Israel-based social trading and multi-asset brokerage startup eToro raises $100M, source says at $800M valuation, for expansion and R&D in blockchain
Yasmin Yablonko / Globes Online :
Context & Ripple Effects
This 2018 round is the opening move in a long private-market arc: eToro raised later rounds that briefly touched a $5B–$6B mark, but the headline number here is $100M at just $800M — with the stated purpose of expansion and blockchain R&D. That crypto bet is what makes the round worth rereading today.
The path since has been volatile: a $10.4B SPAC deal announced in 2021 was scrapped, followed by a $250M raise at $3.5B via an Advanced Investment Agreement in 2023, before the company finally filed to list as ETOR on Nasdaq reporting $12.6B in 2024 revenue.
First-order effects
- eToro gets $100M in growth capital explicitly earmarked for blockchain R&D and geographic expansion, at a valuation ($800M) that leaves early investors roughly 13x headroom versus the eventual $10.4B SPAC mark.
- The blockchain allocation signals the company is positioning its multi-asset trading platform around crypto infrastructure years before cryptoassets become its dominant revenue line.
Second-order effects
- That 2018 crypto R&D bet compounds into the business model revealed in the 2025 IPO filing: ~96% of $12.6B revenue from cryptoassets — meaning the round's thesis effectively became the company's core dependency.
- The acquisition trail in the relationships — Zengo (~$70M, token-to-fiat swaps) and TradeZero (up to $231M) — reads as continued execution of the same build-out this round funded, buying wallet and US brokerage capability rather than building it.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, eToro's arc — $800M private round, inflated SPAC peak, reset to $3.5B, then a $4B-targeted Nasdaq listing — becomes a template case for how SPAC-era valuations detached from and later re-converged with fundamentals for retail trading platforms.
- A public ETOR with near-total cryptoasset revenue concentration would make the exchange's fortunes a leveraged proxy on crypto trading volumes, inviting regulatory scrutiny of exactly the asset class this 2018 round chose to fund.
The trend: Retail trading platforms that seeded crypto infrastructure in the late-2010s funding cycle are now reaching public markets with their valuations — and revenue concentration — tethered to the crypto cycle they bet on.