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Blockchain.com $110M funding round halves its 2022 valuation: Report

November 14, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Blockchain.com 0M funding round halves its 2022 valuation: Report

Despite new investment in the crypto exchange, Blockchain.com’s valuation has more than halved from its $14 billion peak.

Crypto exchange and wallet provider Blockchain.com closed a $110 million Series E financing round, an investment that more than halves its previous 2022 valuation of $14 billion.

In a Nov. 14 blog post, Blockchain.com said the closing of its Series E round was led by the United Kingdom-based venture capital firm Kingsway Capital. It also saw participation from Baillie Gifford, Lakestar and Coinbase Ventures, among others.

A Nov. 14 Bloomberg report citing sources familiar with the matter said the $110 million round places Blockchain.com at less than half of its $14 billion valuation from March 2022.

On March 30, 2022, Blockchain.com closed a funding round that saw its valuation spike from $5.2 billion to $14 billion, less than two months before the collapse of Do Kwon’s Terra ecosystem triggered a liquidity cascade that bankrupted hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) and a slew of high profile crypto lenders.

Blockchain.com’s March 2022 funding round was led by global venture capital firm Lightspeed Ventures and Baillie Gifford & Co. — an investment management firm renowned for its early involvement in growth stocks such as Tesla.

While the new investment saw the firm’s valuation dip, the funding activity hints at a newfound investment appetite for crypto firms, buoyed by a continued uptick in digital asset prices more broadly.

The broader market enthusiasm for crypto assets is tied to multiple pending applications for spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) products from financial firms such as BlackRock and Fidelity.

Bitcoin (BTC) is currently up 116% in the last year, while other major cryptocurrencies such as Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL) are respectively up 61% and 300% over the last 12 months.

Founded in 2011, Blockchain.com has 37 million verified users with 82 million wallets and over $1 trillion in total transaction value across its platform.

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Polychain Capital, Coinfund raise $350M for new crypto funds: Report

July 19, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Polychain Capital, Coinfund raise 0M for new crypto funds: Report

Coin Telegraph

Polychain Capital raised $200M for its newest fund while Coinfund raised a better-than-expected $152 million.

Over $350 million has been raised by crypto venture capital firms Polychain Capital and Coinfund, with respective reported raises of $200 million for a new investment fund and $152 million for a seed fund.

A July 18 Forbes report said Polychain’s $200 million sum was raised in the “first close” of its fourth investment fund, according to sources familiar with the matter. The close means Polychain has now signed agreements with investors and can begin issuing funding to startups and projects.

Despite the significant raise, Polychain still intends to raise $400 million in total for the new fund. Additionally, Polychain let go of three members of its research team due to its new investing priorities.

Polychain currently manages a total of three funds with approximately $2.6 billion in assets under management, according to Pitchbook data.

Despite VC funding for crypto projects declining consistently for over a year, VC firm Coinfund also raised $152 million for its fourth seed fund, according to a July 18 Bloomberg report.

July is CoinFund’s 8th anniversary, celebrating the journey of @jbrukh @flexthought and team from kitchen table to cap table. We’re thrilled to bolster this milestone with the announcement that CoinFund has closed its $158M Seed IV Fund to back the leaders of the new internet
pic.twitter.com/6kwBFuIHiy
— CoinFund (@coinfund_io) July 18, 2023

Coinfund CEO Jake Brukhman said the company had its sights set on raising $125 million but managed to rake in an additional $27 million due to a resurgence of interest in the industry.

The total volume of venture funding for crypto and Web3 startups has declined by 76% from this time last year, according to data from business analytics firm Crunchbase.

*The total sum of venture funding and number of deals for crypto startups in the last two years. Source: Crunchbase*

Investors have reportedly grown wary of the crypto sector, following on from the collapse of Do Kwon’s Terra Money ecosystem, Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX and a number of other high-profile projects over the span of the last two years.

This has caused a retreat into more traditional market sectors and many venture capitalists have become cautious of new investments across the board, with the only notable exception being artificial intelligence.

