Blockchain Founders Fund, a venture capital fund supporting the adoption of Web3 and blockchain technology, has announced the close of a $75 million fundraising round from companies such as Polygon, Ripple, Octava, NEO Global Capital, Appworks, GSR, LD Capital, Metavest Capital and others, such as Sebastien Borget, chief operating officer of The Sandbox. According to the announcement, the fund will focus on supporting high-potential early-stage pre-seed and seed projects that encourage the mass adoption of Web3 and blockchain technology. The fund has already invested in over 100 startups, including Altered State Machine, Splinterlands, GRID, Krayon and Magna. In an interview …

2022 will go down as a tough year for the cryptocurrency space and bleak market conditions were mirrored by a downtrend of venture capital funding flowing into blockchain and crypto activities. A report from Blockdata highlights consecutive drops in funding through all four quarters of 2022, following booming venture capital funding into the wider Web3 space through 2021. Analyzing data from CB Insights, Blockdata rounded off 2022’s final quarter of venture capital funding value noting a 34% decline from Q3 2022. The last quarter of the year was down drastically in funding value in contrast to Q1 and Q2, dropping …

The co-founder of the social media website Reddit, Alexis Ohanian, reportedly bought 50,000 Ether (ETH) for just $15,000 during the cryptocurrency’s presale in 2014, a cost of just 30 cents per coin. Ohanian, who left the social media giant in 2020, told Forbes in a Feb. 21 article that he found the idea of a decentralized store of value to be very attractive partly due to his Armenian heritage, prompting him to take an early gamble on Ethereum. “Any group of people who have in their consciousness, or in their collective history, some idea of persecution, especially by a state, …

Angel investors and venture capitalists are two types of private investors who provide funding for early-stage and growth-stage companies. However, there are some key differences between them that we will cover in this article. Who are angel investors? High-net-worth individuals who invest in companies at an early stage in exchange for equity in the business are known as angel investors. They frequently invest their own funds and take a more active approach to investment, offering advice and mentoring to the businesses they support. The well-known angel investors in the crypto world include: Roger Ver — He is known as “Bitcoin …

Users of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX have reportedly taken aim at financiers who promoted the platform suggesting their efforts added an “air of legitimacy” to the now-defunct exchange, a case labeled as "tricky" by a crypto lawyer. A Feb. 15 Bloomberg report revealed a class-action suit filed Feb. 14 by FTX investors against venture capital firm Sequoia Capital and private equity firms Thoma Bravo and Paradigm. The firms were accused by the investors of touting “their own investments” of hundreds of millions of dollars in FTX. It was alleged the firms were involved in a promotional marketing campaign in 2021 …

2023 is off to a great start, with Bitcoin (BTC) rocketing up 40% in January. The good news is not relegated to just Bitcoin, however, as this price increase has sent ripple effects across the cryptoverse. Mining revenue jumped $22.66 million in January, and crypto-related stocks doubled on average. Despite this good news, venture capital investments are down 23% from the previous month. Download and purchase this report on the Cointelegraph Research Terminal. For a more detailed look into the various sectors of the crypto space, including venture capital, derivatives, decentralized finance (DeFi), regulations and much more, Cointelegraph Research publishes …

Deutsche Bank's asset management arm is in discussions to invest in two German crypto companies, according to people familiar with the matter. Per a Bloomberg report on Feb. 8, DWS Group CEO Stefan Hoops is currently in talks to buy a minority stake in Deutsche Digital Assets, a crypto exchange-traded products provider. It's also in talks with Tradias, a market maker firm owned by Bankhaus Scheich — a traditional finance market maker. Hoops has been bullish about the opportunities presented in the digital assets space. During a recent earnings call, the executive said that DWS has “started to assess strategic …

According to a press release published on Feb. 8, blockchain carbon credit transaction network Carbonplace has secured $45 million in an investment round from its nine founder banks with a combined $9 trillion in assets under management. The banks are BBVA, BNP Paribas, CIBC, Itaú Unibanco, National Australia Bank, NatWest, Standard Chartered, SMBC, and UBS. The London-based fintech has also announced that it will become an independent entity, led by new CEO Scott Eaton. As told by Carbonplace, the company will use the investment to strengthen its platform and workforce, allowing it to scale its services to a larger client …

2023 is off to a tepid start for crypto venture capital, as the industry continues to emerge from a prolonged bear market. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t deals. In January, Cointelegraph reported a $125 million raise from Blockstream, a $60 million allocation to QuickNode and pair of ecosystem funds from Injective and SSV worth $150 million and $50 million, respectively. The latest edition of VC Roundup brings you seven smaller venture deals that may have slipped through the cracks. Related: Venture capital investments into blockchain continue to free-fall: Report =nil; Foundation closes $22M fundraise In January, Polygon Capital led …

Emin Gün Sirer, creator of the Avalanche Consensus protocol and Ava Labs CEO, believes that there is one very straightforward method to spot a long-standing cryptocurrency project. On Feb. 7 Sirer discussed blockchain venture capital and crypto regulation in a fireside chat with MarketAcross chief operations officer Itai Elizur at the Web3 builder-focused event, Building Blocks 23. During the discussion, the Avalanche founder pointed out the crucial role of “staying power” in the crypto industry, condemning players that run from one project to another or jump into “every single new coin offering” in the hopes that they will go up. …

Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) voted against a final proposal to deploy Uniswap V3 on the BNB Chain using the Wormhole bridge, shows the Uniswap DAO forum. The governance proposal to deploy the latest Uniswap iteration on the BNB Chain was submitted on Feb. 2 by 0xPlasma Labs on behalf of the Uniswap Community, after passing a temperature check with 20 million (80.28%) votes for yes, and 4.9 million (19.72%) votes for no. The venture firm used its 15 million UNI holding against the move. At the time of publication, only 3% of votes had been cast, or 23.4 …

Crypto lender BlockFi has had a highly tumultuous 12 months. After getting caught up in the Terra fiasco, which resulted in one of the most prolific asset death spirals of all time, the company managed to avoid bankruptcy after receiving a $400 million lifeline in July 2022. The problem? Its lender was FTX US, and we all know what happened next. Although BlockFi has attempted to separate itself from Sam Bankman-Fried’s fraud in the aftermath of FTX’s collapse, its secret financials tell a different story. This week’s Crypto Biz delves into BlockFi’s uncensored financials, the likelihood of “Celsius token” ever …