The huge list of 65 crypto deals in January 2021
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The end and the beginning of the year is always a working excitement, as all investment portfolios are being rebalanced. We managed to start monitoring deals only today, and I plan to keep the blog in the same mode in the future (2–3 posts per week). And today we have an extensive post on this year’s deals.
- Rain Finance| $6m| MEVP Capital and others| series A round
Bahrain-based crypto exchange Rain Finance raised $6m from lead investor MEVP Capital with Coinbase, Vision Ventures, CMT Digital, Abdul Latif Jameel Fintech Ventures and DIFC.
2. Furucombo| $1.85m| SevenX Ventures and others| seed
Furucombo, a drag & drop tool designed to optimize users’ DeFi strategies, has raised $1.85m from SevenX Ventures, Defiance Capital, 1kx, Multicoin Capital, DeFi Capital, BTC12 Capital and private investors.
3. Norwegian Block Exchange| $7.1m| private round
Norwegian Block Exchange, a Norwegian cryptocurrency exchange founded by Bjørn Kjos, who also founded Norwegian Airlines and Bank Norwegian, announced it has secured a large private investment. The investment will provide NBX with financial means to pursue a banking license, and become one of Europe’s first digital assets banks.
4. IOHK| $500k| Project Catalyst program
IOHK launches a third $500k fund for Cardano through the Project Catalyst program, in which 1,752 members vote to improve the Cardano ecosystem. The previous fund was $250k.
5. Bakkt| $2.1B| Become a Publicly Traded Company via Merger with VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings
Bakkt, a cryptocurrency platform for institutional and retail investors, goes public through a merger with VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings sponsored by Victory Park Capital. The company is valued at approximately $2.1B. The combined company will be renamed Bakkt Holdings, Inc. and will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
6. Routefire| undisclosed sum| Coinbase| acquisition
American cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase made its first investment in 2021 by purchasing a startup Routefire, which deals with the execution of cryptocurrency transactions. The purchase amount was not disclosed.
7. Biconomy| $1.5m| Eden Block and others| seed
Biconomy, an infrastructure platform for transactions on Ethereum and other networks, has raised $1.5m from the lead investor Eden Block featuring Fenbushi Capital, Binance, DACM, Outlier Ventures, Zee Prime Capital, Woodstock Capital and MiH Ventures.
8. Fenbushi Capital and Protocol Labs| $15m fund to Filecoin and IPFS projects
Fenbushi Capital has partnered with Protocol Labs to launch the $15m + Fenbushi Ecosystem Fund, which will target investments in projects from the Filecoin and IPFS ecosystem.
9. Diginex| $38.6m| institutional investors| private placement of its equity securities
Diginex, a blockchain asset and financial services company, announced that it has entered into agreements with institutional market participants to raise an investment of around $38.6m through a private offering of its securities.
10. DeFi.org| Binance and Orbs| accelerator
Binance crypto exchange together with blockchain company Orbs are launching an accelerator for DeFi projects DeFi.org. In addition to investments, the accelerator will also distribute grants. It is also noteworthy that anonymous developers can participate in the program.
11. Zipmex| $6m| Jump Capital | series A round
Singapore digital asset exchange Zipmex raised $6m from the lead investor Jump Capital, other investors for the round were not disclosed.
12. Filestar| $5m| HashKey Capital | private round
Filestar aims to improve the Filecoin decentralized network and its distributed storage engine by removing the initial pledge collateral requirement. The project received $5m from HashKey Capital to develop its solutions.
13. HQLAᵡ| $17.5m| Deutsche Börse Group and others| private round
HQLAᵡ, a blockchain platform for corporate clients, has raised $17.5m from Deutsche Börse Group, BNY Mellon, CitiGroup, Goldman Sachs and Paribas Securities Services. The main demand for the platform is from banks.
14. Conflux Network| $5m| Shanghai government| grant
Conflux Network, a government-approved, public and permissionless blockchain project in China, has received a $5m research grant from the Shanghai government. The grant is funded by the Shanghai Science and Technology Committee and the Changning District Government.
15. Marathon Patent Group| $250m| institutional investors| shares
Mining company Marathon Patent Group is selling 12.5 million shares at $20 per share to institutional investors. Deal size is $250m. The funds will be used to purchase mining equipment and expand the company’s activities.
16. Arca| $10m| RRE Ventures and others| strategic round
Digital asset management company Arca has raised $10m from the lead investor RRE Ventures and other investors. The funds will go towards improving infrastructure and legal procedures in order to ultimately offer more demanded and higher quality digital investment assets.
17. Bitfarms| $30m| different investors| shares
Canadian mining company Bitfarms raised about $30m in two rounds of share sale. The funds will be used to purchase mining equipment and expand the company’s activities. Miners have hot time!
