In the past week, nine companies in the crypto world have raised $158 million in funding from private investors: blockchain development companies and a metaverse developer stand out.
Although the crypto market is still not very lively, the work continues rapidly with many companies receiving financial incentives every week.
Let’s go find out all the details in the news.
The latest funding in the blockchain world: work in progress on layer-1 infrastructure and a metaverse creator
Last week we saw blockchain companies and metaverse developers receive $158 million in funding from various venture capital funds.
Crypto-custody platform Bitgo earned the bulk of this investment by raising $100 million in a Series C round in which the names of those providing the money were not disclosed.
The company’s valuation now stands at $1.75 billion, about $500 million over the offer Galaxy Digital made to acquire the custodian during 2021 (later withdrawn in August 2022).
BitGo CEO Mike Belshe said it will use the money to meet the growing global demand for crypto custodial platforms, which will provide institutions, brands and foundations with a seamless secure presence within the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Other entities that have raised money from funding include blockchain Zetachain, which earned a whopping $27 million.
VC names include Blockchain.com, Jane Street Capital, Human Capital, Vy Capital and GSR.
Zetachain, an EVM-compatible layer-1 infrastructure, wants to move away from the fad of bridges and wrapped tokens and embrace a simpler, more interoperable future, giving users access to its services through a single platform independent of the blockchain on which they belong.
The goal is indeed complex, given and considering that it is not a centralized platform, but a decentralized network, but with $27 million in its pocket, there are the prerequisites to work well.
Another blockchain company operating in the layer-1 context, Linera, also raised funding last week, adding $6 million to its portfolio in its latest seed round.
Investors include the names of a16z, Laser Digital Ventures, Matrixport, Flow Traders and GSR.
Created two years ago by former Meta engineer Mathieu Baudet, Linera aims to scale the blockchain world by adding parallel chains to its infrastructure rather than increasing block sizes or changing the cryptographic production system.
The funds raised by the company will mainly be used to expand its team and launch a devnet and a testnet.
It is also very interesting to note the latest $13 million seed round closed in favor of ZTX, a metaverse platform run by Zepeto.
Venture capitalists Jump crypto, Collab+Currency, Parataxis and others firmly believe in the future of this blockchain creator, which wants to merge the gaming and metaverse contexts.
It seems that the experience in the field is not lacking, given the names behind the project, and we can now say that the capital to dedicate to the work is also there.
The ZTX case: the Zepeto metaverse and the seed round led by Jump Capital
Zepeto, one of the leading companies in South Korea’s blockchain world valued at $1 billion, invests heavily in the metaverse and NFTs.
Things are getting serious after the latest round of funding raised by his joint venture, ZTX, in Jump Crypto’s wake.
A total of $13 million of the money was invested by various VC signatures to expand Zepeto’s initiative by increasing adoption in the cryptocurrency world in Asia.
In detail, the company’s goal is to introduce the concept of “ownership” within the 3D worlds of the metaverse.
In fact, the “Genesis Home Mint”, which is a process in which the project’s community can create an NFT representative of a 3D house that will give access to future drops, events and game improvements, will be revealed soon.
A total of 4,000 homes in the metaverse will be available, and the blockchain network that hosts them will be that of Arbitrum.
Zepeto therefore intends to compete with other dominant metaverse platforms in the web3 world such as The Sandbox, Decentraland and Otherside.
Of note, last month the ZTX project started a private beta test of its upcoming platform by partnering with Dust Labs, a company that works for the famous NFT DeGods and Y00ts collections.
The focus of the experiment was to provide the “Partner Wearables” community with all the tools to create 3D assets and objects within the metaverse, so they could get meaningful feedback on core and surface functionality.
In a recent interview, ZTX co-CEO Chris Jang emphasized his startup’s commitment to “providing an infrastructure layer for creators” with a view to providing a framework for mainstream development of metaverse environments.
Certainly not a bunch of teenage nerds passionate about digital environments, the ZTX team includes gentlemen who have worked for Apple, Roblox, Epic Games and EA, along with experts in the blockchain world who work on Solana, Flow and Cosmos.
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