Institutional Roundup: NEAR Protocol Raises $350 Million, Binance.US Valued at $4.5 Billion

The cryptocurrency industry is drawing an increasing number of institutional players. This is reflected in both new investments in infrastructure and the rising attention that companies give to bitcoin as an asset class. The most important events of the past few weeks are in ForkLog’s overview.

Creator of Bored Ape Yacht Club raises $450 million at a $4 billion valuation

The creator of the NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club, Yuga Labs raised $450 million in a funding round at a $4 billion valuation.

The round was led by a16z with participation from Animoca Brands, LionTree, Sound Ventures, Thrive Capital, FTX, MoonPay and others.

The funds will be used to scale the team and finance future developments, including the Otherside metaverse.

NEAR Protocol closes $350 million funding round led by Tiger Global and others

The NEAR Protocol team closed a $350 million financing round led by venture firm Tiger Global with participation from Republic Capital, Hashed, FTX Ventures, Dragonfly Capital and other investors.

The proceeds will be deployed to expand regional hubs in key community centers around the world.

According to the team, roughly 300 applications run on the NEAR platform, with more than 200,000 community members worldwide.

Binance.US raises $200 million at a $4.5 billion valuation

The American unit of the bitcoin exchange Binance raised $200 million in a seed round of venture funding. The implied valuation for Binance.US reached $4.5 billion.

In the round, participants included RRE Ventures, Foundation Capital, Original Capital, VanEck, Circle Ventures, Gaingels, Gold House and a number of other investors.

The funds will be used to grow the spot trading platform, widen the product and service offering in the near term, and support marketing and educational initiatives.

Improbable raises $150 million to build a network of metaverses

The British startup Improbable raised $150 million to build a network of interoperable metaverses, M².

The financing round was led by a16z and SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Also participating were Mirana, Digital Currency Group, CMT, SIG and Ethereal Ventures.

Improbable helps various platforms implement Web 3.0 elements and launch metaverses using its own technology.

Gumi Cryptos Capital ventures raises $110 million

The crypto-focused firm gumi Cryptos Capital (gCC) raised $110 million for investments in early-stage startups. This is according to a press release.

The company announced the launch of its second fund, which will focus primarily on DeFi, metaverses, gaming and DAO.

GCC intends to invest in each new project amounts ranging from $500 000 to $5 000 000, via equity investments and token purchases.

The value of the first fund (Fund I), in a portfolio of 36 companies, rose from $21 million to $516 million, according to GCC representatives. The firm previously invested in OpenSea at seed financing, as well as Celsius Network and the DeFi platform 1inch.

FTX Ventures invests $100 million in digital bank Dave

The company Dave announced a strategic partnership with the Binance US exchange. As part of the cooperation, the affiliated investment fund FTX Ventures will invest $100 million in the digital bank.

Dave is developing a banking app that lets you open an account, issue a debit card and obtain a small salary-advance loan.

CEO Jason Wilk noted that the app will integrate cryptocurrencies as part of the partnership with FTX.

Boba Network raises $45 million at a $1.5 billion valuation

The Boba Network project, focused on Ethereum layer-2 scaling solutions, raised $45 million. Investors valued the platform at $1.5 billion.

The Series A round was conducted as a token sale. Investors included Crypto.com, Huobi, BitMart, Kinetic Capital, Infinite Capital, Hack VC, Dreamers VC led by Will Smith, M13 Ventures and around 400 other investors.

Founder Alan Chiou said the raised funds would allow increasing the team, granting funds to developers, and boosting marketing efforts.

NFT marketplace Fractal raises $35 million in seed funding

The Fractal NFT platform on the Solana blockchain raised $35 million in a seed round.

The round was led by Paradigm and Multicoin Capital with participation from a16z, Solana Labs, Animoca Brands, Coinbase and others.

The funds will be used to expand the development team.

Coin Metrics raises $35 million from BNY Mellon and Acrew Capital

The analytics firm Coin Metrics closed a Series C financing round of $35 million.

The round was led by BNY Mellon and Acrew Capital with participation from Goldman Sachs, Fidelity Investments, Morningside Technology Ventures, Cboe Global Markets, JAM FINTOP Blockchain, Mubadala Investment Company and Brevan Howard Digital.

Earlier investors — Coinbase, DCG, Dragonfly Capital, Castle Island Ventures, Highland Capital Partners, Avon Ventures, Communitas Capital, Collab+Currency, The Raptor Group, BlockFi and Animal Ventures — also provided funding.

The funds will be used to develop innovative data-analysis products for the crypto industry and to expand operations internationally.

Moneybox raises £35 million to enter the crypto industry

The asset manager Moneybox raised £35 million (~$45.8 million) in a Series D round from Fidelity Investments, Polar Capital and existing investors.

The funds will help the firm grow its client base, expand its ETF offering and introduce services for investing in digital assets.

Moneybox has approached £3 billion in assets under management from 800,000 clients.

Haun Ventures’ Katie Haun raises $1.5 billion for Web 3.0 investments

Haun Ventures, connected with former a16z general partner Katie Haun, raised $1.5 billion across two crypto funds focused on Web 3.0.

The funding was provided by a16z, some firm partners, endowments, charitable organizations and family offices.

Haun Ventures focuses on developer tools, comprehensive NFT services and software for digital-asset taxation.

About $500 million will go into a vehicle for early-stage investments, and $1 billion into an accelerator. The plan envisions investments in both equity and tokens.

Also in ForkLog:

• The team behind a decentralized alternative to Google Maps raised $18 million.
• The gaming blockchain startup GOALS raised $15 million seed funding.
• The metaverse Cross The Ages raised $12 million in a seed round.
• NFT marketplace Blur raised $11 million in seed funding.
• Crypto-data provider The TIE valued at $100 million.
• The metaverse The Kingdom raised $3.6 million from Alameda Research and other investors.

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