Institutional Round-Up: Bitso raises $250 million, and Coin Metrics $15 million from Goldman Sachs

The cryptocurrency industry is attracting an increasing number of institutional players. This is evident both in new investments in infrastructure and in the growing attention that companies devote to Bitcoin as an asset class. The most important events of recent weeks are in ForkLog’s overview.

Bitcoin exchange Bitso raises $250 million

The largest cryptocurrency exchange in Latin America, Bitso raised $250 million in a Series C financing round. Investors valued the company at $2.2 billion.

The round was led by Tiger Global and Coatue Management with participation from Paradigm, BOND, Valor Capital Group, QED Ventures, Pantera Capital and Kaszek Ventures.

The company will deploy the raised funds to expand in South America and develop new products. In particular, Bitso will launch a crypto-derivatives platform based on the previously acquired Quedex.

The exchange serves 2 million customers. Over the last 10 months its user base has doubled. According to Bitso’s own data, it accounts for more than 95% of the crypto market in Mexico and more than 60% in Argentina.

Animoca Brands, NFT game developer, raises $88.9 million from Rothschild fund

Hong Kong-based NFT game developer Animoca Brands raised $88.9 million from the Rothschild dynasty’s fund RIT Capital Partners, Huobi and other investors.

As part of the deal the company issued newly issued shares at $0.85 per share. The capitalization was valued at $1 billion following the financing round.

The fresh capital will allow the studio to continue its aggressive growth. The funds will be used to develop new products, secure licensing rights for games, and pursue further acquisitions and strategic investments.

To mark its joining the unicorn club, Animoca Brands will issue a special NFT for investors and key partners.

PolySign, blockchain company founded by Ripple co-founder, raises $53 million

PolySign, the blockchain company founded by Ripple co-founder closed a Series B round of financing for $53 million. It was led by Cowen with $23 million in strategic investments, with participation from Blockchain.com, Race Capital, Sandia Holdings and PilotRock Investments.

PolySign will deploy the raised capital to accelerate the development of institutional-grade blockchain applications for storing and managing cryptocurrencies.

London-based custodian Copper raises $50 million

London-based custodial service Copper raised $50 million in a Series B round. It was led by investment company Target Global and the Dawn Capital venture fund.

Copper will deploy the funds to expand globally. The company will open regional offices in the United States and Asia, triple its headcount, and invest part of the money in developing new products.

According to the service, Copper serves more than 200 Bitcoin exchanges, funds, payment firms and other market participants. Since Q3 2020, assets under management have grown more than 40-fold.

Hashdex raises $26 million from Coinbase and SoftBank

Brazilian asset manager Hashdex raised $26 million from Valor Capital with participation from SoftBank, Coinbase Ventures and other investors.

The funding will be used for overseas expansion. By the end of 2021 Hashdex plans to open new offices and grow its staff from 25 to 100.

DeFi dashboard Zapper raises $15 million from Mark Cuban and other investors

The DeFi dashboard Zapper raised $15 million following a Series A round. It was led by Framework Ventures with participation from Mark Cuban, Libertus Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Spartan Group, DeFiance Capital, Long Hash, Sino Global, ParaFi Capital and others.

The funds will be used to launch a mobile app and a marketplace for developers. According to Zapper’s CEO Seba Odeta, this would enable the community to rapidly roll out new features and keep up with the fast-expanding DeFi ecosystem.

Coin Metrics raises $15 million from Goldman Sachs

Coin Metrics raised $15 million. The Series B round was led by Goldman Sachs with participation from Acrew Ventures, BlockFi, Morningside Group and Warburg Serres Investments and previous investors.

The funds will be used for global expansion, expanding the number of supported blockchains and markets, and enhancing the product suite.

RTFKT Studios, NFT startup, raises $8 million from Andreessen Horowitz and Galaxy Digital

The NFT startup RTFKT Studios, raised $8 million in a seed financing round.

The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz. The startup was also backed by Galaxy Digital, Ledger, Roham Gharegozlou (CEO of Dapper Labs), C Ventures, Shrug Capital, NFT creator Fewocious, Akash Nigam, founder of Genies, and others.

The funds will be used to develop new tools for creating NFTs, hire artists and other creators, and invest in ecosystem development.

Axie Infinity NFT game developers attract $7.5 million from Mark Cuban and other investors

Sky Mavis, the creators of the NFT game Axie Infinity, raised $7.5 million in a Series A round.

The round was led by Libertus Capital. It also included billionaire Mark Cuban, Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian, Collab + Currency, DeFi Alliance, Animoca Brands, BlockTower Capital and others.

Sky Mavis will use the funds to integrate the Ronin sidechain for Ethereum to lower the entry barrier for players. The studio will also recruit top developers from the traditional gaming world to increase the appeal of Axie Infinity.

The studio says the daily NFT-game audience is 41,000 users, and the monthly NFT trading volume is $15 million.

Polkadot-based dTrade platform raises $6.4 million from Polychain and Huobi

dTrade, a Polkadot-based derivatives platform raised $6.4 million.

In the seed round, participants included Three Arrows, DeFiance, Huobi, Polychain, ParaFi Capital, Mechanism Capital, Magic Ventures, Bixin Ventures, IOSG Ventures, Hypersphere Ventures, Chicago DeFi Alliance, LongHash Ventures, Alameda Research, Fenbushi Capital and others.

dTrade positions itself as the first DeFi protocol on an AMM in the Polkadot network. The platform is slated to launch in June. By the end of 2021 the developers will integrate ZK-Rollup for instant transactions.

In June the team will distribute the native token DET. 45% of the supply will go to investors, advisors and the team, 55% into reserves and a liquidity-provider incentive fund.

ParaSwap, a decentralized exchange aggregator, raises $3 million

ParaSwap, a liquidity aggregator from decentralized exchanges, raised $3 million in an additional seed round.

Participants included Blockchain Capital, White Star Capital and DeFi Alliance, as well as the founders of Yearn Finance, Curve Finance and Dune Analytics — Andre Cronje, Mihail Egorov and Fredrik Haga respectively.

The funds will be used by ParaSwap to implement support for alternative blockchains such as Avalanche, Arbitrum, Fantom and to implement various Layer 2 scaling solutions, including ZkSync and Optimism.

Also on ForkLog:

• Blockchain.com acquired an AI solutions provider for OTC trading.
• Huobi launched an investment arm with $100 million in capital.

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