Multiple Cryptocurrency Firms Prominently Featured in Annual ‘Fintech 250’ List

For the third year, the New York-based business analytics firm CB Insights published its annual list spotlighting the hottest firms in fintech. The companies were selected by CB Insights’ Intelligence Unit from a pool of more than 16,000 and represent the “most promising of these companies globally.” According to the report, the 2020 cohort raised a staggering $49.2B in total funding spread over 1,000 deals since 2015. The list features fresh startups, scaleups, and thirty-two companies valued at over a billion dollars. In previous years, cryptocurrency firms weren’t heavily featured on this list—but this year, things are a bit different as ‘Crypto’ has been granted a category unto itself.

Leading exchanges like Binance and Coinbase were unsurprising additions to the list, along with a few other household names like BlockFi, Blockchain.com, and Ledger. Coinbase was honorably mentioned as the best-funded startup in the crypto category, with the Robinhood app winning this spot for retail investment. Slightly less-known companies filled out the remainder of the roster. Founded in 2013, Symbiont has quietly developed a market-leading platform for institutional applications of blockchain technology. There’s also MoneyTap, which built India’s first app-based credit line and currently boasts millions of users as well as SFOX, a cryptocurrency prime dealer popular among professional traders and institutional investors. Such arbitrary lists are easy to dismiss, but the CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, took notice by Tweeting, “A lot of crypto projects/companies made into this list, #Binance being one of them.” Many others on social media hailed the news as further evidence of crypto’s growing maturity. A full version of the list and report can be found on the CB Insights website.