Shalini Nagarajan

The crypto industry is struggling to keep new developer talent engaged, according to data from early-stage venture capital firm Electric Capital.



At the same time, the firm found that today’s developer pool is 66% larger than it was during the bear market three years ago — despite experiencing a 27% decline over the past year.&nbsp;



Fewer new developers are entering the space because not as many people are giving crypto a try, the VC firm said in a <a href="https://www.developerreport.com/content/blog/newsletter-20231018">blog</a> published Wednesday.



This suggests a complex landscape, where growth and interest in development are present but some face waning enthusiasm.&nbsp;



“Developers who left crypto recently were newcomers who worked in crypto fewer than 12 months and were only responsible for around 25% of all code commits,” the firm said in an October update.



The report, which defined developers as having left the field if they hadn&#8217;t contributed any code for two months, shed light on a downward trend.


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignleft is-resized"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/xqLvh72vXi3uV0P7ypQsCY5lvBh2vrw3mySgSDx6s70lFNKn6jr3vC_60nx5XXuSyQIhVKMSn5xfWXmpj_BOOTB7PktcgoA6tnOnXjHTTiOr8zJAa_07mRFvwJYCwql3mKJzOp3wwZCwUPAxgRq69FE" alt="" style="width:837px;height:497px" width="837" height="497"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Image Source: Electric Capital</figcaption></figure></div>


The firm’s post contended that monthly new developer numbers fell sharply from about 5,200 in November 2021 to just 1,700 in September 2023. 



Adding to this, the findings highlighted a division in contribution history.&nbsp;



Those developers who bowed out after July 2023 were responsible for about 25% of historical code commits, or additions a developer makes to the source code of a software project.



In contrast, the ones who stayed active past that point have been significantly busier, making up 75% of the code contributions.&nbsp;



Additionally, developers active after July 2023 were found to code on more days.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/starknet-quantum-leap">New Starknet version offers ‘unprecedented increase in capacity,’ co-founder says</a>



The report separately identified Ethereum <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/layer-2-2">layer-2</a> developer Starknet as leading in terms of monthly active developers, hosting 517 contributors and experiencing 4% growth annually.



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New crypto developers are leaving too soon: Electric Capital

James Cirrone

Just days after <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/binance-layoffs-talent-density">reports of layoffs at Binance</a> this week, the world’s largest crypto exchange tapped Richard Teng to lead all regional markets outside of the US.&nbsp;



This move is in stark contrast to Binance’s outlook for the rest of its staff. The exchange told Blockworks this week that it&#8217;s in the process of re-examining employees in top roles and determining which products and business segments deserve the most resources.&nbsp;



Teng appears to be one individual who’s been looked on kindly as the company evaluates its employees, as he has been promoted to Head of Regional Markets, effective Monday. It’s a step up from his previous duties overseeing markets in Asia, Europe, Middle East and North Africa, Bloomberg <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-29/binance-taps-teng-to-run-all-regional-markets-in-swift-ascension">reported</a>.&nbsp;



In total, Teng has served in four prior positions at Binance, <a href="https://www.binance.com/en/blog/leadership/former-abu-dhabi-global-market-ceo-richard-teng-joins-binance-singapore-as-chief-executive-421499824684902583">starting out</a> in August 2021 as the CEO of its Singapore operations.&nbsp;



Before Binance, Teng has had extensive experience working with financial regulators. He <a href="https://www.weforum.org/people/richard-teng">headed</a> up the Financial Services Regulatory Authority for the Abu Dhabi Global Market from 2015 to 2021. Before that, he was the chief regulatory officer for Singapore Exchange Limited, a stock exchange and clearing house. In that role, he worked closely with “the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to uphold a fair, orderly and transparent market,” <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-teng-3497b527/">according</a> to his LinkedIn.



Teng’s rapid ascension of the ranks comes as Binance falls in the crosshairs of regulators around the world. In May, Binance was served with documents regarding a Canadian probe into the exchange’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/binance-canada-probe">alleged violation of Ontario securities laws</a>. Two days later, Binance announced <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/binance-leaving-canada">it was leaving Canada</a>, citing a hostile regulatory environment.