18. MicroBT| plans to IPO
Chinese cryptocurrency mining hardware manufacturer MicroBT will go public through a US IPO. At the moment, MicroBT is the second largest manufacturer of Bitcoin mining equipment, with Bitmain taking the first position. Financial details of the event have not yet been disclosed.
19. Gemini| plans to IPO
Crypto exchange Gemini is also investigating the issue of an IPO. Perhaps in the next couple of years we will see a number of IPOs of cryptocurrency startups.
20. Royale Finance| $1.45m| Alphabit Fund and others| private round
Royale Finance, previously featured on the Crypto Deal Flow several times. Now the project team has announced raising $1.45m from Alphabit Fund, AU21 Capital, Fomocraft Ventures, Kyros Ventures and Vendetta Capital. ROYA tokens are already traded on the market.
21. Titan| undisclosed sum| Coinbase Ventures| private round
Bitcoin mining software developer Titan has announced a strategic investment from Coinbase Ventures as part of a seed round. The amount of the deal was not disclosed.
22. Grayscale| $700m| one day record
Grayscale reports that it raised a record $700m in its investment products on January 15. In the fourth quarter of 2020, the company raised about $ 5m per day on average.
23. Maps.me|$50m| Alameda Research and others| private round
Maps.me maps app raised $50m from the lead investor Alameda Research with Genesis Capital and CMS Holdings. A multi-currency wallet is coming soon to the app to help travelers spend crypto for hotel bookings and other services. DeFi protocols will also be integrated so that the funds do not just lie, but also bring profit. The native MAPS token will be created on the Solana blockchain.
24. Glitch|$1.2m| TrustSwap launchpad| token sale
Glitch, a DeFi-customized blockchain, ran an IDO through the TrustSwap launchpad, team raised $1.2m. The token was sold at 9 cents apiece, now the price is about 10 cents.
25. Gourmet Galaxy| undisclosed sum| Magnus Capital| private round
Gourmet Galaxy, a DeFi platform with NFT and game mechanics, has raised funds from Magnus Capital, which has previously invested in projects such as MahaDAO, Origin Protocol, TrustSwap and others.
26. Bridge Mutual| undisclosed sum| 4th Revolution Capital| private round
Bridge Mutual, a decentralized insurance platform, has raised funds from 4th Revolution Capital (or 4RC). On January 30, the project is going to hold an IDO at Polkastarter.
27. Antler Interactive| $2.1m| NGC Ventures and others| private round
Antler Interactive has raised $2.1m for the cryptocurrency game My Neighbor Alice. Investors of the round are NGC Ventures, Bitscale Capital, Genesis Block, Kyros Ventures, Coin98 Ventures, Asymm Ventures, Augment Ventures, Btx capital, Rarestone Capital, X21 Digital and individuals. My Neighbor Alice is a multiplayer construction game in which players cultivate virtual lands, interact with neighbors, take on exciting daily activities, and earn rewards.
28. Web3 Foundation github | candidates for the 9th series of grants
Candidates for the ninth series of grants have appeared in the Web3 Foundation github. There are already 10 projects: Zenlink (DEX cross-chain), NFTT Studio (NFT platform), SubGame Network (decentralized gaming platform), Parami (blockchain technology for marketing and advertising), Sunrise Protocol (DEX), Cobo (wallet), OxyDev (service subscriptions), DNFT-Team (framework between personal data and artificial intelligence models), UMC Labs (secure subscriptions), Perpetual Altruism Ltd (NFT protocol, bundle with intellectual property).
29. Poolz| $1m| The Foundry and others| private round
Poolz is a cross-chain protocol for conducting token sales and auctions on Ethereum, Moonbeam (a blockchain with smart contracts on Polkadot), Tomochain. The project raised $1m from the lead investor The Foundry, Genesis Block, 7X Ventures, Alphabit. Also, the project has already held a public round and was listed on Uniswap.
30. Paid Network| $2m| Alphabit Fund, Master Ventures and others| private round
Paid Network, a suite of smart contracts for various transactions on Ethereum and Polkadot, has raised $2m from lead investors Alphabit Fund and Master Ventures with A195, AU21, Brilliance Ventures, Phoenix VC and X21. Paid Network also runs IDO on Polkastarter.
31. Bounce Finance| undisclosed sum| Web3 Foundation| grant
Bounce Finance, an auction and financial settlement platform, received a grant from the Web3 Foundation.
32. Insured Finance| $1.2m| private round
Insured Finance, an insurance platform for the Polkadot ecosystem, raised $1.2m. The token began trading on Uniswap on January 20 and is expected to be listed on centralized exchanges. The project team also announced that it will launch insured token sales, for participation in which it is necessary to hold 10,000 INFI tokens.
