VC Roundup: Gaming, crypto fintech and blockchain infrastructure dominate venture capital rounds

cointelegraph.com:

Cryptocurrency markets remain caught in a macro-based downtrend, with Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) showing further signs of weakness at the end of April. But, venture capital activity in the crypto and blockchain sectors is the strongest it has ever been, offering further evidence that major investors are looking beyond immediate price action and ignoring divisive bull/bear narratives. The latest edition of VC Roundup highlights the growing excitement surrounding Web3 gaming, decentralized finance (DeFi) and blockchain infrastructure.

Blockchain distribution network provider bloXroute has raised $70 million in funding to continue developing scalable infrastructure services for the cryptocurrency and DeFi industries. The Series B funding round was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with participation from Dragonfly Capital, Jane Street, ParaFi Capital, Blindspot, GSR and others. The company recently launched its Blockchain Distribution Network, which is said to overcome network congestion to provide users with reliable information about buy and sell orders.

Hedera ecosystem promoter HBAR Foundation has launched a $50 million fund to incentivize Hedera-focused development work around central bank digital currencies (CBDC), stablecoins, remittance services, micropayments and asset tokenization. The fintech and payments fund is now seeking proposals for these and other finance-based integrations. At the time of writing, Hedera was the 35th most valuable blockchain network with a total market capitalization of $3.2 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Related: HBAR Foundation launches a $250M metaverse fund to enhance consumer brand adoption

Web3 venture studio Decent Labs has partnered with BlockTower Capital, Digital Currency