Blockchain Firm Near Raises $12M From Coinbase Ventures, Xpring and Others

American blockchain firm Near has raised over $12 million in its Series A round from a range of high-profile investors, including Coinbase Ventures and Pantera, according to a press release on July 10.

Near — a startup that develops a public, proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain focused on usability and scalability — has secured $12.1 million from industry players such as Coinbase Ventures, the investment arm of crypto exchange Coinbase, investment firm Pantera Capital, crypto hedge fund Multicoin, and Ripple’s developer ecosystem project Xpring, among others.

Unlike an initial coin offering-like approach, Near decided to secure funds in exchange for native tokens. Near is reportedly planning to allocate the raised funds “to recruit more developers, to accelerate the development of additional tooling and to launch the Near Protocol mainnet.”

In April, Coinbase Ventures along with major technology investors such as Accomplice, Paradigm, and General Catalyst, made an investment into blockchain scalability project Coda. Coda aims to address blockchain’s scalability problem by compressing blocks and providing zero-knowledge proofs rather than most crypto-related firms.

In February, San Francisco-based blockchain lending firm Dharma Labs raised $7 million from big investors including Coinbase Ventures. Dharma Labs planned to use the raised capital mostly for its Lever product, a platform providing instant margin loans for cryptocurrency traders and high-volume investors.

Earlier today, Cointelegraph reported that global payment giant Visa recorded its second investment in a cryptocurrency project by leading a $40 million funding round of crypto custody service Anchorage startup.