As of Jan. 1, the AI industry had seen in excess of $12 billion dollars in venture funding as investors race to capitalize on the nascent sector.

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Crypto winter? DeFi, Metaverse, and NFT job market still hot — Recruiters

September 1, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The number one attribute to succeed in the crypto industry is a “start-up mentality” and the ability to “roll with the punches," a crypto recruiter tells Cointelegraph.

The ongoing crypto winter has seen budgets and jobs slashed, but the search for top-tier talent hasn’t stopped across several Web3 verticals, according to some crypto recruitment firms.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Kevin Gibson, founder of crypto recruiting firm Proof of Search said that the majority of staff cuts in the crypto market have been from centralized exchanges, most notably the 18% staff cut at Coinbase in June, 10% cuts at Gemini in July, and the 5% cut at Crypto.com.

Despite this, he said there is “still a great deal of demand” for crypto job seekers to get work with “Game-Fi, Metaverse, De-Fi and NFT-oriented companies.”

Gibson explained that crypto job boards continue to be dominated by developer and engineer roles, adding there is also “a shortage of experienced CTO, CMO, and token experts.”

Unfortunately several crypto exchanges announced big layoffs recently:
- @coinbase 18%
- @Gemini 10%
- @cryptocom 5%
- @BlockFi 20%

Despite all this several of our hiring partners are still looking for devs: Rust, Solidity, React, NodeJS...

✉️ DMs are open! #hiring
— CryptoCareers | Hiring Web3 Developers (@_cryptocareers) June 14, 2022

Gibson added that venture capital firms have continued to deploy capital “to companies with solid business models which have seen sustained hiring activity despite market fluctuations.”

These claims appear to be backed by a recent report from crypto analytics firm Messari, which showed that $30.3 billion was poured into crypto companies in H1 2022, which was more than 2021. While Web3 and NFT projects captured $8.6 billion of the total amount invested in the period.

Founder of CryptoRecruit Neil Dundon told Cointelegraph that the majority he had seen came from “non-essential areas.”

Dundon said however over the short to medium term, the crypto job market will “remain relatively stagnant for the time being until we get confirmation that we have exited the bear market,” despite there still being plenty of “great opportunities” out there for both crypto companies and job seekers.

But bear market or not, Dundon said that a crypto company’s ability to adapt to changing circumstances will go a long way towards success in this market.

“Crypto is still a nascent industry the most important attribute to have when entering this space is a start up mentality. The ability to roll with the punches when things get a bit tougher or company direction changes. Building new things is not for the faint hearted.”

Some of the world’s largest publicly traded companies have also poured funds into the crypto market in 2022. According to BlockData, Google, Samsung, Microsoft, PayPal, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs are among some of the companies to have participated in funding rounds.

Twitch co-founder raises $24M for Web3 gaming firm Metatheory

May 17, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Twitch co-founder raises M for Web3 gaming firm Metatheory

Blockchain Game

The funding round led by Web3-focused venture capital firms will be used for upcoming nonfungible tokens, comics and a play-to-earn game slated for late 2022.

Web3 gaming and entertainment company Metatheory founded by Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin has raised $24 million in a Series A funding round on Monday.

The round was led by crypto capital venture firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with participation from Pantera Capital, the venture arm of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, FTX Ventures, and other venture firms, according to the announcement.

Metatheory was launched in November 2021 around one year after Lin left Twitch, where he wrote in a Medium article at the time that he was creating the gaming company and also a blockchain game called DuskBreakers. Lin was quoted in this week’s announcement as saying:

“Building immersive digital experiences has always been a passion of mine, and after stepping away from Twitch to explore what’s next in the industry, I truly believe blockchain will open the door to even more possibilities and have a major impact in the gaming, storytelling and community building space.”

ICYMI: Today we're excited to announce a $24M Series A Round in Metatheory, our parent company.