The US CFTC also sued Binance and CEO Changpeng Zhao in late March, claiming the executive and his company broke trading and derivatives laws. Notably, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-and-ether-are-commodities-says-cftc-in-binance-lawsuit">the CFTC said bitcoin and ether were commodities</a> in its complaint, contradicting the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-sec-rulemaking-petition">SEC’s lack of clarity</a> on the commodity-security debate.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Nansen lays off 30% of staff</h2>



On-chain insight provider Nansen announced on May 30 that they were paring back their team by 30%. Forbes reported that 43 employees lost their jobs.&nbsp;



Alex Svanevik, co-founder and CEO of Nansen, released a statement on Twitter explaining the reasons why the job cuts had to be made. In his tweet, he attributed the layoffs to two things: hiring too quickly during Nansen’s initial years and the crypto downturn. Svanevik said he took “full responsibility” as CEO.



“We scaled up the team on the back of breakneck growth in our first years of operating. We wanted to invest and build in a tough market when others needed to scale back. This organic growth led the organization to taking on surface area that&#8217;s not truly part of Nansen&#8217;s core strategy,” Svanevik said.&nbsp;



He continued: “Our cost base is too high relative to where the company is today. We do have several years of runway, but our priority is to build a sustainable business.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Other notable hires</h2>



<ul>
<li>Author of “The Bitcoin Standard,” Saifedean Ammous, is <a href="https://twitter.com/bitcoinofficesv/status/1663530702791655424">joining</a> The National Bitcoin Office of El Salvador as an economic advisor.&nbsp;</li>



<li>Crypto venture firm Electric Capital <a href="https://www.theblock.co/post/232909/electric-capital-appoints-two-new-general-partners">appointed</a> Ken Deeter and Maria Shen as general partners on Friday.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>



<li>Unicoin invited Pilar Manchón, Senior Director of AI Research Strategy at Google, to join its board of directors.</li>
</ul>



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Crypto Hiring: Binance Promotes Exec to Regional Markets Head, Re-examines Remaining Staff

Crypto-focused early-stage VC firm Electric Capital has found that while Ethereum has the most developers in total, a majority of monthly active developers are working on other ecosystems.



Despite a bear crypto market in 2022, developers continued to create and progress towards mass adoption of decentralized applications (dApps). The crypto industry added 5% more developers in 2022 year-on-year, despite a 70% plunge in cryptoasset prices, the <a href="https://www.developerreport.com/developer-report" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a> released on Tuesday showed.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The year was a rocky one for cryptoassets, given the tightening monetary policy and a string of bankruptcies, stirring fears of liquidity due to contagion. Yet, the industry captured over 61,000 first-time developers — an all-time high. Since the creation of Bitcoin in 2009, there are now more than 23,000 developers in the industry.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="534" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/electric-capital-monthly-active-devs-1024x534.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-44250" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/electric-capital-monthly-active-devs-1024x534.jpg?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/electric-capital-monthly-active-devs-1024x534.jpg?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/electric-capital-monthly-active-devs-1024x534.jpg?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/electric-capital-monthly-active-devs-1024x534.jpg?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/electric-capital-monthly-active-devs-1024x534.jpg?w=2048 2048w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/electric-capital-monthly-active-devs-1024x534.jpg?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/electric-capital-monthly-active-devs-1024x534.jpg?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/electric-capital-monthly-active-devs-1024x534.jpg?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/electric-capital-monthly-active-devs-1024x534.jpg?w=80 80w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Total monthly active developers based on crypto ecosystems GitHub; Source: Electric Capital</figcaption></figure>



Core blockchain developers focus on designing the front-end and back-end of a proposed blockchain network, which will then be used as a foundation by others. Even after a blockchain is built, they continue to develop new features and technology to improvise or activate upgrades for better functionality.



Electric Capital found that developer activity in 2022 was far busier than the previous crypto winter of 2018, when <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-first-bearish-engulfing-candle">bitcoin plunged 65%</a>&nbsp;



Since 2018, the number of monthly active developers rose nearly 300% for Bitcoin. For Ethereum, developer count quintupled from 1,084 to 5,819 in that time period.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Some devs opt for emerging blockchains</h3>



The year of the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ethereum-merge">Merge</a> was significant for Ethereum, and its share of new developers for the stands at 16%.