33. Nord Finance| $1.23m| Amesten Capital and others| private round
Nord Finance, an agnostic platform for DeFi, has raised $1.23m from Amesten Capital, Etienne vantKruys, Amplifi Capital, Twinapex capital, Blackdragon, X21 Digital and private investors. The project also conducted IDO on Polkastarter, the NORD token is already traded on Uniswap and Gate.
34. Figure| $100m| JPMorgan| financing facility
Blockchain mortgage platform Figure has raised $100m in a line of credit from investment bank JPMorgan. The funds will be used to develop mortgage products.
35. Vonovia| $24m| bonds on Stellar blockchain
Vonovia, a large European real estate group, has issued 20 million euros ($24m) bonds using the Stellar blockchain. Vonovia’s move to digitalizing bonds comes shortly after German regulators officially legalized digital securities in late 2020.
36. BC Technology Group| $120m| institutional investors| shares
BC Technology Group, a group of Asian cryptocurrency trading and digital asset investment companies, has raised $120m from institutional investors. Fidelity Digital Asset Services (FDAS) is known to have invested $ 6.7m out of $120m.
37. BitcoinTrade| undisclosed sum| Ripio| acquisition
Argentine digital asset platform Ripio has acquired BitcoinTrade, the second largest cryptocurrency exchange in Brazil, to increase its presence in the Latin American cryptocurrency market. The amount of the deal was not disclosed.
38. TaxBit| undisclosed sum| PayPal, Coinbase and others| private round
TaxBit, a cryptocurrency tax automation software company, has received investments from venture capital units PayPal and Coinbase, as well as its early investor Winklevoss Capital. The amount of the deal was not disclosed.
39. DAO Maker| undisclosed sum| LD Capital and others| strategic round
DAO Maker, a token sale and viral marketing platform, has raised funds from LD Capital, Digital Finance Group, GBV Capital, JRR Group, One Boat Capital, Chain Capital, Double Peak, SevenX Ventures, CoinIX, Eureka Trading, Orion Protocol, LTO Network , Matic and private investors. The project also held an IEO on the Gate crypto exchange.
40. Vauld| $2m| Pantera Capital and others| private round
Singapore-based lending platform Vauld raised $2m from lead investor Pantera Capital to grow into a full crypto bank. Other investors in the round include Coinbase Ventures, LuneX Ventures, and individual investors including Robert Leshner of Compound Finance.
41. Bison Trails| undisclosed sum| Coinbase| acquisition
Crypto exchange Coinbase has acquired Bison Trails, a leading blockchain infrastructure platform. Through its products, Bison Trails provides staking and active participation in the network over ~ 20 crypto protocols. Bison Trails’ Query/Transact (QT) product makes it easy for anyone building a wide range of Web 3.0 applications to validate transactions, obtain information about them (query), and write data such as transfers or smart contract interactions (transactions).
42. PolkaCover, e-Money, TosDis, YOP, Nord Finance, TENET, Exeedme, Fire Protocol IDOs on Polkastarter
The IDO pipeline on Polkastarter should be highlighted separately. Over the past few days, token sales of such projects as PolkaCover, e-Money, TosDis, YOP, Nord Finance, TENET, Exeedme, Fire Protocol and others have been held on the platform.
43. Saddle| $4.3m| Framework Ventures and others| private round
Saddle, a decentralized exchange protocol for cryptocurrencies pegged to other assets, has raised $4.3m from Framework Ventures, Polychain Capital and Electric Capital. With the help of their solution, it will be possible to exchange $1000 USDT for almost $1000 USDC, that is, slippage will be minimal.
44. Topl| $3m| Mercury Fund and others| seed
Topl, purpose-built blockchain brings needed transparency to global sustainability and social efforts. Team has closed a $3m seed round led by the Mercury Fund. Additional investors in the round are GOOSE Capital, Chingona Ventures, Beni Venture Capital, Blue Collective, RevTech Ventures and Social Impact Capital.
45. Arpa| $1.5m| Block Vision| private round
Arpa is a privacy-preserving computing solution for blockchains and enterprises. The project team raised $1.5m from Block Vision. ARPA tokens have been traded on the market since 2019.
46. Exordium| $3–8m| STOKR platform| STO
Exordium, publisher of the sci-fi strategy game Infinite Fleet, has announced the release of STO on the STOKR platform. The team is going to raise from $3m to $8m. Earlier, Tether International, the issuer of the largest stablecoin Tether (USDT), invested $ 1m in the project’s security tokens.
47. Router Protocol| $480k| private round
Router Protocol is creating a set of cross-chain infrastructure liquidity primitives that aim to seamlessly cross-chain interoperability between current and emerging Tier 1 and Tier 2 blockchain solutions. The project raised $480k, investors of the round were not disclosed.
48. OptionRoom| $200k| NGC Ventures and others| private round
OptionRoom, a user-driven oracle system and prediction protocol built on Polkadot, is completing a $200k seed round led by NGC Ventures featuring CMS Holdings, Spark Digital, Paka Fund, PNYX Ventures and NetZero Capital.
