Exclusive: Crypto analytics startup Allium raises $40 million to tame blockchain data for Wall Street

Blockchains are public databases, but that doesn’t mean they’re legible. Even experts struggle to read their complicated strings of letters, numbers, and transactions. Still, with enough savvy, the troves of data on blockchains become more manageable. New York-based Allium has made a business of taming digital asset data, and top-flight investors believe the crypto analytics startup has a shot at continuing to grow. On Tuesday, the company announced that it raised $40 million in a Series B funding round led by Amplify Partners. Other investors include Kleiner Perkins and Theory Ventures. Ethan Chan, cofounder and CEO of Allium, declined to say at what valuation he raised the capital. Chan says institutional players like Visa and even the U.S. Federal Reserve have cited Allium’s data. “It’s never been a better time for the institutional side,” he added, referring to the swathe of Wall Street firms diving into blockchain. Controlling the data source Blockchain analytics companies aren’t unique. As crypto boomed a decade ago, a proliferation of startups promised to make sense of the deluge of coins, projects, and blockchains. But, during the recent crypto downturn that’s seen Bitcoin more than halve in price since October, analytics startups have suffered. In May, Dune Analytics, which was valued at $1 billion in a 2022 fundraise, laid off 25% of its staff. And, one month later, the crypto data company Blockworks acquired competitor Messari for more than $10 million, a steep discount to Messari’s valuation of approximately $300 million in 2022. The landscape is fraught, but Allium cofounder Chan believes that, for the survivors, increased institutional interest in crypto and the rise of AI are potential boons. In fact, before Chan cofounded Allium, he studied AI at Stanford University and saw that AI models lived or died depending on the quality of data fed into them. That’s why, amid the crypto bull market in 2021, he and cofounder Cheng Han Lee decided to