But developers working on the Solana, NEAR and Polygon protocols rose 40% year-on-year, and added more than 500 total monthly active developers combined.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Comparison to Other Ecosystems: 🔸Ethereum is the largest total (full-time + part-time + one-time)⁰developer ecosystem and is 2.8X larger than the next i.e SOLANA 🔸Solana grew by +83% to 2000+ developers 🔸Polygon grew by +40% to 1100+ developers <a href="https://t.co/kWTkG7pNIu">pic.twitter.com/kWTkG7pNIu</a>&mdash; Shivam Sharma🌱 (@theweb3sharma) <a href="https://twitter.com/theweb3sharma/status/1615592471240802307?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 18, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/sui">Sui</a>, <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/aptos">Aptos</a>, <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/starkware">Starknet</a>, <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/mina">Mina</a>, <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/osmosis">Osmosis</a>, <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/hedera-hashgraph">Hedera</a>, <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/optimism">Optimism</a> and <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/arbitrum">Arbitrum</a> were other blockchains that absorbed developer activity.



Those working on software for non-fungible tokens saw a 300% jump since 2021.



Developer engagement is an “early and leading indicator of value creation,” according to the VC firm. “Developers build killer applications that deliver value to end users, which attracts more customers, which then draws more developers,” it added.



And what about Bitcoin, recently? Although developers working on the OG crypto tripled from 372 to 946 since 2018, year-over-year, the total has flat lined.



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Ethereum Has Most Developers, But These Newer Chains Are Growing Fast

Ben Strack

Electric Capital executives told its limited partners Thursday that the crypto-focused venture capital firm is relatively unscathed from the FTX debacle — thanks to “yellow flags” Electric spotted when it comes to due diligence.&nbsp;



The contents of the investors-only call was obtained by Blockworks, and a source with knowledge of the matter provided additional details.&nbsp;



The “yellow flags” in question, Electric partners told investors, came to light as they probed the financing and token economics of a potential early-stage investment in the serum (SRM) token — heavily backed and marketed by former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.&nbsp;



Serum is a decentralized exchange software built on Solana. Bankman-Fried is a co-founder of Project Serum, which, according to its <a href="https://assets.website-files.com/61382d4555f82a75dc677b6f/61384a6d5c937269dbed185c_serum_white_paper.88d98f84.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">white paper</a> published in July 2020, was designed to have cross-chain support, stablecoins, wrapped coins, order books and the ability to create custom financial products. It was built to be interoperable with Ethereum.



Warning signs from interactions with <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/whats-next-for-ftx-and-its-customers-after-bankruptcy-filing/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">now-bankrupt</a> FTX and Alameda Research — both founded by Bankman-Fried — kept the firm “outside of the blast radius” of FTX’s fall, Electric Capital co-founder Avichal Garg said on the call.&nbsp;



The financing round for serum, Garg said, followed a fast-and-loose playbook, a formula relying on a “spreadsheet” tracking incoming SRM allocations. The atypical setup meant the earlier an investor committed to write a check, the less they paid for tokens.



“So, it was a little bit of a yellow flag and kind of rubbed us the wrong way that this didn’t feel like a group of people that actually wanted to have true partners and true long-term relationships with the people giving them capital,” Garg said.&nbsp;



Electric questioned, too, SRM’s token economics, which called for a lack of liquidity for many of the tokens over a number of years.



Serum’s whitepaper said its circulating supply at launch would amount to roughly 10% of the digital asset’s total float. All presale, team and contributor tokens were set to unlock between one and seven years thereafter.



“When we probed about this, the team said the reason they were doing this was to be long-term aligned with the users of the protocol, which is the generous interpretation,” Garg said. “The less generous interpretation of this might be that what you’re going to do is have a very low float on the tokens…where the low float sort of constrains the supply such that it bids up the price.”



Spokespeople for Serum and FTX did not immediately return a request for comment.&nbsp;



SRM traded around $0.25 at 3 pm ET on Thursday, down 15% in the last 24 hours — contributing to a staggering 65% one-month drop.