49. Green Labs| $18m| Hashed| series B round
Green Labs, a company that develops agricultural solutions at the intersection of artificial intelligence, blockchain technology and the Internet of Things, has raised $18m from Hashed. The platform already has 20,000 users.
50. Cypherpunk| $2.3m| private sale of units
Cypherpunk is a company created to invest in firms, technologies and protocols that improve user privacy and privacy. Its strategy is to make targeted investments in businesses and assets with reliable privacy, often in the blockchain ecosystem, including cryptocurrencies. The company raised about $2.3m through a private sale of units, which are a mix of stocks and warrants.
51. David Barral | undisclosed sum| DUX| fooball deal
DUX acquired former Real Madrid footballer David Barral for cryptocurrency in a deal with the club’s new sponsor. Criptan, a Spanish cryptocurrency platform, recently sponsored the club.
52. Amber Group| $530m AUM
Amber Group, a cryptocurrency platform for institutions and individuals, announced that its assets under management have grown to a record high of $530m. New money continues to flow into cryptocurrencies.
53. CoinMetro| $3m| tokenized bonds
CoinMetro is a fintech startup and crypto exchange. The team raised about $3m in tokenized bonds. Funding will be used to develop the product and support the company’s growth.
54. Wintermute | $20m| Lightspeed Venture Partners and others| series B round
London-based Wintermute, a provider of algorithmic liquidity for digital assets, has raised $20m from the lead investor Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from Pantera Capital, Sino Global Capital, Kenetic Capital, Rockaway Blockchain Fund, Hack VC, DeFi Alliance and Avon Ventures.
55. Nayms | $2m| XBTO and others| seed
Digital asset insurance startup Nayms raised about $2m from the lead investor XBTO, with contributions from Coinbase Ventures, Maven11 and Insurtech Gateway. The project partners include MakerDAO, Coinlist and Breach Insured.
56. LD Capital| $10m Polkadot fund
LD Capital is creating a $10m Polkadot Ecosystem Fund. Startups will be able to receive not only funding, but also consultations from developers, marketing support and help in building communities.
57. Seascape Network | undisclosed sum| Binance| strategic round
Seascape Network is an Ethereum and Substrate based gaming platform designed for the NFT and DeFi economies. The project received funds from Binance’s $100m fund, created to support DeFi startups.
58. Mercado Bitcoin | $38m| Parallax Ventures and others| private round
Brazilian cryptocurrency exchange Mercado Bitcoin raised $38m from Parallax Ventures, Evora Fund and Banco Plural. The company will use the funds received to expand its business internationally.
59. MicroStrategy | $10m BTC purchase
A regular contributor to our column, MicroStrategy Corporation has purchased about 314 bitcoins worth $10m in accordance with its Treasury Reserve Policy. BTC were bought at an average price of about $31,808. Now the corporation has about 70 784 BTC in reserves.
60. HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd | $15m| convertible bonds and warrants
HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd, a publicly Bitcoin and Ethereum mining company, raised $15m through convertible bonds and warrants. Interestingly, the company’s shares have grown 6 times since November.
61. Justin Roiland | $1m| NFT sales
Rick and Morty creator Justin Roiland has released his “The Best I Could Do” collection on the Nifty Gateway platform. NFT sales were around $ 1m+.
62. Skybridge Capital | $370m AUM in crypto
Skybridge Capital is an SEC registered investment advisory firm with over $7 billion in assets under management. It is run by former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci. The company’s COO Brett Messing said that the group’s Bitcoin Fund has already grown to $370m.
63. BlackRock can invest in bitcoin
BlackRock, the largest investment group in the world with more than $7.81 trillion in assets under management, can access bitcoin futures through its two funds, according to a Form 497 filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on January 20. Large investors continue to pour money into cryptocurrencies.
64. Paralink Network, ChainGuardians, SuperFarm | investments from Genesis Block Ventures
Genesis Block Ventures posted on its blog information about investments in three projects at an early stage: Paralink Network (system of oracles), ChainGuardians (playing with NFT), SuperFarm (organizing DeFi activities through NFT).
65. Algorand Asia is hosting a Demo Day
Algorand Asia is hosting a Demo Day, during which the following projects take part: Collateron (a basket of several fiat currencies in a token wrapper), DEXTF (protocol for organizing decentralized funds), EasternBlu (registration of musical rights), Dejure (tokenization of litigation), MugglePay (cryptocurrency payments platform), Neutron Financ (DeFi asset swap platform), StakerDao (DAO organization and asset tokenization), VeriTX (B2B digital asset platform for global supply chains in the aerospace, medical and industrial sectors), xBullion (gold tokenization) , Yieldly (DeFi Toolkit). Most likely, many of these projects will receive investments in the near future.
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