Crypto funding: A $44M week for up-and-coming Web3, blockchain scalers

Web3 gaming and social media development brought home a few raises of their own this week

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Skrypnykov Dmytro/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

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Crypto firms announced fundraising more than $44 million in fresh capital, but one raise was a clear standout among all the rest. 

Hi, a burgeoning Web3 ecosystem, raised $30 million from Animoca Brands. 

Hi has a litany of listed products on its website, ranging from a crypto exchange to a savings program that offers annual percentage yields. 

The partnership between Hi and Animoca will focus on the Hi payments app, which isn’t available in the US, and its layer-2 protocol. 

Read more: Mastercard, Hi Launch NFT-customized Debit Cards as NFT Interest Dips

“We are looking forward to investing in and partnering with Hi, which is committed to bridging the gap between the fiat and cryptocurrency worlds,” Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chair of Animoca Brands, said in a statement.

Scaling in focus

EthStorage secured a $100 million valuation with the successful completion of a $7 million seed round. 

Crypto investor dao5 led the round with participation from SevenX Ventures, Sky9 Capital, Foresight Ventures, among others. 

EthStorage, a layer-2 storage rollup that’s under development, is trying to scale Ethereum’s storage from the terabyte level to the perabyte level, according to its website. A perabyte is about 1,000 terabytes.

Other notable fundraises

  • Web3 game developer Delabs raised $4.7 million.
  • Releap, a decentralized social graph, brought in $2.1 million.

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With the recent election, it’s clear that there will be a meaningful shift in crypto regulations and legislation. Trump is likely as pro-crypto as a president can be. He launched (multiple) of his own NFT collections and is launching an Aave wrapper called World Liberty Fi. He has also spoken out and mentioned that he wants to make the United States "the crypto capital of the planet" and transform it into the "Bitcoin superpower of the world". He proposed creating a strategic national Bitcoin stockpile alongside support from Senator Cynthia Lummis, promising to retain 100% of all Bitcoin held by the U.S. government. More importantly, we’re likely to see deregulation across the board in a lot of industries, with crypto being one of them - as Trump has committed to keeping the crypto market largely unregulated. Crypto, DeFi in particular, has historically been knee-capped by overreaching and hostile governmental agencies and regulation by enforcement, as evidenced by the plethora of Wells notices and lawsuits over the past few years. With Donald Trump winning the presidency, Republicans taking control of the Senate, and being on the verge of securing the House, we think it’s likely that crypto realizes positive regulatory clarity. Below, you can find our analysts’ takes:

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