Limited exposure to FTX’s collapse&nbsp;



Electric Capital thus passed on investing in SRM, and later on, decided not to invest in FTT.



“As a result of us sort of repeatedly passing on these investment opportunities, we never got really close to that ecosystem,” Garg said. “We were never very close to Sam. We were never sharing investment opportunities back and forth.”



The asset manager had no FTX equity stakes, nor exposure to the exchange’s underwater native token, FTT, SRM or Solana’s SOL token, the proof-of-stake blockchain which likewise has been <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-tvl-defi-decline" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hammered</a> by its <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-community-remains-bullish-despite-ftx-fallout" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">association</a> with Bankman-Fried. And Electric never did business with Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research.



The company had eight bitcoins — currently worth roughly $130,000 — custodied by FTX, he added. Two unnamed startups Electric Capital had invested in — exposure amounting to about $700,000 in one of its venture funds — had assets sitting on FTX. The company is looking to work with the founders to recover the frozen assets.



Garg declined to detail specific portfolio companies impacted.&nbsp;



Electric Capital’s focus moving forward



Electric Capital raised a notable — even toward the height of the bull market — <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/electric-capital-raises-1-billion-to-launch-crypto-venture-token-funds" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$1 billion</a> in March it said it would use to deploy capital to Web3, NFT and DeFi projects.&nbsp;



The injection of capital was set to fund a $400 million venture fund and a $600 million token fund, bringing the firm’s total funds to four.



“Our [assets under management] is somewhere between 0 and $2 billion, depending on what you think crypto is worth,” Garg told Blockworks in a statement.



Executives said on the call that the firm is focused on early-stage projects that can replace “building blocks” potentially destroyed by FTX’s collapse, adding it has already made two unspecified investments in Solana-focused startups.



Otherwise, the firm is being patient when it comes to deploying cash, anticipating additional selling and choppy trading waters ahead.



“We think it’s very likely that, especially some of these liquid token networks, become forced liquidation events as creditors have to sell these assets off,” Garg told Electric investors. “[Assets] will likely overcorrect, and they start to present very interesting risk-reward opportunities.”



Michael Bodley contributed reporting.



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Electric Capital Partners: ‘Yellow Flags’ Kept Us Away From SBF

Bessie Liu

<div id="highlights-block_632c547e14184" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Most recently Immunefi facilitated a 400 ETH transaction from Arbitrum to a white hacker</li>
 <li>Investors that participated in the round include Electric Capital, Polygon Ventures and Samsung Next</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Immunefi, a Web3 bug bounty platform adopted by prominent projects including MakerDAO, Compound and Chainlink, has secured a $24 million Series A led by Framework Ventures.



Framework Ventures previously led Immunefi’s seed round in May last year, but the latest round will be the largest check the prominent venture capital firm has ever publicly written, Roy Learner, principal at Framework Ventures said in a statement.



“As it stands, Immunefi is by far and away the most widely adopted solution in the crypto security and bug bounties space,” Learner said. “We’re excited to see the company scale and amass talent as more and more key projects onboard into their ecosystem.”



Other investors that participated in the round include Electric Capital, Polygon Ventures and Samsung Next.



Mitchell Amador, co-founder of Immunefi came up with the idea for the company after losing a significant amount of money to smart contract hacks.



“There is a whole world that is enabled by [blockchain] technology and it can not exist without security…we mapped the whole stack and concluded that the most critical piece, which the space will not solve on its own, is the disclosure layer — the 911,” Amador said.



The security company rewards white hat hackers for reviewing blockchain projects and disclosing vulnerabilities — creating monetary incentives for experts to make dapps safer. It currently boasts a community of over 11,000 developers, auditors, CTOs and hackers.



According to Amador, rewards can range from a few thousand dollars to upwards of millions of dollars for a single bug report.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“If you do good for the community, not only will you become rich, but you will also become a hero,” Amador said.</blockquote>



Immunefi has previously facilitated a $10 million bug bounty payment for a vulnerability discovered in the cross-chain messaging solution Wormhole, and a $6 million exposure discovered on a bridge and scaling solution Aurora.&nbsp;



Most recently, Arbitrum, a layer-2 Ethereum scaling solution, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/arbitrum-saved-from-major-eth-loss-by-white-hat-hacker/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">paid 400 ETH</a> (almost $550k USD) to a white hat hacker through Immunefi as a reward for uncovering a vulnerability.



