The Sandbox Scores $93 Million Investment Led by Softbank as Metaverse Tokens Thrive

November 4, 2021 Bitcoin.com

Everyone’s in The Sandbox: Artists, brands and creators pile into the Metaverse

November 3, 2021 Coin Telegraph

New ecosystem partners, attractive creator incentives and the successful completion of a $93 million funding round are a few reasons why SAND has rallied 393% in the past two weeks.

The blockchain gaming ecosystem has seen explosive growth over the course of 2021 as nonfungible tokens (NFT) and the play-to-earn gaming model helped create new income opportunities for people around the world while also ushering in a new cohort of users to the cryptocurrency sector.

One project involved in gaming and the building of the Metaverse is The Sandbox (SAND), a blockchain-based virtual world where users to create, build, buy and sell digital assets in the form of a game.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that after hitting a low of $0.70 on Oct. 27, the price of SAND has stormed 393% higher to reach a new all-time high at $3.45 on Nov. 3 as its 24-hour trading volume surged to $9 billion.

*SAND/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView*

Three reasons for the sudden spike in price of SAND include the successful completion of a $93 million funding round, its expanding ecosystem that continues to onboard new partners and the project's supportive environment that allows creators to engage with their communities while also receiving the lion’s share of revenue generated by their efforts.

SAND raises $93 million in a Series B funding round

On Nov. 2, The Sandbox announced that the project had successfully completed a $93 million Series B funding round which was led by the SoftBank Vision Fund 2.

According to the team behind SAND, the funds will be used to help scale the ecosystem's growth strategy, operations and player acquisition “while sending a clear statement that the world’s most innovative fund believes in Web3 and decentralization as the next major trend.”

These plans include the addition of new games, live performances and social experiences that encourage community engagement and create a earning-friendly environment for creators, brands and intellectual properties.

Growing list of ecosystem partners

A second factor behind the explosive price action for SAND is the protocols expanding network of big-name partners who have bought digital land inside The Sandbox.

Most recently, The Sandbox ecosystem welcomed Quan, a popular Japanese messenger and sticker characters collection. As part of its entrance to the ecosystem, Quan will auction off more than 300 LAND parcels, including 100 premium parcels that are bundled with NFTs.

The addition of popular companies to The Sandbox ecosystem should help to spread the reach of the community and attract new users to the world of blockchain gaming world.

Attractive creator incentives

Another reason for the growth seen for The Sandbox is the attractive creator incentives offered to developers and artists who build within the ecosystem.

As a way to demonstrate the project's focus on helping creators develop their brands, The Sandbox gives creatives 95% of the revenue generated by the items that they sell on the platform and 50% of all SAND revenue streams are reinvested into the Sandbox Foundation.

Funds in the foundation’s treasury, which adds up to more than $100 million, are used to provide grants to artists, creators and players.

VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for SAND on Oct. 28, prior to the recent price rise.

The VORTECS™ Score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historical and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.

*VORTECS™ Score (green) vs. SAND price. Source:* *Cointelegraph Markets Pro*

As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for SAND climbed into the green zone on Oct. 27 and reached a high of 74 on Oct. 28, around 32 hours before the price began to increase 229% over the next four days.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Crypto Giant Digital Currency Group Reaches $10 Billion Valuation in Latest Capital Raise

November 3, 2021 The Daily Hodl

Digital Currency Group sells $700M of shares for investors to take profits

November 1, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Digital Currency Group sells 0M of shares for investors to take profits

Coin Telegraph

Digital Currency Group CEO and founder Barry Silbert didn’t sell any stock in the latest round.

Digital Currency Group (DCG), one of the largest companies in the cryptocurrency industry, has completed a major secondary investment round led by Japanese financial giant SoftBank.

DCG has sold $700 million worth of shares to companies like Google’s parent company, Alphabet, to bring its valuation to more than $10 billion, the company officially announced Monday.

“Proud to welcome SoftBank, CapitalG, Ribbit, GIC, Tribe and Emory to an already fantastic list of DCG shareholders. And even more proud of over 1,000 employees of DCG and our wholly-owned subsidiaries that made this happen,” DCG CEO and founder Barry Silbert said.

In a Wall Street Journal interview, Silbert emphasized that the investment wasn’t about raising capital for DCG but rather an “opportunity for some for some early investors to exit and take profits.” All the raised money went to the selling shareholders, and none of them sold their entire stake, the company said. Silbert, who owns about 40% in the firm, said that he didn’t sell any stock in the latest round.

Silbert noted that the company hasn't ruled out a potential initial public offering, but it’s “not in the plans and not being discussed right now.” LDCG has been profitable and is on track to top $1 billion in revenue for the year, the CEO said.

DCG is a major crypto industry company, known for operating Grayscale Investments, the world’s biggest digital asset manager with $50 billion under management. In mid-October, Silbert hinted that the company is making plans to convert its Bitcoin Trust into a spot-settled Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.

Digital Currency Group Raises $700M at $10B Valuation

November 1, 2021 The Crypto Briefing

Blockchain Intelligence Company Elliptic Raises $60 Million — Evolution Equity Partners, Softbank Bolster Series C

October 12, 2021 Bitcoin.com

Elliptic raise $60M to advance crypto analytics service

October 11, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Elliptic raise M to advance crypto analytics service

Coin Telegraph

The blockchain analytics firm have amassed data points on 98% of the market's digital assets.

