Cryptocurrency trading platform Abra has raised $55 million in funding to bootstrap the next phase of its growth strategy, bringing several high-profile investors on board from both inside and outside the blockchain industry.

Abra will use funds from the Series C investment to abound its product offerings in wealth management, trading and payments, besides equally expand its in-firm capacity, the company appear Wednesday.

Amex Ventures, a venture majuscule arm of American Limited, was among the contributors alongside Blockchain Upper-case letter, Ignia, Kingsway Capital letter and Stellar Development Foundation. Abra has now raised over $85 million since its inception.

Neb Barhydt, Abra'south founder and CEO, said his visitor's "vision of crypto-axial banking is coming to life" amid the surge in institutional and retail interest, evidenced past the remarkable growth of decentralized finance and nonfungible tokens.

Abra has seen significant uptake of its trading services over the past year as billions of dollars flowed into the cryptocurrency market. The company now has 155,000 monthly users and has processed over $4 billion in transactions. Its Abra Merchandise and Abra Earn services manage over $1 billion in assets.

Earlier this twelvemonth, Abra launched a new cryptocurrency lending and borrowing service, capitalizing on one of the well-nigh popular use cases within DeFi. The services allow borrowers to access their crypto price gains without selling their holdings and triggering a taxable consequence.

DeFi lending protocols accept exploded in popularity over the past year, with Aave and Chemical compound locking in a combined $25 billion in full value, according to industry data. In terms of total value locked, DeFi is fast approaching a $200 billion market.

Related: DeFi attracts ii.91M Ethereum addresses, according to ConsenSys

Venture funds have been keen to back DeFi projects, specially those within the lending and borrowing sectors. As Cointelegraph reported, a Stanford researcher-led decentralized lending platform raised $3 one thousand thousand from several investors. The protocol, known every bit Pledge, aims to facilitate long-term financing for crypto holders.