The latest fundraise will be going toward growing the Immunefi team, Amador said.&nbsp;



“We need better technical expertise — we cannot keep up with the level of activity,” Amador said. “We just need more people.”



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Framework Makes its Largest Single Bet Yet on Immunefi

<div id="highlights-block_6308df8376f7a" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Digital assets prime broker hires Wells Fargo’s former electronic trading sales head</li>
 <li>Crypto venture capital firm adds high-profile advisors</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Cowen Digital expanded its institutional sales team with pros joining from Blockchain.com and Coinbase.&nbsp;



The digital asset division of financial services firm Cowen brought aboard <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackie-rose-a28a2142/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jackie Rose</a> as director of institutional sales, it revealed Thursday. Rose was previously Blockchain.com’s head of institutional business development and also formerly worked at The Carlyle Group and JPMorgan as an associate and investment banking analyst, respectively. 



<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/chasecampbell24/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Chase Campbell</a> is now Cowen Digital’s vice president of digital asset sales. Formerly an institutional sales associate at Coinbase, he supported traditional finance and crypto-native firms looking to trade and custody digital assets. 



TD Bank revealed earlier this month that it is <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/td-bank-buys-cowen-in-tradfi-push-with-crypto-twist/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">set to acquire Cowen for $1.3 billion</a>, though details about how it could seek to leverage Cowen’s digital assets unit remain unclear. 



Eric Rose, Cowen’s head of execution, said in a statement that Cowen Digital plans to continue expanding its team as part of its strategic build over the next five years.



Electric Capital added former SEC chairman Jay Clayton, ex-Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/pratitirc/">Pratiti Raychoudhury</a>, Meta’s head of research, as advisors.



The <a href="https://www.electriccapital.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">venture capital firm</a> recently announced $1 billion in capital to invest in early-stage Web3 companies and protocols with investment sizes ranging from $1m to $50m. 



“By bringing together experts in product design, the global financial system and regulation, Electric Capital founders are able to accelerate innovation and the adoption of Web3 tools,” the company said in a statement.



A former member of the institutional business development team at now-bankrupt Celsius Network is now head of lending solutions at Digital Prime Technologies.&nbsp;



<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtney-campbell-4124859/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Courtney Campbell</a> is set to lead the development of the company’s institutional lending solution initiative to be announced later this year, Digital Prime Technologies CEO James Runnels said in a statement. 



Before Celsius, she was a managing director for Credit Suisse’s prime services group. Prior to that, she was the Americas head of international securities lending and synthetics at Bank of America, where she worked for more than a decade.&nbsp;



Identity provider Okta added <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/emiliechoi/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Emilie Choi</a>, president and chief operating officer of Coinbase Global, to its board of directors.



Choi has worked at Coinbase since 2018 and has also served as a member of the board of directors for ZipRecruiter and others. Before Coinbase, she was LinkedIn Corporation’s head of corporate development from 2009 to 2018.



“It’s clear that identity is at the heart of every industry and every digital interaction,” Choi said. “I look forward to working with Okta as the company executes on its mission of freeing anyone to safely use any technology and creating a world where your identity belongs to you.”



Blockchain analytics company Flipside Crypto hired <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/daphnekwon/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Daphne Kwon</a> to lead its DAO initiatives.



Kwon joins Flipside Crypto from media conglomerate Meredith Corporation, where she was chief strategy officer. She has also worked as president and chief operating officer of Betaworks Studios, and has held chief financial officer and business development roles at brands such as Disney and Oxygen Media.&nbsp;



&#8220;We&#8217;ll see the emergence of new business models with truly decentralized governance and investment structures that release the power of community passion and expertise — many of which promise to tackle some of the biggest opportunities in global finance, creator economies, healthcare and environmental issues,” Kwon said in a statement.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">In case you missed it</h3>



Digital assets prime brokerage <a href="https://www.floating.group/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Floating Point Group</a> nabbed <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-eliades-38a8978/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Peter Eliades</a> — who last headed electronic trading sales for Wells Fargo — to oversee business development in the US and throughout Asia Pacific, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/crypto-prime-brokerage-enlists-former-wells-fargo-jpmorgan-exec/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Blockworks reported</a> Wednesday. 



