Venture Capital
Uniswap launches venture capital wing for Web3 investments
Popular decentralized exchange (DEX) Uniswap has announced the formation of Uniswap Labs Ventures (ULV), a venture capital fund focused on investing in Web3 companies and projects. The firm will invest at any stage of development into various projects or technologies related to Web3, infrastructure, developer tools, and consumer-facing applications as areas of interest according to the announcement on Monday, April 11. The firm has already invested in 11 companies and Web3 protocols, including decentralized money market Aave, the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) behind the DAI stablecoin, MakerDAO, and blockchain bridging protocol LayerZero. In the announcement, Uniswap expressed what it looked for in other projects it was interested in funding, but did not reveal any further pr...
Ecosystem expansion and $45M funding round boost Boba Network (BOBA) price by 30%
The institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies has been gaining momentum over the past couple of years due to venture capitalists and money managers looking to the crypto market as the next investment class that will offer the greatest return. The Boba Network (BOBA) is the most recent protocol to benefit from institutional interest and the long search for an Ethereum (ETH) layer-two scaling solution capable of low-cost transactions and fast processing times. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that BOBA has gained 50.71% over the past week and a half after climbing from a low of $1.24 on March 27 to a daily high at $1.873 on April 5. BOBA/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView Three reasons for the climbing price of BOBA include the completion of a $45 million ...
‘Our democracy will better evolve because of DAOs,’ says Animoca’s Yat Siu
The rise of Web3 has paved the way for new business models that could shape the next phase of the internet. For instance, nonfungible tokens (NFTs) will play a large part in the open metaverse as the underlying assets people interact with. Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are also coming to fruition to allow for community governance within virtual environments. The growth of Web3 has essentially allowed NFTs and DAOs to flourish. For example, recent data from DeepDAO — a DAO stats platform — shows that DAOs have experienced 130-times growth over the last year, reaching a market capitalization of $24.8 billion. In December 2021, DeepDAO found that the total assets under management (AUM) for DAO treasuries listed on the platform increased from around $380 million in Januar...
Crypto venture capital firms see surging assets under management
Venture capital (VC) firms focused on Web3 projects and crypto businesses are accumulating billions of dollars worth of assets under management as more capital is injected into the sector. The assets under management figure for Web3 and crypto investment firm Paradigm has recently been revealed. Filings show that the firm has $13.2 billion in assets, a growth of 343% compared to the $2.98 billion reported in a filing in December 2020. The filings were reviewed by business journalist Eric Newcomer. Writing for his newsletter, he looked at recent applications with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for some of the biggest venture capital firms in the Web3 and crypto sectors. To be registered as an “investment advisor,” these firms must disclose their regulatory assets under ma...
Blockchain.com’s value rockets to $14B after new funding round: Reports
Cryptocurrency exchange and financial services firm, Blockchain.com, has reportedly raised new funding at a valuation of $14 billion. According to Bloomberg, the financing round was led by global venture capital firm Lightspeed Ventures and Baillie Gifford & Co., an investment management firm renowned for its early involvement in growth stocks such as Tesla. The funding round — which is yet to be publicly confirmed by Blockchain.com or the investors — reportedly saw the firms’ valuation increase from $5.2 billions to $14 billion. The total amount of funding raised is yet to be announced. Founded in 2011, Blockchain.com is now one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency companies, and offers a wide range of blockchain-based financial services from its exchange platform and crypto wallets ...
Blockchain.com’s value rockets to $14B after new funding round: Reports
Cryptocurrency exchange and financial services firm, Blockchain.com, has reportedly raised new funding at a valuation of $14 billion. According to Bloomberg, the financing round was led by global venture capital firm Lightspeed Ventures and Baillie Gifford & Co., an investment management firm renowned for its early involvement in growth stocks such as Tesla. The funding round — which is yet to be publicly confirmed by Blockchain.com or the investors — reportedly saw the firms’ valuation increase from $5.2 billions to $14 billion. The total amount of funding raised is yet to be announced. Founded in 2011, Blockchain.com is now one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency companies, and offers a wide range of blockchain-based financial services from its exchange platform and crypto wallets ...
