The safekeepers of crypto assets are attracting billions of dollars from investors betting that the influx of Wall Street players into digital markets will lead to a surge in demand for custody services.

Fireblocks became the highest valued crypto asset custodian on Thursday after raising $550m in a new funding round that put an $8bn price tag on the company. The figure matches the valuation achieved by FTX, one of the world’s largest crypto trading exchanges, which announced a $400m funding round on Wednesday.

Fireblocks has secured new investment from a group of venture capital companies, including D1 Capital Partners and Spark Capital. The deal comes after private investors ploughed $4.5bn into digital asset custodians last year, representing a fifth of total capital that flowed into the blockchain industry in 2021, according to research by Blockdata.