Eliades was a vice president at Lehman Brothers in 2001 before becoming a managing director at Bear Stearns &amp; Co. about four years later. He went on to work for JPMorgan as head of Americas trading.



<a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/new-web3-head-at-digital-bank-cogni-braces-for-more-regulation/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Digital bank Cogni recently brought aboard</a> former registered commodity trading advisor <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/simongrunfeld/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Simon Grunfeld</a> to lead its Web3 initiatives. 



The executive has previously worked for blockchain-as-a-service platform SIMBA Chain, as well as for digital collectibles marketplace VeVe. He also founded white-label platform Ibinex to help enterprises develop crypto exchanges.



Alameda Research co-CEO <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-trabucco-79215263/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sam Trabucco</a> revealed Wednesday <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/top-alameda-exec-steps-down/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">he is stepping down</a> from his role at the crypto quantitative trading firm and liquidity provider. He has not yet decided on a new destination, he said in a series of tweets. 



Caroline Ellison is now sole CEO of the company, an Alameda spokesperson told Blockworks.



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Latest in Crypto Hiring: Ex-pros from Coinbase, Blockchain.com Join Cowen Digital

Morgan Chittum

<div id="highlights-block_622f6a34c8037" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The capital will go toward staff expansion, product development and future partnerships</li>
 <li>Other investors include Sequoia Capital, Electric Capital, Greylock Partners, Kindred Capital, Variant Fund and Solana Ventures</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Magic Eden, a Solana-based NFT marketplace, announced a $27 million Series A funding round on Monday. The round was led by Paradigm with participation from Sequoia Capital, Electric Capital, Greylock Partners, Kindred Capital, Variant Fund and Solana Ventures.



The raise will go toward staff expansion, future partnerships and product development.



Jack Lu, CEO and co-founder of Magic Eden, told Blockworks that the funding will “help [them] expand as a company, including hiring the best talent, improving [their] product and infrastructure and investing in community initiatives.”



Among those initiatives is MagicDAO, a recent attempt to launch a decentralized autonomous organization (<a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/the-investors-guide-to-daos/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">DAO</a>) gated by the startup’s NFT (non-fungible token) collection Magic Ticket. The project airdropped 30,602 such tickets, which provide access to the group&#8217;s Discord channels, to community members and plans to involve those members in governance decisions in the future.



Magic Eden has recorded over $736 million in total trading volume since its launch last year — establishing itself as the largest Solana marketplace, according to data dashboard <a href="https://dappradar.com/nft/marketplaces/protocol/solana" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">DappRadar</a>.



Trading volumes for Magic Eden, however, have declined 85.76% to roughly $41 million in the past month — mirroring the performance of the broader NFT market.



The NFT marketplace OpenSea&#8217;s trading and transaction volumes fell as well, declining <a href="https://dappradar.com/nft" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">22.4%</a> and <a href="https://dappradar.com/nft" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">11.61%</a> respectively over the past month. OpenSea, unlike Magic Eden, auctions off NFTs on Ethereum and Polygon.



Paradigm, which launched <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/paradigm-launches-2-5-billion-crypto-fund/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a $2.5 billion crypto fund</a> last November, is an investor in OpenSea as well.Benjamin Cohen, managing partner of crypto fund Web 3 Equities, previously <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/crypto-portfolio-managers-collectors-say-nft-market-bound-for-correction/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a> Blockworks when a market is as fast as OpenSea, it is “fair to assume that [it] will experience large swings and corrections.”



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NFT Marketplace Magic Eden Secures $27M Series A

Jacquelyn Melinek

<div id="highlights-block_6222590637379" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The total money invested this week came from over 20 deals and funds, PitchBook data showed</li>
 <li>Prominent venture capital firm a16z invested $70 million into DeFi staking platform Lido on Thursday</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



March started off strong as crypto companies and funds alike brought in another substantial week of capital, nearing a total of $1.34 billion. The total money invested this week came from over 20 deals and funds, PitchBook data showed.