Cryptocurrency risk management firm Elliptic have announced a $60 million Series C funding round led by Evolution Equity Partners and supported by a panoply of venture capital firms including SoftBank Vision Fund 2, as well as existing relations AlbionVC, Digital Currency Group, Wells Fargo Strategic Capital and SBI Group, amongst others.

Elliptic's history of funding charts a consistent increase, with their debut funding raise in 2016 totalling $5 million, while their second raise across late 2019 to early 2020 raising an additional $28 million.

Founded in 2013 and headquartered in London, Elliptic captures analytical data from the blockchain sector to provide anti money laundering and compliance services to fintech institutions, governmental and legislative groups and crypto organizations from financial crime, in addition to enhancing their tolerability to risk.

According to the company’s announcement, two thirds of all cryptocurrency volume traded worldwide occurs on exchanges that utilize Elliptic’s risk management and analytical data solution. In addition to this, the firm boasts to have attained 20 billion data points across a span of 98% of the sector’s assets by market capitalization.

Simone Maini, CEO of Elliptic, spoke on the importance of safety in accessing crypto assets, and also added:

“This fundraising round is an endorsement of the opportunity for crypto assets in the financial industry - and our absolutely critical role in the ecosystem.”

In June 2020, Elliptic was recognized by the World Economic Forum as one of 100 early to growth-stage projects at the cutting-edge of technological innovation. The firm was designated into the Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies category alongside notable industry figures Chainlink and MakerDAO, as well as Lighting Labs, Ripio and Veridium Labs.

Founder of Evolution Equity Partners, Richard Seewald commented on the potential impact that the funding raise could have on Elliptic’s enterprise ambitions:

“The latest fundraise provides Elliptic more resources to expand their market-leading crypto asset risk management to financial organizations, businesses and regulatory authorities around the world.”

Blockdaemon secures unicorn status with $155M raise

September 23, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Blockdaemon secures unicorn status with 5M raise

Coin Telegraph

In the venture capital world, a privately-held startup company becomes a “unicorn” when its valuation exceeds $1 billion.

Blockchain infrastructure developer Blockdaemon has secured its status as a crypto unicorn after concluding a $155 million Series B fundraiser, putting the company on track to expand its operational footprint in a significant way.

With Series B now closed, Blockdaemon’s valuation has swelled to $1.255 billion, the company announced this week. To date, the company has raised just under $190 million, with the latest funding round led by the Softbank Vision Fund 2. Additional investors included Goldman Sachs , Kraken Ventures, Morgan Creek Digital, CoinFund, Matrix Capital Management and Sapphire Ventures.

Konstantin Richter, Blockdaemon’s founder and CEO, said the capital injection will be used to further expand DeFi infrastructure and bridge the gap between digital assets and traditional banking. The company noted that, over the past 90 days, it has more than doubled its managed node count to 18,000.

Blockdaemon provides blockchain infrastructure services to several networks, including Ethereum, Solana, Cardano and Polkadot.

Blockchain infrastructure providers have seen their valuations swell thanks to growing mainstream and institutional interest in digital assets. As Cointelegraph reported, Canada-based Bitcoin (BTC) infrastructure provider Blockstream concluded a $210 million investment round in August, bringing its total valuation to a whopping $3.2 billion. The company followed up that announcement by partnering with a major Australian investment bank around a new carbon-neutral mining facility.

Blockchain technology made its way into the United States infrastructure bill last month, albeit not in the manner that many had hoped. As digital assets become more mainstream, the technology that underpins them could increasingly be viewed as infrastructure.

Revolut Lands $33BN Valuation After SoftBank Raise

July 15, 2021 The Crypto Briefing

Softbank leads $800M investment for banking app Revolut

July 15, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Softbank leads 0M investment for banking app Revolut

Coin Telegraph

Now valued at $33 billion, Revolut didn’t rule out a potential IPO this year, but the firm's CFO suggested that it was unlikely.

Revolut, a major British banking app featuring cryptocurrency investment, has secured $800 million in a new funding round.

The new investment round is led by Japanese financial giant SoftBank and United States hedge fund Tiger Global, which collectively hold around 5% in Revolut, CNBC reported Thursday.

The round values Revolut at $33 billion, marking a sixfold increase from the company’s valuation of $5.5 billion in 2020. The newly secured funding will help Revolut continue international expansion as well as further improve marketing and product development, Revolut chief financial officer Mikko Salovaara noted. The company is particularly focused on rolling out services in the U.S. and India, he added.

The latest financing round reportedly makes Revolut the second-largest fintech unicorn in Europe behind Swedish fintech company Klarna. It is also now the biggest fintech in the United Kingdom, flipping major payments firm Checkout.com.

Despite Revolut posting massive growth over the past year, the company has no immediate plans for an initial public offering. Salovaara said that Revolut did not rule out a potential IPO this year but suggested it was unlikely.

Revolut did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.

Revolut reported nearly $240 million in annual losses last year, higher than the $140 million the company lost in 2019. Revolut CEO and co-founder Nik Storonsky previously said that the main reason for mounting losses in 2019 was an aggressive investment in global expansion and new product offerings. Revolut will continue its expansion into new services like crypto and stock trading to reach profitability in the long run, the CEO said recently.

Softbank

SAND raises $93 million in a Series B funding round

Growing list of ecosystem partners

Attractive creator incentives

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