Brock Pierce of Blockchain Capital LLC is to become the first venture capital fund to issue its own digital tokens.
Pierce: ‘This Will Completely Disrupt VC’
The Bitcoin Foundation director’s Blockchain VC fund will issue tokens as part of a $50 million USD fundraising round, which will also include convention investments.
“We think this is going to change the game, this is going to completely disrupt the VC industry,” Pierce said quoted by Bloomberg.
Blockchain Capital got off the ground in 2013 and has since contributed $40 million for 42 startups. At its launch, it was the first to accept Bitcoin for capital investment.
No VC fund has yet raised investments via an initial coin offering (ICO) such as this, and Pierce is excited about its potential, describing the model as “the future of venture capital.” He added:
We’ll be the first in the world to do this. We want to democratize venture capital.
Bogart Flees Needham to Blockchain Sector
Blockchain Capital also hired Needham now ex-analyst Spencer Bogart last week in a move which will see him become both the fund’s managing director and head of research.
Bogart, the only Wall Street analyst to cover Bitcoin, has recently risen to prominence due to his comments about the upcoming Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF.
On the likelihood the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would approve the fund, Bogart stated its chances were “less than 25%,” although considered a successful launch would attract over $300 million to Bitcoin in outside investor interest.
“I don’t believe there’s any ETF that trades in the U.S. where a single entity is the sponsor of the ETF, the provider of reference price for the underlying asset and the custodians of underlying asset, and that is what the Winklevosses are proposing,” Bogart additionally told the Wall Street Journal earlier this month.
ICOs Still the Darling of Crypto Investors
While speculation on that topic continues, the future appears buoyant for Bitcoin and Blockchain-based ICOs, more of which debuted on the market in 2016 than ever before.
Despite the high-profile collapse of The DAO following hackers stealing funds, the fundraising method is still very much in vogue in disruptive fintech circles.
March will see the launch of the ICO for Token-as-a-Service (TaaS), a so-called closed-end fund (CEF), which will allow investors to capitalize on increasingly lucrative Blockchain markets.
The CEF, which organizers say is the first of its kind in the world, will leverage Ethereum and cryptographic audit technology to offer investments in currencies and tokens.
What do you think about Blockchain Capital’s ICO? Let us know in the comments below!
Images courtesy of LinkedIn, Shutterstock, Wikimedia Commons