A big TY to: @a16z @PanteraCapital @FTX_Official
Breyer Capital @jimihendrixlive @MeritCircle_IO @Globalcoinrsrch @Sfermion_@daedalus_angels @dragonfly_cap @rechargecapital
— DuskBreakers (@DuskBreakers) May 16, 2022

DuskBreakers was released in December 2021 with the art designed by the former lead illustrator at Twitch. The Ethereum-based game implemented a “play-to-mint” model for its first 10,000 nonfungible tokens (NFTs). Those looking to grab an NFT have to play an arcade-type game to validate their entry onto a whitelist.

The DuskBreakers team plans to release comics and animations to continue its storyline, andditional NFTs and content are in the works at Metatheory with a play-to-earn game set for launch in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Lin is not the only Twitch co-founder with an interest in gaming NFTs. In December 2021 Justin Kan, another co-founder of Twitch, launched the Fractal NFT marketplace which focuses on blockchain gaming tokens saying that “NFTs are the future of gaming.”

Blockchain gaming is gaining interest from titans of the traditional gaming industry. Most recently, Square Enix revealed in its earnings report that it will expand NFTs into more of its games in 2022.

Microsoft’s CEO said the development of metaverse platforms was a key reason for the $69 billion acquisition of gaming giant Activision Blizzard and Sega is looking to integrate cloud technology NFTs as part of its new Super Game project, which connects its different games to each other.

Goldman Sachs and Barclays invest in UK crypto trading platform Elwood

May 16, 2022 Coin Telegraph

alan howard

The global head of digital assets for Goldman Sachs said the demand for cryptocurrency from institutions is rising and the firm has been “actively broadening” its market capabilities to cater to that demand.

Banking giants Goldman Sachs and Britain’s Barclays have joined a $70 million Series A funding round for the institutional crypto trading platform Elwood Technologies, founded by billionaire British hedge fund manager Alan Howard.

Joining the round was crypto-friendly German bank Commerzbank, crypto investment manager Galaxy Digital, and Dawn Capital as reported by the Financial Times on May 15. The fundraising round valued the company at around $500 million according to the report.

Despite the recent fall in crypto markets, Elwood said it's betting that traditional financial institutions such as hedge funds and banks will still be interested in investing in cryptocurrencies. Elwood's funding round was already agreed to and in motion before the latest drop in prices which has seen roughly 15% wiped off the total crypto market cap since May 9 according to CoinMarketCap.

Elwood Technologies CEO James Stickland said the fundraising was “another validation of the longevity of crypto” brushing off the falling prices from the last few weeks:

“We’re getting investment from financial institutions that aren’t expecting to get massive returns in 15 minutes. They’re investing in the infrastructure, I think it’s a reassurance message.”

Elwood Technologies provides a crypto portfolio management system with crypto market information and trading infrastructure for institutional investors that features an interface that connects to crypto exchanges, liquidity providers, and custodians.

Commenting on the deal Goldman Sachs’ global head of digital assets Mathew McDermott said the investment showed the firm has “continued commitment” to cryptocurrencies, adding:

“As institutional demand for cryptocurrency rises, we have been actively broadening our market presence and capabilities to cater for client demand.”

The funding from Goldman Sachs marks the bank's further expansion into crypto assets. The investment bank was the first to offer a loan backed by Bitcoin (BTC) to crypto exchange Coinbase in early May. It has long seen an interest in the space, even referring to digital assets and the Metaverse as “megatrends” in March.

Another case of the Wall Street giant cozying to crypto firms saw a meeting between Goldman CEO David Solomon and FTX boss Sam Bankman-Fried which included an offer from Solomon to help FTX with future funding rounds and regulatory compliance.

As for Elwood Technologies, it will remain majority-owned by Alan Howard who was the main investor before the Series A round. Howard co-founded the hedge fund Brevan Howard which launched its crypto investment division “BH Digital” in September 2021.

Blossom Capital’s Newly Launched $432 Million Fund to Focus on Crypto Startups

January 18, 2022 Bitcoin.com

crypto funding