Belgian Crypto Startup Keyrock Sees Valuation Top $1 Billion

Keyrock, a crypto-focused investment group based in Belgium, is now a $1.1 billion company.

The company announced that valuation last week after securing “significant” Series C funding, and says it will use the financing to bolster its balance sheet, look for new acquisitions, and fund new innovations.

“Our latest funding round is a signal of intent for the future,” said CEO Kevin de Patoul. “Last year, we launched Keyrock Asset & Wealth Management to provide a service offering that’s unmatched. In 2026, we’re pushing for more growth in our services, client base, and geographic reach, as we look to gain greater market share and reinforce our position as a leading player.”

According to the company’s announcement, Keyrock provides financial expertise designed for digital asset markets, offering a bridge for traditional financial firms entering the tokenized economy. Services include market making, asset management, OTC and options trading.

“Our investment in Keyrock reflects our conviction that sophisticated liquidity infrastructure is foundational to the evolution of digital asset markets,” said Alex Manson, CEO of SC Ventures, which led the round.

“As tokenized assets scale, we believe full-service providers, like Keyrock, will play an important role for SC Ventures’ digital asset ventures.”

In other digital asset news, PYMNTS wrote last week about the way the growing institutional embrace of blockchain finance is “prompting some Fortune Global 500 companies to get into the nitty gritty of the industry’s decentralized architecture” and start running validator nodes on blockchain networks.

This, the report added, suggests a larger wider institutional shift toward operational participation. Visa, for example, recently became one of 40 “super validators” on the Canton network.

Fidelity has launched a Decentralized Verifier Network (DVN) on the LayerZero Protocol, while the Japanese conglomerate Sumitomo Corp. in February began validator node operations across the Avalanche, Ethereum and Canton Network blockchains.

The most common analogy for explaining validators is that they are the “servers” of blockchain networks, though that only offers a partial picture, the report added. That’s because, unlike the standard server, validators are not owned by a single entity.

Instead, they operate within decentralized systems, uphold protocol rules and are economically incentivized, and can thus shape transaction throughput, fee dynamics and network security.

“For CFOs engaging with blockchain, whether issuing digital assets, processing transactions or building tokenized ecosystems, validators are what increasingly can influence both the economics and the risk profile of the entire operation,” PYMNTS added.