Blockchain.com is one of the most well-known historical crypto wallets, as it was by far one of the first non-custodial online crypto wallets.
Yesterday Bloomberg reported that Blockchain.com has suspended operations of its asset management arm, but this suspension only affects this specific service.
It is a service launched only 11 months ago, provided by a London-based subsidiary (Blockchain.com Asset Management aka BCAM), which on Monday applied to be removed from the U.K. Companies Register
BCAM had been launched to be able to offer institutional clients asset management services, after raising funds in a funding round through which the parent company was valued at $14 billion.
It was therefore an attempt to expand beyond the services offered so far.
Summary
Blockchain.com’s services, beyond the crypto wallet
Blockchain.com was born a full twelve years ago, and in the beginning it provided only two services: the consultation of data from the Bitcoin blockchain, and precisely a non-custodial online crypto wallet.
Over the years, however, its business expanded greatly, so much so that it later also launched its crypto exchange linked to the wallet.
To date, the company offers multiple services, and even last year from this point of view it was in an expansive phase.
However, the bear market of 2022 halted the company’s development plans, forcing it to pull its oars in the boat.
One of the decisions they have been forced to make is precisely the closure of the asset management service for institutional clients provided through its subsidiary BCAM in London.
A company spokesperson told Bloomberg that BCAM had been launched in April 2022 shortly before macroeconomic conditions deteriorated rapidly.
The following month there was the implosion of the Earth/Moon ecosystem that plunged the crypto markets into a long winter that shows no sign of ending.
Blockchain.com’s problems
BCAM’s idea was to offer algorithm-based managed exposure to Bitcoin with risk mitigation, as well as a product that managed exposure to DeFi tokens.
It is possible that during the crypto winter, these services met with little success, forcing Blockchain.com to discontinue an unnecessary and expensive service.
Then again, the company already had to begin an extensive layoff plan months ago to deal with declining revenues.
In this scenario, shutting down a costly and unprofitable service is as obvious as it is healthy for a company that may have grown too large by 2021.
Indeed, Blockchain.com’s over the past few years has been a boom, because after adding the exchange to the wallet it had begun a really extensive expansion program.
With the crypto winter, this program turned out to be too extensive, and therefore too expensive, forcing the company to cut off deadwood.
Last year, after the collapse of crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, it was forced to cut 150 employees, as 3AC was one of its clients, and in January this year, it said it planned to further lay off 28 percent of its workforce, or another 110 employees.
Note that after the $14 billion valuation before the bear market, a new attempt to raise funds in October 2022 collapsed the valuation to between $3 billion and $4 billion.
In other words, in less than a year the company would have lost more than 70 percent of its hypothetical market capitalization, although since it is not publicly traded these estimates may not be accurate.
To date, however, it does not appear that Blockchain.com has any other serious problems besides these, so much so that the operation of its traditional crypto services, including the wallet, does not appear to have been affected.
