BRIEFINGS

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

Jun 24, 2022
  • NFTPort raises $26M.
    NFT infrastructure startup NFTPort raised $26M in a Series A funding round led by Taavet+Sten and Atomico. The funds will be allocated to efforts to scale the firm’s core product, which seeks help developers launch NFT applications.
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  • Magic Eden raises $130M.
    Solana NFT marketplace Magic Eden has raised $130M in a Series B funding round co-led by Electric Capital and Greylock. The round values the firm at $1.6B and comes just one month after Ethereum-focused NFT marketplace OpenSea raised $100M at a $1.5B valuation last month.
    Sources:
Jun 15, 2022
  • Celsius pauses withdrawals.
    Cryptoasset lending protocol Celsius has temporarily paused withdrawal, swap, and transfer functionality, citing ‘extreme market conditions.’ The company has faced regulatory scrutiny from the U.S. government in recent months.
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  • Kushki raises $100M.
    Ecuador-based payments platform Kushki has raised $100M in a Series B funding round led by Kaszek Ventures, SoftBank Latin America Fund and Dila Capital. The round values the firm at over $1B and comes just one month after competitor Dock raised $110M at a $1.5B valuation.
    Sources:
Jun 09, 2022
  • Pintu raises $113M.
    Indonesian cryptoasset exchange Pintu raised $113M in a Series B funding from Pantera Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Intudo Ventures, and Northstar Group. This follows a $35M Series A funding round in August 2021.
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  • Stablecoin regulation passes in Japan.
    A legal framework aiming to protect stablecoin holders has been approved by Japan’s parliament. Prepared by Japan’s Financial Services Agency, the law will go into effect next year. This comes in the wake of the TerraUSD collapse last month.
    Sources:
Jun 02, 2022
  • InfStones raises $66M.
    Blockchain infrastructure provider InfStones has raised $66M in its latest funding round led by SoftBank and GGV Capital. 10T Fund, INCE Capital, AT&T Fund and SNZ Holding also committed funds to the Web 3 services provider. The raise brings the firm’s total fundraising to just over $100M.
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  • Cosmos Ecosystems integrates Wormhole Bridge.
    Cross-chain solution Wormhole has announced it will integrate with Injective, an EVM-compatible blockchain in the Cosmos ecosystem. The move marks Wormhole’s eleventh chain integration. The project has indicated that its next integration is likely to be with Algorand.
    Sources:
May 26, 2022
  • Tether launches Peso-pegged stablecoin.
    Collateralized stablecoin issuer Tether has launched a new token, MXNT, pegged to the Mexican Peso. The token will initially be hosted on Ethereum, Polygon, and Tron.
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  • Starkware raises $100M.
    Ethereum scalability project Starkware has raised $100M in a Series D round closed this week. The round was led by Greenoaks Capital and Coatue and values the firm at $8B. Last November, Starkware raised $50M in a round that valued it at $2B.
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