BRIEFINGS

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

Apr 01, 2021
  • Dapper Labs raises $305M.
    Dapper Labs closed its most recent funding round after raising $305M from investors. Participants in the round include Coate, The Chernin Group, and Michael Jordan. The round valued Dapper Labs at $2.6B post-money.
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  • PayPal begins facilitating cryptoasset payments.
    Yesterday, PayPal announced the launch of its Checkout with Crypto functionality. The feature allows users to pay with cryptoassets at selected merchants. PayPal has also recently acquired cryptoasset security firm Curv and formed a partnership with Paxos.
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Mar 24, 2021
  • Starkware raises $75M.
    Blockchain scaling- and security-focused firm Starkware has raised $75M in a Series B round. The round was led by Paradigm Capital, with participation from Sequoia Capital, Founders Fund, Pantera Capital, and Alameda Research. Starkware previously raised $30M in 2018.
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  • Blockchain.com raises $300M.
    Crypoasset wallet provider and exchange Blockchain.com has raised $300M in a Series C round led by DST Global, Lightspeed Venture Partners and VY Capital. The round valued Blockchain.com at $5.2B post-money. The platform currently has 31M registered users, up 300% in the past 12 months.
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  • Wyoming Senate passes new DAO law.
    Last Wednesday, the Wyoming Senate passed a bill governing decentralized autonomous organizations, or DAOs, with a 28-2 vote. Under the new law, DAOs would be able to incorporate in the state of Wyoming. The bill will now need to be signed into by Governor Mark Gordon.
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Mar 18, 2021
  • Grayscale adds Chainlink and Filecoin investment trusts.
    Digital asset manager Grayscale Investments has announced it will add five new investment trust offerings, including ones for Chainlink (LINK) and Filecoin (FIL). Others new trusts include Decentraland (MANA), Livepeer (LPT), and Basic Attention Token (BAT).
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  • Fireblocks raises $133M in Series C.
    Cryptoasset security firm Fireblocks completed a Series C round this week, raising a total of $133M. The round was led by Coatue, Ribbit and Stripes. Fireblocks previously raised $30M in a Series B round in November of last year.
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  • OpenSea raises $23M in Series A.
    Non-fungible token marketplace OpenSea has raised $23M in a Series A round led by Andreesen Horowitz. Naval Ravikant and Mark Cuban also participated in the round. The move comes amidst a surge in trading volumes for NFTs.
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Mar 10, 2021
  • Rob Gronkowski releases NFT collection.
    NFL player Rob Gronkowski has announced he will launch a collection of NFTs commemorating his four Super Bowl victories. The collection, comprised of five cards, was designed by artist Black Madre. The NFTs will be sold in an auction held on OpenSea on Thursday.
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  • Komainu raises $25M.
    Institutional cryptoasset custodian has raised $25M in a Series A round led by Alan Howard. Other participants in the round include Galaxy Digital, NOIA Capital, and Nomura Research Institute. Komainu is a joint project between Ledger, Nomura, and CoinShares.
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