“Web5,” Metaverse sports and Bitcoin revenue generation are generating buzz

by · July 9, 2022

A lot has happened in the Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency markets since our last issue of VC Roundup. The monumental collapse of the Terra ecosystem spread to other segments of the digital asset market, revealing over-leveraged traders, lending platforms and venture capital funds. In the process, the prices of Bitcoin fell again, and fell below the peak of the previous cycle for the first time in history.

Despite macro headwinds inflicting pain on crypto markets, venture capital firms continue to invest in the industry’s most promising startups. The latest edition of VC Roundup highlights financing agreements for digital asset infrastructure providers, non-custodian cryptocurrencies, payment solutions and decentralized identity management companies.

Infrastructure provider of digital assets closes the round of $ 53 million

PolySign’s quest to bring institutional-level cryptocurrency solutions to investors has received support from several venture capital firms. The company recently raised $ 53 million in Series C financing backed by Cowen Digital, Brevan Howard, GSR and more. In addition, the company secured a credit facility of $ 25 million from the venture firm Boathouse Capital. Although PolySign did not specify how the funding would be allocated, Series C was closed at about the same time as the company acquired the digital asset fund administrator MG Stover.

Related: Goldman Sachs downgrades Coinbase stock to “sell”

Bitcoin startup raises money to monetize the creative economy

Bitcoin and Lightning Network payment platform Mash raised $ 6 million in start-up funding in June as part of its ongoing efforts to make money online for developers and content creators. The funding round was led by Nic Carter’s Castle Island Ventures and Whitecap Venture Partners, with additional participation from Maple VC, Strategic Cyber ​​Ventures, Aquanow and Spacecadet Ventures. The Mash platform allows developers and content creators to offer customers so-called “pay-as-you-enjoy” pricing options facilitated by BTC and Lightning Network.

The NFT app Floor raises $ 8 million

Nonfungible token application Floor has completed a $ 8 million Series A investment round to advance its goal of making NFTs more accessible to mainstream users. The financing round was led by 6thMan Ventures, with further participation from B Capital, Worklife Ventures, Collab + Currency, Crypto.com and others. Floor said they will use the funding to accelerate development and give NFTs more benefits.

Euler gets a lot of support

Non-Prolonged Crypto Protocol Euler has completed a $ 32 million round of funding led by Haun Ventures, which included participation from FTX Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Jump Crypto, Jane Street, Uniswap Labs and others. The funding will be injected into the treasury of Euler’s decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, which will be rolled out in three phases. Euler is a decentralized financial protocol built on Ethereum that allows users to lend and borrow cryptocurrencies.

“Web5” and decentralized identity attract VC interest

Decentralized Identity Protocol Trinsic recently completed a $ 8.5 million seed round to continue building its so-called user-controlled identity products. A spokesman for the company said that Trinsic’s products really benefit Jack Dorsey’s “Web5” ambitions. A vocal critic of Web3, the former Twitter boss announced in June that he was bypassing the third iteration of the Internet in favor of “Web5”, a new Bitcoin-centric model for identity management.

Related: VC Roundup: The rise of blockchain gaming, DAO administration and asset tokenization

KYVE completes $ 9 million increase before mainnet launch

Web3 filing protocol KYVE has raised $ 9 million in funding ahead of a planned mainnet launch scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2022. The funding round, which was attended by Distributed Global, Wicklow Capital, IOSG Ventures, Blockchain Coinvestors, Huobi Incurabor and others, will be used to integrate more ecosystems in KYVE’s so-called decentralized data lake. Several blockchains are currently using KYVE, including Avalanche, Zilliqa, Cosmos and Polkadot.

Atmos Labs targets Metaverse sports with seed growth

Play-to-earn developer Atmos Labs has completed a $ 11 million seed round to continue building Metaverse-focused sports games. The investment round was led by the NFT-focused venture firm Sfermion, with further participation from Animoca Brands, Collab + Currency, FBG Capital, CoinGecko Ventures and several others. Atmos Labs wants to bring e-sports to a global audience by creating immersive gaming in Metaverse.