Blockchain.com 5.2 Mar 2021 round 2011 UK
11 Chainalysis 4.2 June 2021 round 2014 USA Security
12 Bitpanda 4.1 Aug 2021 round 2014 Austria
13 Kraken 4.0 2019 round (per Fortune) 2011 USA
14 FalconX 3.8 Aug 2021 round 2018 USA
15 MoonPay 3.4 Oct 2021 round 2019 USA Payments
16 Blockdaemon 3.3 Jan 2022 round 2017 USA Payments
17 Blockstream 3.2 Aug 2021 round 2014 Canada
18 Anchorage Digital 3.0 Dec 2021 round 2017 USA
19 BlockFI 3.0 Mar 2021 round 2017 USA Lending
20 Celsius Network 3.0 Oct 2021 round 2017 UK Lending
21 Amber Group 3.0 June 2021 round 2017 Hong Kong Exchange
22 Paxos 2.4 April 2021 round 2012 USA
23 Bitso 2.2 May 2021 round 2014 Mexico
24 Mercado Bitcoin 2.1 June 2021 round 2013 Brazil
25 Coinswitch Kuber 1.9 Oct 2021 round 2017 India Exchange
26 Coinlist 1.5 Oct 2021 round 2017 USA Investing
27 Ledger 1.5 June 2021 round 2014 France
28 Figment 1.4 Dec 2021 round 2018 USA Staking
29 iTrustCapital 1.3 Jan 2022 round 2018 USA Investing
30 Lukka 1.3 Jan 2022 round 2014 USA Infrastructure
31 TaxBit 1.3 Aug 2021 round 2018 USA Tax
32 Cointracker 1.3 Jan 2022 round 2017 USA Accounting
33 Phantom Technologies 1.2 Jan 2022 round 2021 USA Wallet
34 CoinDCX 1.1 Aug 2021 round 2017 India
35 MobileCoin 1.1 Aug 2021 round 2017 USA
36 Bitkub 1.0 Nov 2021 round 2018 Thailand Exchange
37 Liquid 1.0 Apr 2019 round 2013 Japan
38 MatrixPort 1.0 Aug 2021 round 2019 Singapore
39 Worldcoin 1.0 Oct 2021 round 2019 USA Payments/Identity
40 Crypto.com 1.0 Nov 2021 estimate 2016 Singapore Exchange

Source: FintechLabs.com, 22 Feb 2022 based on news reports

Graphic: Coingeek