Crypto lending startup Unchained Capital raises about $3 million to grow its team and lend cash to long-term crypto-investors

Crypto lending startup Unchained Capital has raised a $2,995,000 seed round to expand its team and innovate its proprietary financial services and wealth management offerings. Unchained Capital is a crypto-finance company that lends cash to long-term crypto-investors, individuals and businesses who provide Bitcoin or Ethereum  as collateral. Long-term crypto-investors can borrow up $1 million loan back backed by Bitcoin or Ethereum.

Founded in 2017 by Joe Kelly and Dhruv Bansal, Unchained Capital is a new kind of financial services company. The company lend cash to long-term cryptocurrency holders who want to take advantage of their ownership but don’t want to sell their assets. They currently focus on offering Bitcoin and Ethereum secured $USD cash loans at friendly interest rates, for up to five years. Their think you shouldn’t have to pay membership fees or buy a new token to start leveraging your crypto assets as collateral. Unchained dispenses with these complexities.

A number of strategic investors participated in this venture round, including Michael Komaransky, formerly of Cumberland Mining; Brian Spaly, prolific angel investor and co-founder of Bonobos and Trunk Club; Mike W. Erwin and Whurley of Ecliptic Capital; and Ezra Galston of Starting Line, an early venture investor in the crypto sector. In addition to making investments in the seed round, Komaransky, Erwin and Galston will join Unchained Capital’s board.

The new investors combine with a stellar management team to create an unparalleled, talented group to drive innovation and a premium offering within the emerging multi-billion dollar crypto-wealth management market.

“Crypto assets are now a nearly $500 billion asset class, but are functionally invisible to the existing financial system,” said Ezra Galston, Founder of Starting Line. “Holdings won’t enable consumers to obtain a mortgage, gain credit or serve as collateral. Unchained is bridging that gap.”

“Crypto-finance is redefining the concept of the traditional long-term investment thesis,” said Mike W. Erwin, Founder of Ecliptic Capital, which provides a metric-driven, transparent investment process through its partnership with Optimal Symmetry, the Fund’s manager. “Unchained Capital is building the financial infrastructure for the wealth management of tomorrow, yet available for savvy crypto investors today.”

Unchained Capital has expanded its lending capabilities by announcing Ethereum-collateralized (ETH) loans in addition to its previous ability to lend against Bitcoin (BTC). By accepting ETH and BTC, individuals and businesses who want both to hold crypto-coins and to access immediate fiat funds have greater choice.

“Accepting ETH as collateral has been high on our priority list since the beginning – lots of customers have asked for it,” said Joe Kelly, CEO, Unchained Capital. “When it comes to accepting new forms of collateral, our first thoughts go toward security. Unlike other crypto-lenders out there who utilize exchanges, third parties or single-signature addresses for collateral storage, we wanted to make sure we offered the most secure storage solution possible before releasing our ETH loan product.”

Using an open-source smart contract for the cold storage of collateral funds, Unchained Capital’s vault requires multiple signatures and hardware wallets for maximum security. With a $150,000 bug bounty running for two months and a complete security audit by Hosho, a leading blockchain security firm, no other crypto-backed lender offers a more thorough, comprehensive custody and security solution.

Crypto-collateralized loans have wide-ranging applications: anything that requires USD can now be purchased with an Ethereum-collateralized loan. For example, crypto-enthusiasts looking to diversify USD-driven investments such as real estate can now drive transactions with ETH. Startups that have completed an ICO can access USD while maintaining their ETH holdings. Wherever cryptocurrency is locked away, Unchained Capital aims to free it.

Existing customers can access Unchained Capital’s new capabilities automatically, no longer having to convert ETH holdings in their portfolio to BTC to access USD loans. New customers can request an invite at unchained-capital.com.