Institutional Bulletin: Scroll raises $50 million, and Web3 startup Matchday raises $21 million

The cryptocurrency industry is drawing more institutional players. This is reflected in new investments in infrastructure and in the growing attention companies are paying to Bitcoin as an asset class. The most important events of the past weeks are in ForkLog’s review.

Ethereum startup Scroll raises $50 million at a $1.8 billion valuation

Scroll, layer-2 network for scaling Ethereum using ZK-Rollups technology, raised $50 million in a recent funding round.

Investors included: Polychain Capital, Sequoia China, Bain Capital Crypto, Moore Capital Management, Variant Fund, Newman Capital, IOSG Ventures and Qiming Venture Partners.

Representatives of Scroll declined to disclose the round’s structure or the final valuation. The startup will use the proceeds to launch the mainnet and expand the ecosystem.

Scroll co-founder Sandy Peng said that in the near term the project will grow the team from 60 to 100 people. He noted that the network currently has 1 million unique addresses that have conducted 16 million transactions.

Lionel Messi-backed company invests in football Web3 startup

The football Web3 startup Matchday raised $21 million in a seed round.

One of the investors was Play Time, a venture firm associated with the famous footballer Lionel Messi. Other participants included Courtside Ventures, Greylock, HackVC, Capricorn Investment Group and Horizons Ventures.

Matchday develops sports-themed computer games. Co-founder and CEO Derick Ko said their projects will be aimed at “ordinary” users.

The company holds official licenses from FIFA and the FIFPRO.

Solvency-check startup for crypto firms raises $15.8 million

The Proven project raised $15.8 million in a seed round led by Framework Ventures. Other investors included Balaji Srinivasan, Roger Chen and Ada Yeow.

The startup is building technology based on zero-knowledge proofs, intended to help crypto firms prove solvency without disclosing confidential information.

“The last few months have highlighted a problem that has long troubled financial and crypto firms. This is the absence of an effective and confidential way to strengthen client trust,” said Richard Dewey, co-founder of the project.

He added that the new development will bolster the authority of crypto platforms among users and regulators, while protecting their private information.

Clients include Coinlist, Bitso, TrueUSD and M11 Credit. The funds Proven raises will be used to grow the staff and develop the technological infrastructure.

Coinbase backs compliance-focused non-custodial exchange Mauve

Coinbase Ventures, Brevan Howard and other investors invested $15 million in Mauve, a non-custodial exchange with built-in compliance procedures.

The platform is developed by Violet, a project focused on identity infrastructure and decentralized finance.

“Mauve is a direct response to the fallout from FTX,” emphasized Marcus Meyer, co-founder of the firm.

He noted that the collapse of the Sam Bankman-Fried empire undermined trust in cryptocurrencies on a global scale. Meyer believes the industry’s future depends on further adoption of non-custodial products like Mauve.

The new DEX requires users to pass strict compliance checks. According to the developers, this approach is meant to reassure users moving from centralized platforms to DeFi.

KuCoin invests in offshore yuan-based stablecoin issuer

The KuCoin Ventures arm led the round in CNHC, a stablecoin issuer pegged to the offshore yuan.

According to CoinDesk, the project raised $10 million. Other participants included Circle Ventures and IDG Capital.

Justin Chow, the firm’s chief investment officer, said that thanks to a crypto-friendly policy, Hong Kong has a “real opportunity to become a new global crypto hub.”

CNHC is issued on the Ethereum and Conflux networks. On-chain data show 23 holders and 102 transfers on Ethereum, and 607 holders and 1,489 transfers on Conflux.

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow backs Web3 platform Wild in a $7 million round

The Web3 platform Wild, focused on digital art, raised $7 million in a seed round.

Led by Matrix Partners with participation from Gwyneth Paltrow, LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, Twitch COO Kevin Lin and Cozomo de’ Medici. This alias is used by American rapper Snoop Dogg.

Wild founder Douglas Kobsa said the platform is designed to unite artists and help them issue NFT. Artists will be able to take a specialized course on creating non-fungible tokens from leading experts in the field.

The company also unveiled a membership subscription called Wild Oasis. It provides early access to auctions and a personalized discount program.

In total, 1,000 “passes” will be minted as NFTs. 300 have already been distributed to artists who participated in testing the platform, advisers, investors and the founding team.

Wild will use the proceeds to develop its infrastructure and fund project participants.

Bitcoin-based decentralized exchange Alex raises $2.5 million

Trust Machines, Gossamer Capital and other investors invested $2.5 million in the development of Alex, a Bitcoin-based decentralized exchange.

The project team will use the funds to grow the ecosystem and expand the user community.

To use the platform, a Hiro Wallet browser extension is required. In addition to the decentralized exchange, Alex also offers yield farming capabilities.

DeFiance Capital pulls in eight-figure sum of investments

The venture firm DeFiance Capital pulled in an eight-figure sum of investments.

According to The Block, the company closed the first tranche of its “liquid tokens fund” at $100 million. This was aided by a favorable mix of investors, including other crypto funds, family offices and private individuals.

DeFiance Capital was founded in 2020 in Singapore by Arthur Chen. Previously, the firm described itself as a “sub-fund” going through bankruptcy proceedings of Three Arrows Capital (3AC).

In July 2022 DeFiance distanced themselves from 3AC and announced its operational independence.

First reported last September, Arthur Chen’s venture firm disclosed raising $100 million for its “liquid tokens fund.” At the time DeFiance managed to raise nearly half the amount.

According to some sources, part of the firm’s commitments were trimmed after the FTX collapse, yet the fund still managed to close the first tranche and begin investing.

Also in ForkLog:

• CoinGecko: DeFi project investments rose by 190%.