Blockaid, a blockchain security startup, has secured $33 million in funding to advance its technology designed to prevent malicious transactions. The company, in partnership with cryptocurrency wallet MetaMask, also revealed its inaugural customers as it emerges from stealth.
Series A Funding and Strategic Alliances
Blockaid‘s Series A funding round was led by prominent industry venture capital firms, including Ribbit Capital, an investor in Coinbase, and early-stage VC firm Variant. Additional participants in the funding round included Sequoia Capital, Cyberstarts, and Greylock Partners.
Blockaid disclosed its customers, including MetaMask, OpenSea, the Rainbow wallet, and the Zerion wallet. The startup is forming a strategic alliance to offer security solutions for Web3 applications, with a primary focus on protecting users from malicious transactions.
Collaboration with MetaMask
MetaMask had previously announced a collaboration with Blockaid and OpenSea in April 2023 to introduce an experimental feature. This feature is designed to alert users when interacting with “known scams.” It leverages OpenSea’s blocklist of known scams and Blockaid’s analysis of malicious behaviors, such as signature farming and wallet-draining.
As part of our ongoing commitment to keep our community safe and secure, we’re working with our friends @opensea and @blockaid_ on an experimental feature in @MetaMask that will warn users when interacting with known scams. pic.twitter.com/MPn9yE7utD
— MetaMask 🦊🫰 (@MetaMask) April 5, 2023
The recent funding will enable Blockaid to expand its blockchain security offering and bolster the industry’s defenses against hacks and scams. Founded in 2022 by alumni of Unit 8200, the largest unit in the Israel Defense Forces, Blockaid is compatible with any blockchain network. The security solution offered by Blockaid can detect malicious decentralized applications and fully simulate off-chain signatures (EIP-712s).
Impressive Security Statistics
Blockaid’s co-founder and CEO, Ido Ben-Natan, highlighted the company’s achievements, noting that their security platform scanned 450 million transactions in the past three months. Blockaid successfully thwarted 1.2 million malicious transactions and safeguarded $500 million in user funds that would have otherwise been compromised.
Blockaid founders, Ido Ben-Natan (left) and Raz Niv (right). Source: Blockaid
Dror Avieli, managing director of Consensys, emphasized the company’s commitment to reducing fund loss incidents in MetaMask, spearheaded by Blockaid. He praised Blockaid for its contribution to enhancing user security in Web3 and its positive impact on the industry.
