Institutional Roundup: MEXC backs TON, CMCC Global launches a $100m Web3 fund

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

Crypto exchange MEXC to back TON’s transformation into a Web3 super-app

The TON blockchain platform team raised an “eight-figure sum” of investments from MEXC’s venture arm. Partners will focus on lowering the global barriers to entry into Web3.

Under the deal, MEXC will focus on promoting popular blockchain-based projects. The firm also intends to launch a TON-based lending service and waive trading fees for using utility-tokens of the partner.

In addition to ongoing support for TON-based projects, the venture arm will continue to fund blockchain-related dapps such as Megaton Finance, TONPlay, Fanzee and Sonet.

Partners are discussing potential funding for a Telegram crypto wallet.

CMCC Global launches a $100m Web3 fund

Hong Kong-based CMCC Global Asset Management launched a Web3 infrastructure-focused fund. Investors include Winklevoss Capital and Jebsen Capital.

The Titan Fund’s structure targets early-stage blockchain startups with a focus on the following areas:

• infrastructure;
• gaming services;
• NFT platforms;
• financial apps and exchanges;
• wallets;
• crypto lending.

Other participants in the fund include Block.one, Pacific Century Group and Animoca Brands founder Yat Siu.

Visa invests $100m in generative AI projects

Visa plans to invest $100m in startups focused on developing generative artificial intelligence technologies and applications.

The company described the initiative as expanding the rollout of AI-enabled innovations in payments, which Visa began in 1993.

Generative AI refers to technology that uses large language models to create text, images and other content from prompts.

Investments will be channeled through Visa Ventures — the payments company’s venture arm created in 2007.

“Given the early stage of the industry’s development, we expect to make a number of small investments in the order of several million dollars,” said Visa Ventures head David Rolf.

With solid justification, the unit could allocate larger sums, he added.

The main criterion for backing startups, Rolf said, is a commitment to using AI to “solve real problems in commerce, payments and financial technologies”.

Analysts estimate the blockchain gaming investments volume for Q3

The volume of venture investments in the blockchain gaming segment for July–September reached $600m, year-to-date $2.3bn, according to DappRadar.

Compared with Q3 2022, the figure is up 30%. This underscores the need to take external market conditions into account, according to analysts.

Blockchain activity rose— the number of unique active wallets in the quarter grew by 12%, to 786,766.