BRIEFINGS

Smith + Crown’s summary of important news across the industry

Jul 21, 2021
  • OpenSea raises $100M.
    Non-fungible token exchange OpenSea has raised $100M in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. The round values the exchange at $1.5B. OpenSea recently launched exchange services on Ethereum L2 solution Polygon.
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  • Robinhood Crypto to pay $30M penalty.
    According to S-1 filings, Robinhood Crypto says it expects to pay a $30M settlement to the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) to end an ongoing civil suit. The lawsuit resulted from a 2020 investigation by the regulatory body, which found that Robinhood Crypto violated several regulations intended to curb money laundering. Robinhood...
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  • FTX raises $900M.
    Cryptoasset exchange FTX has raised $900M in its latest funding round, which closed this week. Participants in the round include SoftBank Group and Sequoia Capital. The round values FTX at $18B.
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Jul 14, 2021
  • BIT Mining raises $50M.
    China-based BTC mining firm BIT Mining has raised $50M in its latest funding round. According the the firm, the funds will be used to relocate operations outside of mainland China. Chinese authorities began to restrict BTC mining activities in the country earlier this year.
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  • Grayscale SEC registration becomes effective.
    Cryptoasset manager Grayscale has announced that its registration with the US Securities and Exchange Commission has become effective this week. Specifically, the registration is for Grayscale’s GDLC fund. The firm also announced that it will begin the registration process for its Bitcoin Cash ($BCHG), Ethereum Classic, ($ETCG) and Litecoin ($LTCN) trusts.
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  • CertiK raises $37M.
    Blockchain and cryptoasset auditing firm CertiK has raises $37M in a Series B round. The round was co-led by Coatue Management and Shunwei Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures. CertiK’s Skynet service provide security reviews for decentralized finance platforms.
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Jul 07, 2021
  • Ernst & Young releases ZK-Optimistic Rollup L2 solution.
    Big Four professional services firm Ernst & Young has released a new Layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum. The software, named Nightfall 3, uses both zero-knowledge proofs and optimistic rollups to facilitate higher throughput for private transactions on Ethereum. The code base for Nightfall 3 has been released publicly and is freely available on GitHub.
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  • Animoca Brands raises $139M.
    Hong Kong-based, NFT-focused blockchain startup Animoca Brands has raised $139M in its most recent funding round. The round was led by Coinbase Ventures, with participation from Blue Pool Capital, Liberty City Ventures, Gobi Partners, and Samsung Venture Investment Corporation, among others. The round valued Animoca Brands at $1B pre-money.
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  • Mercado Bitcoin raises $200M.
    In a Series B round this week, Brazilian cryptoasset exchange has raised $200M from SoftBank’s Latin America fund. The investment reportedly marks the largest Series B raise in Latin America to date. The round values the exchange’s parent company, 2TM, at $2.1B.
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Jul 01, 2021
  • Nansen raises $12M.
    Blockchain analytics firm Nansen has raised $12M in its latest funding round. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Skyfall Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, imToken Ventures, Mechanism Capital and QCP Capital.
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