Ripple, the blockchain-based payment network, has invested $25 million of its XRP cryptocurrency into Blockchain Capital Parallel IV, a fund that will invest in blockchain ventures.
The $150 million fund that Blockchain Capital will manage will invest in entrepreneurial startups that use blockchain, the technology behind bitcoin, Ripple announced on its website .
“As pioneers in the blockchain sector, we have been on the frontlines and in the trenches with our portfolio companies, like Ripple, building a new crypto ecosystem,” said Bart Stephens, co-founder and managing partner of Blockchain Capital. “There are entire verticals — such as healthcare or identity management — that could benefit from blockchain or distributed ledger technology.”
Ripple was co-founded by tech angel investor Chris Larsen, who is now the richest person in crypto. Larsen has an estimated net worth topping $7.5 billion , according to Forbes’ list of cryptocurrency billionaires.
Experts: Blockchain’s Future Is Huge
Stephens said the fund will bankroll startups that use Ripple’s own XRP cryptocurrency, bitcoin, or just the underlying technology as part of an effort to promote blockchain over the long-term.
While bitcoin bears make dire daily predictions that “bitcoin is dead” amid its recent price crash, even skeptics are convinced that blockchain — the technology undergirding virtual currencies — has a bright future.
Case in point: Venrock, the venture-capital arm of the Rockefeller family (estimated net worth: $1 trillion) has teamed up with the crypto investor group, CoinFund, to help entrepreneurs launch blockchain-based businesses.
“We wanted to partner with this team that has been making investments and actually helping to architect a number of different crypto economies and crypto token-based projects,” Venrock partner David Pakman told Fortune .
Winklevoss Twins Launch Crypto Block Trades
Pakman underscored that Venrock isn’t interested in turning short-term profits, but in investing long-term in the future of blockchain.
“There are a lot of crypto traders in the market,” Pakman said. “There are a lot of cryptocurrency hedge funds. This is different. To us, it looks a little bit more like venture capital.”
Despite a barrage of negative news recently, the cryptocurrency industry is definitely expanding. Just ask the Winklevoss twins, Cameron and Tyler. They plan to launch crypto block trading through their digital-asset exchange, Gemini, starting on April 12.
In response to bitcoin skeptics who think the digital asset is a bubble that’s popping, Tyler Winklevoss said they merely suffer from a “failure of imagination.”