Crypto Biz: Do you believe in Ethereum killers? Put your money where your mouth is, March 18–24
While crypto markets are still in a state of “fear,” as evidenced by Bitcoin’s Fear & Greed Index, the industry as a whole is giving us reasons to be bullish. Large venture funding rounds, growing adoption of decentralized governance models and new institutional-grade product offerings suggest that crypto is more than just daily chart patterns. This week’s Crypto Biz newsletter looks at a new Grayscale product that’s giving accredited investors more ways to bet on the so-called “Ethereum killers.” We also document two funding stories and draw your attention to the latest developments surrounding El Salvador’s Bitcoin (BTC) bond. Grayscale launches smart contract fund for Ethereum competitors Grayscale Investments, the world’s largest digital asset manager, has officially launched...
Crypto investor Katie Haun raises $1.5 billion for Web3 venture fund
Katie Haun, crypto investor and board member for Coinbase and OpenSea announced that she had raised $1.5 billion for her new fund, Haun Ventures. On Tuesday, March 22, Haun posted an article on Twitter, briefly introducing the firm and sharing that the funds would be used to invest in Web3 projects. Introducing @HaunVentures, a firm built for the next generation of the internet. We’ve raised $1.5 billion across two funds to invest in web3. An exciting first step, but the real work begins now. https://t.co/tBeE4OEJkD — Kathryn Haun (@katie_haun) March 22, 2022 The firm will invest through two funds, a $500 million early-stage fund, and a $1 billion acceleration fund. The two funds represent the largest debut on record for investment vehicles led by a female General Partner, according to dat...
VC Roundup: NFTs, crypto mortgages, 5G network and Web3 devs raise millions
The cryptocurrency market has failed to make significant headway in recent months, but that hasn’t stopped the industry’s builders from building. Nonfungible tokens (NFTs), crypto mortgages, blockchain-powered cellular networks and Web3 gaming have all piqued the interest of venture capitalists. These new and familiar investment themes headline the latest edition of VC Roundup, as venture funds continue to target blockchain’s most promising value plays. a16z execs back new NFT fund Andreessen Horowitz’s foray into the blockchain industry continued this month after a large segment of its investing team backed a new nonfungible token fund called Curated. The fund, which is worth $30 million, has the singular purpose of buying and holding NFT artwork. Among the a16z brass, Marc Andreess...
Crypto Biz: Goldman Sachs tip-toes into ETH, Mar. 4-10
Wall Street’s embrace of digital assets is showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, they don’t even need to tell us about it as the proof is in the fine print. This week, a United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing revealed that multinational investment bank Goldman Sachs has been quietly offering clients exposure to Ether (ETH) through Galaxy Digital, a crypto-focused financial services provider headed by billionaire Mike Novogratz. Of course, this isn’t the first time Goldman has worked with Galaxy Digital to offer clients a gateway to digital assets. In June 2021, the investment giant began trading a Bitcoin (BTC) futures project in collaboration with Galaxy Digital. Like other financial services giants, Goldman Sachs sees the writing on the wall and realizes...
City-building startup Praxis secures $15M in Series A Funding
Peter Thiel-backed city-building startup Praxis has raised $15 million in Series A funding from a variety of crypto venture firms led by Paradigm Capital, Sam Bankman-Fried‘s Alameda Research and Three Arrows Capital. Dryden Brown of New York University and Charlie Callinan of Boston College co-founded Praxis, formerly Bluebook Cities, in 2019. they described their goal as: “building the city-crypto state to realize a more vital future,” according to the company website. Praxis wants to pivot away from “artificially scarce metaverses” to build a city-state that is organized around “shared values,” rather than the “labor market principles of the Industrial Age.” The cryptocurrency-run city will reportedly focus heavily on functional architecture and environmental technology. Money made from...
Andreessen Horowitz invests $70M in Ethereum staking protocol Lido
Ethereum staking solution Lido Finance has raised $70 million from venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, marking the protocol’s first funding round since May 2021. Andreessen Horowitz’s investment in Lido is intended to further support the adoption of decentralized staking solutions for Ethereum 2.0, a spokesperson for the venture capital firm said. Ethereum 2.0 marks a significant shift in the network’s consensus algorithm by ushering in the adoption of proof-of-stake (PoS) and other upgrades that could enhance scalability and reduce fees. The transition to Ethereum 2.0, which began in November 2020, is still ongoing. Excited to share that @a16z has invested $70M in @LidoFinance, one of the easiest ways to stake ETH and other PoS assets, and we used Lido to stake a portion of o...