The week’s biggest raise came from Electric Capital. The firm <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/electric-capital-raises-1-billion-to-launch-crypto-venture-token-funds/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">raised $1 billion</a> to launch two funds: a $400 million venture fund and a $600 million token fund. The capital raise brings the firm into the big leagues alongside major funds such as Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Paradigm and 10T Holdings.



On Thursday, the prominent venture capital firm, a16z, invested $70 million into DeFi staking platform Lido. The decentralized platform offers Ethereum staking and other proof-of-stake assets to users through a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) governance structure.



The fresh funds from a16z will be used to build out its staking solution and prepare for upgrades surrounding the Ethereum transition from <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/proof-of-work-vs-proof-of-stake-whats-the-difference/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">proof-of-work to proof-of-stake</a>, Jacob Blish, Lido’s head of business development and partnerships, said to Blockworks.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“The roadmap for 2022 is prioritizing the Ethereum network upgrade, researching and building out layer-2 solutions, and expanding to a number of new protocols,” Blish said.</blockquote>



Since 2022 started, Lido has launched liquid staking for Kusama and Polygon and plans to add Polkadot, Avalanche and Cosmos in the second half of the year, Blish noted.



In other news, a seed-stage venture capital firm, Arcanum Capital, launched its first fund of $12 million, Wednesday, to focus on blockchain technology companies in emerging markets — mainly in India.&nbsp;



“We launched the fund because we wanted a vehicle to raise significant institutional capital into, to then deploy into India and make a big impact,” James McDowall, founding partner at Arcanum Capital, said to Blockworks.



The company’s fund includes prominent investors like Polygon Co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, venture capitalist Tim Draper, and Bybit’s venture capital arm, Mirana Ventures, among others. To date, Arcanum has invested about $4 million in over 20 startups.



“We are seeing blockchain technology disrupt almost every industry,” McDowall said.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“DeFi alone has trillions of dollars of market share to go at. Add in [non-fungible tokens], gaming, and decentralized applications, and it is clear that blockchain is a gargantuan technology trend in its relative infancy.”</blockquote>



Other notable capital raises this week include:&nbsp;



<ul><li>South African crypto exchange VALR’s <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/in-one-of-africas-largest-crypto-raises-south-african-exchange-takes-in-50m/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$50 million</a> round</li><li>Thetanuts Finance closed an <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/thetanuts-finance-get-18m-in-seed-funding-to-flest-out-defi-platform/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$18 million</a> round to democratize DeFi-structured products</li><li>Pantera Capital led a <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/subspace-labs-raises-33m-led-by-pantera-capital-to-further-web3-efforts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$33 million round</a> for Subspace Labs to further its Web3 efforts</li><li>Multicoin Capital and Jump Crypto co-led a <a href="https://multicoin.capital/2022/03/02/dialect-the-smart-messaging-standard/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$4.1 million</a> seed investment in smart messaging protocol Dialect&nbsp;</li><li>Ignite Tournaments closed a $10 million financing round to build a play-to-earn esports tournament and streaming platform</li></ul>



Check back next week for more funding news.



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Funding Roundup: $1.34B Invested in Crypto Companies and Funds This Week

<div id="highlights-block_621e69adec374" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The firm will focus on DAOs, NFTs, DeFi, decentralized infrastructure and accessibility in Web3</li>
 <li>“The Web3 economy built on top of the programmable money stack will be one of the defining disruptions of the 2020s,” Avichal Garg, Electric Capital founder tweeted</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Crypto venture capital firm Electric Capital has raised $1 billion, its largest fundraise to date, to deploy capital to Web3, NFT and DeFi projects.&nbsp;



“The Web3 economy built on top of the programmable money stack will be one of the defining disruptions of the 2020s,” Avichal Garg, Electric Capital founder and managing partner, <a href="https://twitter.com/avichal/status/1498700492393746433" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a> Tuesday. 



