Web3 Startup Bastion Emerges from Stealth with $25M Round Led by A16z Crypto

Quick take:

• Bastion Platform has raised $25 million in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz.
• The crypto startup was co-founded by former A16z executives Riyaz Faizullabhoy and Nassim Eddequiouaq.
• The company wants to bring the corporate sector to the blockchain with custody wallets that comply with global regulations.

Bastion Platform, a Web3 startup co-founded by former Andreessen Horowitz (A16z) executives has emerged from stealth with a $25 million funding round led by A16z Crypto, the venture capital firm’s investment division that focuses on digital assets.

Co-founder Riyaz Faizullabhoy is the former chief technology officer at A16z, while Nassim Eddequiouaq held the position of chief security officer.

The fundraising also attracted participation from Nomura Group’s Laser Digital Ventures, Robot Ventures and crypto influencer Packy McCormick’s Not Boring Capital participated in the round.

According to the announcement, Bastion wants to onboard the corporate sector onto the blockchain with a custody wallet that complies with global regulations whilst also meeting the requirements of digital transaction execution. 

“It was clear that even as crypto came back down into another bear market, this time crypto is very much here to stay,” Faizullabhoy told Bloomberg in an interview.

The crypto industry has come under a microscope following last year’s collapse of FTX, one of the leading crypto exchanges at the time. Since then, crypto companies have sought to segregate their funds away from those of their clients by adopting self-custody wallets.

A self-custody wallet grants the holder of the wallet complete control of their funds and crypto assets.

Several corporate organisations and Web3 companies including Ripple, TON Foundation, and Fireblocks have already forayed into the crypto custody space with their wallets.

In the mainstream, several banks have introduced similar services since last year, with the likes of HSBC, BNY Mellon and BNP Paribas among those partnering with crypto custody services providers like Fireblocks to launch their custody services.

Bastion is specifically targeting consumer-facing platforms like fashion, education and social media sectors to onboard the next billion onto the blockchain.

“We’ve long held the view that for web3 to reach its full potential, the space needs compliant, secure custodial wallet infrastructure for NFTs and tokens,” Arianna Simpson, general partner at a16z crypto said in a statement, “Bastion is building exactly this.”

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