Australian digital nugget managing director Monochrome has concluded a $1.8 million Series A fundraiser led by some of crypto'southward most influential entrepreneurs, underscoring the growing potential of institutional-grade crypto-asset solutions.

The cash injection volition be used by Monochrome to develop new products specializing in Bitcoin (BTC) and other digital assets, the visitor said. The Series A was co-led past Litecoin creator Charlie Lee, Blockstream chief strategy officeholder Samson Mow, sometime Binance CFO Wei Zhou and Kain Warwick, the founder of Blueshyft and DeFi protocol Synthetix. Post-obit the raise, Monochrome'southward full valuation was estimated to be worth roughly $15 meg.

Monochrome was launched before this year past Jeff Yew, the old principal executive of Binance Commonwealth of australia, to provide an institutional onramp to cryptocurrency investing. The company is maybe best known for the Monochrome Bitcoin Fund, a uppercase growth vehicle for wholesale investors. The fund targets a near 100% allotment to physical Bitcoin, which is custodied by U.s. trust visitor BitGo Trust.

Wei Zhou described Monochrome as Australia's "leading investment firm specializing in regulated access into digital assets," underscoring the state's "progressive regulatory opinion" towards cryptocurrency.

Similar those of other advanced industrialized nations, Australia's cryptocurrency regulations are still in their nascent stages. While the country does not recognize crypto as coin, digital asset trading is legal in the country and is subject area to Anti-Coin Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing regulations. As Cointelegraph reported, Australia's fiscal regulator recently warned citizens against using unregistered cryptocurrency businesses.

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Monochrome, like other crypto-focused asset managers, is targeting institutional investors for inclusion in the digital-asset economy. Need for crypto amongst institutional players appears to be growing, as evidenced by the large inflows into Grayscale and CoinShares products, amidst others. Surveys of institutional investors besides reveal that a large percentage of wealth managers are planning to buy crypto investments or increase their exposure to the assets.

Related: Franklin Templeton seeks experts for Bitcoin trading and crypto enquiry

With Bitcoin standing the test of time, more investors are likely to seek out exposure to digital assets in pursuit of broader macroeconomic objectives. Fiscal advisers could atomic number 82 the charge at present that crypto investing has been significantly de-risked from a career reputation standpoint.