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Top crypto funding stories of 2022

2022 was a watershed year for crypto venture capital, as investors poured tens of billions of dollars into blockchain-focused startups despite the overwhelmingly bearish trend in asset prices. Is the VC-dominated crypto funding model good for the industry? Only time will tell.  Cointelegraph Research is still in the process of tallying all the funding figures for the year, but 2022 easily outpaced all other years in terms of total capital raised and deals completed. VC inflows were above $14 billion in each of the first two quarters before receding to just under $5 billion in the third quarter — still an impressive tally given the industry-wide contagion sparked by the sudden collapses of Celsius, Three Arrows Capital, Genesis, BlockFi and FTX, among others. Against this backdrop, we’...

a16z leads $40M raise for decentralized knowledge protocol

Decentralized knowledge protocol Golden has closed a $40 million funding round led by venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z, with additional participation from Protocol Labs, OpenSea Ventures and the founders of Solana, Dropbox, Postmates and Twitch, among others.  In addition to leading the Series B funding round, Andreessen Horowitz’s general partner Ali Yahya will join Golden’s board alongside a16z cofounder Marc Andreessen. The funding gives Golden additional resources to continue building its protocol, which is designed to standardize the discovery and verification of knowledge in the era of Web3. Specifically, Golden is developing a decentralized interface that incentivizes collecting and verifying canonical data. The company claims that over 35,000 users participated in ear...

VC Roundup: The rise of blockchain gaming, DAO management and asset tokenization

Bitcoin (BTC) and the broader cryptocurrency market have provided very little comfort in recent weeks, as macroeconomic headwinds and the implosion of the Terra ecosystem continue to reverberate. But, if we look beyond the immediate price action, we observe an industry that continues to grow and evolve, as well as attract sizable capital investments from major funders. The latest edition of venture capital (VC) Roundup highlights the continued growth of Web3 gaming, metaverse applications and even decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.  Related: Crypto Biz: Smart Money is betting big on Web3, layer 2, May 19-25 Andreessen Horowitz backs Irreverent Labs Blockchain video game developer Irreverent Labs has raised $40 million from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) to f...

Singapore venture firm launches $100M Web3 and metaverse fund

Crypto-focused venture firm NGC Ventures has launched a new ecosystem fund dedicated to Web3 projects, underscoring heightened investor demand for startups that are contributing to the development of a decentralized internet.  NGC Metaverse Ventures, the company’s third blockchain fund, raised $100 million from investors that included Babel Finance, Huobi Ventures, Nexo Ventures, Altonomy and GBIC. The fund will allocate capital towards “high-potential projects” in the Web3 economy, according to Roger Lim, NGC Ventures’ general partner. The Web3 fund has already invested in three startups, NGC disclosed on Wednesday. Based in Singapore, NGC Ventures was founded in 2017 as a blockchain and fintech-focused venture firm. It was an early investor in Solana (SOL), Algorand (ALGO) and Oasis...

$3B flows to Metaverse and Web3 gaming this month as A16z’s tips in $600M

Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has launched a $600 million fund dedicated to gaming startups with a focus on Web3 saying it believes “games infrastructure and technologies will be key building blocks of the Metaverse.” Dubbed “GAMES FUND ONE” the fund will invest in three main areas: game studios, consumer applications which support player communities with Discord used as an example, and gaming infrastructure providers. The a16z team said “the coming Metaverse will be built by games companies, using games technologies” and that the industry has already “solved many of the problems that need to be solved to create the Metaverse.” It believes games will become the “dominant way people spend time.” The move by a16z marks nearly $3 billion committed by venture funds and gaming...