The lofty $1 billion haul is earmarked for two funds: a $400 million venture fund and a $600 million token fund. The new vehicles mark the firm’s third and fourth funds, respectively.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Electric Capital’s second fund was $110 million in August 2020. At the time, it planned to focus on investing in startup equity, crypto tokens and hybrids of the two.



The firm will focus on five key trends within the new funds: DAOs, NFTs (non-fungible tokens), DeFi (decentralized finance), decentralized infrastructure and accessibility in Web3, which will define this decade, Garg said. The capital will be invested in $1 million to $25 million increments for companies and token-enabled networks.



The fundraise brings the firm into a bigger playing field alongside venture capitalists in the space with major crypto funds such as <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/andreessen-horowitz-looking-to-raise-4-5b-for-new-crypto-funds/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Andreessen Horowitz</a>, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/paradigm-launches-2-5-billion-crypto-fund/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Paradigm</a> and <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/10t-holdings-plans-to-launch-third-crypto-fund/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10T Holdings</a>.



As prominent firms deploy large funds, venture capitalists and investors alike seem to show no signs of slowing down. Last month, billions of dollars flowed into the crypto, including a notable amount from Luna Foundation Guard with its <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/nonprofit-raises-1b-to-create-bitcoin-reserve-support-terra-ecosystem-growth/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$1 billion</a> private token sale. 



“We believe that crypto enables a parallel, programmable financial system,” Electric Capital wrote in a <a href="https://mirror.xyz/electriccap.eth/aYtipN_dEtB6ztBqGDspE0zfvck8DpVLDsrnrm2MluY">post</a>. “Now, a new economy is developing on top of the programmable money stack — DeFi enables permissionless access and innovation, NFTs are digital-native assets, DAOs create a way for communities to allocate resources, Decentralized Infrastructure provides alternatives to centralized tooling, and more.”



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Electric Capital Raises $1 Billion To Launch Crypto Venture, Token Funds

Liz Coyne

In the latest episode of &#8220;<a href="https://youtu.be/-JMvmLMJxgQ">Empire</a>,&#8221; weekly roundup, Blockworks&#8217; co-founder Jason Yanowitz and co-host Santiago Roel Santos tackle a range of hot topics from the week, including demystifying the Curve Wars — a race by DeFi protocols to accumulate CRV tokens in an effort to control governance rights and drive yield to their own protocols.



They also cover:



<ul><li>Layer-1 wars</li><li>Options vaults</li><li>The new <a href="https://medium.com/electric-capital/electric-capital-developer-report-2021-f37874efea6d" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Electric Capital Developer Report </a>(2021)</li><li>OpenSea <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/opensea-polygon-nft-sales-on-track-to-hit-2-2m-by-end-of-january/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">raises</a> $300 million and freezes $2.2 million of Bored Apes</li><li>Ray Dalio allocates 2% of portfolio to bitcoin</li><li>and so much more!</li></ul>



Check out what they had to say in the video below. 👇



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Understanding the Curve Wars, Crypto Options &amp; L1s Stay Hot | Weekly Roundup" width="1024" height="576" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CQZb_czIYzA?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">About the show</h3>



&#8220;Empire&#8221; is a twice-a-week show. On Thursdays, Jason interviews crypto industry movers and shakers to talk about their struggles, bold moves and tough decisions. Friday&#8217;s weekly roundup episodes feature <meta charset="utf-8">co-host, Santiago Roel Santos and cover the top news from the past week.



For any NPR or Guy Raz fans out there, you can think of &#8220;Empire&#8221; as a &#8220;How I Built This&#8221; for the bitcoin and crypto industry.



Subscribe to &#8220;Empire&#8221; today on&nbsp;<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/empire/id1554930038" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Apple</a>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/4UTePv1CR3APdKOiosR3Iq" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Spotify</a>. Watch episodes on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvER9nHSRN3wPkrDGTT5_8VC4Hjcq0f9U" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">YouTube</a>.



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Get the day’s top crypto news and insights delivered to your inbox every evening.&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://cms.blockworks.co/newsletter/?source=end" rel="noreferrer noopener">Subscribe to Blockworks’ free newsletter</a>&nbsp;now.



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electric capital