Goldman Sachs and Barclays bank invest in Alan Howard’s crypto platform

Goldman Sachs and Barclays bank invest in Alan Howard’s crypto platform

Goldman Sachs and Barclays have invested in Elwood Technologies, the cryptocurrency trading platform founded by British hedge fund billionaire Alan Howard, in a fresh bet on the mainstream adoption of digital assets.

The two banks invested alongside venture capitalists Dawn Capital and the venture divisions of German lender Commerzbank and Galaxy Digital, US billionaire Mike Novogratz’s crypto financial group. The round, Elwood’s first outside fundraising, valued the six-year old company at roughly $500mn, according to people familiar with the terms.

Elwood is counting on traditional financial institutions — from hedge funds to banks and family offices — ploughing more money into digital assets despite the sharp fall in crypto assets prices. The market value of the top 500 digital assets is down by more than half from their highs last year, according to CryptoCompare data collated by the Financial Times. Bitcoin on Tuesday dropped below $30,000 for the first time since July.

The Elwood funding round was agreed before the latest weekly downward slide. Founded as a vehicle to manage Howard’s personal crypto fortune, the company provides market data and trading infrastructure to big investors in digital assets.

Chief executive James Stickland shrugged off the drop and called the fundraising “another validation of the