Ethereum’s popularity ‘a double-edged sword’ — a16z’s State of Crypto report

Crypto venture fund giant Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has highlighted that development and demand on Ethereum is “unmatched” despite the network’s high transaction fees. The firm does warn, however, that its “popularity is also a double-edged sword” given Ethereum prioritizes decentralization over scaling, resulting in competing blockchains stealing market share with “promises of better performance and lower fees.” The comments came via a blog post introducing a16z’s 2022 “State of Crypto” report, with the firm’s data scientist Daren Matsuoka, head of protocol design and engineering Eddy Lazzarin, General Partner Chris Dixon, and head of content Robert Hackett all working together to provide five key takeaways from the study. Outside of Ethereum, the report focuses on topics such as Web3 de...

VC Roundup: Gaming, crypto fintech and blockchain infrastructure dominate venture capital rounds

Cryptocurrency markets remain caught in a macro-based downtrend, with Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) showing further signs of weakness at the end of April. But, venture capital activity in the crypto and blockchain sectors is the strongest it has ever been, offering further evidence that major investors are looking beyond immediate price action and ignoring divisive bull/bear narratives. The latest edition of VC Roundup highlights the growing excitement surrounding Web3 gaming, decentralized finance (DeFi) and blockchain infrastructure. The first quarter of 2022 was brutal for crypto prices, but venture capital activity was the strongest ever.  bloXroute secures $70M from major investors Blockchain distribution network provider bloXroute has raised $70 million in funding to continue de...

Columbia Uni professor heads up a16z’s new crypto research unit

Theoretical computer scientist and Columbia University professor Tim Roughgarden has been appointed the head of Andreessen Horowitz’s (a16z) new crypto research unit. Roughgarden’s resume includes more than three years as a professor of computer science at Columbia University in New York, along with a 14-year stint at Stanford. He has also served as a research partner at a16z since February last year. a16z is one of the most active venture capital firms in crypto, with its funds reportedly worth around $9 billion. Partly guided by the firm’s new unit which was announced earlier today, Roughgarden has stated that its funding into crypto research will grow by “many multiples of the next couple of years.” “We’re currently in a particular moment in time, witnessing a new multidisciplinar...

Columbia Uni professor heads up a16z’s new crypto research unit

Theoretical computer scientist and Columbia University professor Tim Roughgarden has been appointed the head of Andreessen Horowitz’s (a16z) new crypto research unit. Roughgarden’s resume includes more than three years as a professor of computer science at Columbia University in New York, along with a 14-year stint at Stanford. He has also served as a research partner at a16z since February last year. a16z is one of the most active venture capital firms in crypto, with its funds reportedly worth around $9 billion. Partly guided by the firm’s new unit which was announced earlier today, Roughgarden has stated that its funding into crypto research will grow by “many multiples of the next couple of years.” “We’re currently in a particular moment in time, witnessing a new multidisciplinar...

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...

BAYC’s ApeCoin up 50% this week as its creator raises $450M in new funding

ApeCoin (APE) continued its rebound move Thursday as the firm behind it raised hundreds of millions of dollars in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. APE’s price surged 7.5% intraday to reach around $14.50 per piece. Notably, the token’s upside move came as a part of a retracement rally that started at the beginning of this week when it was changing hands for as low as $9.50. That pushed APE’s week-to-date profits up by 50%, making it one of the best-performing digital assets since March 21. APE/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView Big VC booster To recap, ApeCoin digital currency came to existence on March 17, via an “airdrop” backed by Yuga Labs, the creator of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), a collection of nonfungible tokens (NFT) popul...

NFT creator Yuga Labs raises $450M, bringing company valuation to $4B

Yuga Labs, the creators of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and new owners of the CryptoPunks and Meebits brands, announced it is now valued at $4 billion after its latest $450 million seed funding round. VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z, led the company’s first institutional investment, marking one of the largest seed rounds for any nonfungible token (NFT) collection to date. Other investors included Animoca Brands, FTX and MoonPay, as well as LionTree, Sound Ventures and Thrive Capital. The company plans to use the funds to scale its team, attract more creative, engineering and operations talent, as well as for future joint ventures and partnerships. To celebrate the occasion, Chris Lyons, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, loaned his Bored Ape to a16z, which upload...

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