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.<\/p>\n
The largest cryptocurrency exchange in Latin America, Bitso raised $250 million<\/a> in a Series C financing round. Investors valued the company at $2.2 billion.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Hong Kong-based NFT game developer Animoca Brands raised $88.9 million<\/a> from the Rothschild dynasty’s fund RIT Capital Partners, Huobi and other investors.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n To mark its joining the unicorn club, Animoca Brands will issue a special NFT for investors and key partners.<\/p>\n PolySign, the blockchain company founded by Ripple co-founder closed a Series B round of financing for $53 million<\/a>. It was led by Cowen with $23 million in strategic investments, with participation from Blockchain.com, Race Capital, Sandia Holdings and PilotRock Investments.<\/p>\n PolySign will deploy the raised capital to accelerate the development of institutional-grade blockchain applications for storing and managing cryptocurrencies.<\/p>\n London-based custodial service Copper raised $50 million<\/a> in a Series B round. It was led by investment company Target Global and the Dawn Capital venture fund.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Brazilian asset manager Hashdex raised $26 million<\/a> from Valor Capital with participation from SoftBank, Coinbase Ventures and other investors.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The DeFi dashboard Zapper raised $15 million<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Coin Metrics raised $15 million<\/a>. The Series B round was led by Goldman Sachs with participation from Acrew Ventures, BlockFi, Morningside Group and Warburg Serres Investments and previous investors.<\/p>\n The funds will be used for global expansion, expanding the number of supported blockchains and markets, and enhancing the product suite.<\/p>\n The NFT startup RTFKT Studios, raised $8 million<\/a> in a seed financing round.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The funds will be used to develop new tools for creating NFTs, hire artists and other creators, and invest in ecosystem development.<\/p>\n Sky Mavis, the creators of the NFT game Axie Infinity, raised $7.5 million<\/a> in a Series A round.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The studio says the daily NFT-game audience is 41,000 users, and the monthly NFT trading volume is $15 million.<\/p>\n dTrade, a Polkadot-based derivatives platform raised $6.4 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n ParaSwap, a liquidity aggregator from decentralized exchanges, raised $3 million<\/a> in an additional seed round.<\/p>\n Participants included Blockchain Capital, White Star Capital and DeFi Alliance, as well as the founders of Yearn Finance, Curve Finance and Dune Analytics \u2014 Andre Cronje, Mihail Egorov and Fredrik Haga respectively.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Also on ForkLog:<\/p>\nAnimoca Brands, NFT game developer, raises $88.9 million from Rothschild fund<\/strong><\/h2>\n
PolySign, blockchain company founded by Ripple co-founder, raises $53 million<\/strong><\/h2>\n
London-based custodian Copper raises $50 million<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Hashdex raises $26 million from Coinbase and SoftBank<\/strong><\/h2>\n
DeFi dashboard Zapper raises $15 million from Mark Cuban and other investors<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Coin Metrics raises $15 million from Goldman Sachs<\/strong><\/h2>\n
RTFKT Studios, NFT startup, raises $8 million from Andreessen Horowitz and Galaxy Digital<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Axie Infinity NFT game developers attract $7.5 million from Mark Cuban and other investors<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Polkadot-based dTrade platform raises $6.4 million from Polychain and Huobi<\/strong><\/h2>\n
ParaSwap, a decentralized exchange aggregator, raises $3 million<\/strong><\/h2>\n