Institutional Digest: BitDAO Raises $356 Million, Bitpanda $263 Million

The crypto industry is drawing an ever-growing number of institutional players. This is reflected in new investments in infrastructure and in the heightened attention that companies devote to Bitcoin as an asset class. The most notable developments of the past weeks are in ForkLog’s roundup.

BitDAO raises over $356 million and launches BIT governance token

The decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) BitDAO launched the governance token BIT and attracted 112 000 ETH in the auction.

BIT tokens were sold on SushiSwap’s MISO platform, the DEX. In the auction, 9,200 participants took part.

In total, for Ethereum, 180 million BIT were sold, with another 20 million purchased using the native SushiSwap token (SUSHI).

Bitpanda raises $263 million at a $4.1 billion valuation

The European cryptocurrency brokerage Bitpanda raised $263 million.

The Series C financing round was led by Valar Ventures, the fund of PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. It was joined by billionaire Alan Howard, REDO Ventures, LeadBlock Partners and Jump Capital.

Bitpanda’s valuation rose to $4.1 billion. The funds will be used for international expansion and scaling the business.

Fox Corporation leads $100 million funding round for Eluvio

American media company Fox Corporation served as the lead investor in a Series A financing round of $100 million for the blockchain platform provider Eluvio.

As part of the deal, the size of which was not disclosed, Eluvio will provide the foundational technology platform for Blockchain Creative Labs, the recently launched joint NFT-division of Fox Entertainment and Bento Box Entertainment.

CTO Pol Chizbro will join the startup’s board of directors.

MobileCoin developers raise $66 million

The MobileCoin raised $66 million. In the Series B financing round, participants included Alameda Research, Berggruen Holdings, Coinbase Ventures, BlockTower Capital and others.

The funds will be used for further product development, including a chatbot-based payments system and the launch of its own stablecoin.

Galaxy Digital backs Figment in $50 million round

Figment, a provider of blockchain infrastructure solutions, raised $50 million. The Series B round was led by Senator Investment Group and Liberty City Venture with participation from Galaxy Digital Mike Novogratz, the crypto bank Anchorage and others.

The funds will be used to scale its own infrastructure and expand its staff.

Zipmex, Thailand’s crypto exchange, raises $41 million

Zipmex raised $41 million. Investors included Bank of Ayudhya, the country’s fifth-largest bank, media companies, and venture funds.

As a result of the round, Zipmex’s total financing reached $52 million. In the near term, the new financing will help the exchange double its users to one million within the next six months.

Zipmex plans to strengthen technology and compliance teams to develop new products in lending, payments and securities.

Blockchain-solutions provider for the U.S. Army raises $25 million

The startup SIMBA Chain raised $25 million from Valley Capital Partners, Notre Dame Pit Road Fund, Elevate Ventures, Stanford Law School Venture Fund, and a number of private investors.

The funds will be used to scale sales, marketing and development. The startup also plans to allocate resources to new directions of business.

Tiger Global backs CertiK, smart-contract auditor, in $24 million round

The smart-contract security-focused startup CertiK raised $24 million in a Series B+ financing round led by Tiger Global and GL Ventures.

The funds will be used to expand the team and develop security-focused technologies.

Polychain Capital leads $22 million funding round for DeFi protocol Parallel Finance

Polkadot-based DeFi protocol Parallel Finance raised $22 million. The project’s valuation reached $150 million.

The Series A round was led by Polychain Capital, with participation from Lightspeed, Slow Ventures, Blockchain Capital and Alameda Research.

Parallel currently has 3,000 users. The project plans to grow its user base severalfold over the year and hire new staff.

Andreessen Horowitz leads $20 million Series A for DeFi project Syndicate

The developers of the DeFi project Syndicate raised $20 million in a Series A financing round led by the Silicon Valley venture firm Andreessen Horowitz.

More than 150 investors participated, including Coinbase Ventures, Bill Ackman’s Table Management, Alexis Ohanian, Ashton Kutcher and Snoop Dogg Ventures.

The funds will be used to accelerate development of technologies built on a decentralized autonomous organization, integration with Web3 and fintech startups, and to support various communities.

NFT protocol Alethea AI, backed by Mark Cuban, raises $16 million in token sale

The NFT protocol Alethea AI, behind the development of the space, closed a private token sale of $16 million to “build scalable infrastructure for a market of non-fungible tokens based on artificial intelligence”.

In the token sale participated Mark Cuban, Metapurse and Crypto.com. Funding also provided by Alameda Research, Multicoin, Galaxy Interactive, Dapper Labs, LD Capital, Gemini Frontier Fund, Borderless Capital, Meltem Demirors of CoinShares and Hasib Kureshi of Dragonfly Capital.

Paradigm and Founders Fund invest in NFT platform by DJ 3LAU

The DJ Justin Blau, better known as 3LAU, raised $16 million to launch NFT platform Royal. It allows participants to jointly own music copyrights and receive royalties.

The project was backed by Founders Fund of Peter Thiel and Paradigm, the investment company of Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam. Blau launched Royal with his college friend — Atomic’s managing partner JD Ross.

Also on ForkLog:

• 1inch Network opened a new funding round valued at $2.25 billion.
• DeFi project aimed at institutional investors raised $7 million.
• Arcane Crypto raised $7 million to enter the mining industry.
• DeFi project Ondo raised $4 million to launch a DAO and its own token.
• Dragonfly, GSR and SIG invested in a digital asset management platform.

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