Venture Capital Financial News

The crypto space has been in an uneven state around the world, with Web3 startups flourishing in the Middle East and Asia, while North American crypto entrepreneurs face challenges under tough macroeconomic and regulatory conditions, according to Animoca Brands CEO Yat Siu. 

Asset manager Fidelity is expected to file with the U.S. securities regulator for a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund, joining other big money managers seeking to launch bitcoin ETFs, the Block reported on Tuesday citing a source familiar with the matter. In the past two weeks, BlackRock, WisdomTree, Invesco, VanEck, and Bitwise have filed new applications with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for spot bitcoin ETFs, sending the price of bitcoin to a more than one-year high of over $31,000 on June 23. Fidelity declined to comment. The Boston-based financial firm is also part of a consortium that includes market makers Citadel Securities and Virtu Financial, retail broker Charles Schwab, and venture capital firms Paradigm and Sequoia Capital, which recently launched a crypto exchange called EDX Markets.

American venture capitalist Alfred Lin, a partner at Sequoia Capital, stood up for the firm’s multimillion-dollar investment in the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX. 

On June 21, OPNX exchange, a platform for trading claims against bankrupt crypto entities, announced a new ecosystem partner dubbed "3AC Ventures." According to developers, "the partnership will invest in projects building in the OPNX ecosystem and working towards a decentralized future." OPNX was founded by Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, who co-founded the now-bankrupt Singaporean hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC). 

Crypto venture capital investments were on the rise for the second month in a row in May despite the generally declining economic backdrop. Funding amounts surged 34% from April, and the number of individual deals jumped 62%, according to data from Cointelegraph Research’s Venture Capital Database.

Cointelegraph presents Pitch Room, a new stage in the effort to boost innovation in the crypto space, dedicated to investors interested in deal flow. Pitch Room opens doors for promising startups in the Web3 space, exploring new markets and building solutions with the potential to disrupt the industry. Investors can view a one-page summary of each company, a two-minute elevator pitch and an in-depth presentation. The goal of Pitch Room is to bridge venture capitalists and private equity managers with innovative firms at the cutting edge of the crypto space.

On May 24, Singaporean venture capital firm Foresight Ventures announced that it would pledge an additional $10 million to its Foresight X Accelerator, bringing its total to $20 million. The move comes as the firm opens the second phase of accelerator applications, which will focus on Web3 projects building in the artificial intelligence (AI), zero-knowledge (ZK), machine learning, Bitcoin (BTC), liquid staking derivatives, and nonfungible token ecosystems.

Early-stage venture capital firm Dispersion Capital recently exited stealth to launch a $40 million fund for startups working on infrastructure for Web3 projects. 

The Whampoa Group, a family office based in Singapore, will open a digital bank in Bahrain, the kingdom’s Economic Development Board said on May 18. The Group expects to open the bank by the end of the year and is aiming for a global client base.

A $50 million fund has been launched to help startups that use the Wormhole cross-chain messaging protocol, according to a May 18 announcement. The new fund is being managed by venture capital fund Borderless Capital and is backed by over 20 other blockchain development teams and venture capital firms, including Circle, Polygon Ventures, Solana Foundation, JumpCrypto, and others.

NewLimit, a startup co-founded by crypto exchange giant Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, has raised $40 million with a goal to add years to people's lives.

While the crypto space still suffers a bear market, venture capital (VC) firms have still managed to make a number of deals at the start of 2023, proving that the space is very much alive even in what many would call a “crypto winter.”

Tabi, the nonfungible token marketplace previously as Treasureland, has completed a $10 million angel funding round, the BNB Chain-based platform announced on May 10.

On May 3, layer-1 blockchain Fuse announced that it would pledge $10 million to “reinvigorate the Fuse ecosystem and drive growth in multiple areas.” The program, dubbed “Fuse Ignite,” is structured between liquid incentives and grants. As told by developers:

A number of supposed Open Exchange (OPNX) investors have been blasted by the CEO of the crypto claims trading platform after some publicly distanced themselves from the project after being named as backers.

According to data from Crunchbase, venture capital (VC) funding into Web3 start-ups tanked 82% year-over-year (YoY), declining from $9.1 billion in Q1 2022 to $1.7 billion in Q1 2023.

OPNX, an exchange jointly founded by members of the Three Arrows Capital (3AC) and Coinflex teams, has revealed the venture capital firms purportedly backing it. An April 21 video posted by the company featured CEO Leslie Lamb thanking some of the major backers of the project, including AppWorks, Susquehanna (SIG), DRW, MIAX Group, China Merchant Bank International, and Token Bay Capital.

On Apr. 20, specialized cloud provider CoreWeave announced that it had secured $221 million in a Series B funding round, putting the company on track to expand operations and increase capacity in various emerging technologies. 

Venture capitalist (VC) investment into crypto firms continued to fall in the first quarter of 2023, yet despite the current regulatory turbulence for crypto in the United States, it is still first for the number of firms raising capital according to a new report.

The standards for Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) in Hong Kong are set “incredibly high” as the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) is wanting the crypto industry to match the same compliance standards as traditional financial firms.

Cross-chain messaging protocol developer LayerZero Labs has raised another $120 million, according to an Apr. 4 announcement. The company plans to use the capital to increase its headcount and expand its reach into the Asia-Pacific region. The company had previously raised $135 million in March 2022.