Casey Wagner

<div id="highlights-block_624dc87784979" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>NEAR protocol announced its second fundraise since January</li>
 <li>The capital will be used to expand regional hubs around the world, the protocol said</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Blockchain project NEAR Protocol has announced the close of another funding round.



Just three months after its <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/near-token-spikes-after-protocol-raises-150m-led-by-three-arrows-capital/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$150 million raise</a>, NEAR announced an additional $350 million capital raise Wednesday, bringing its market cap to more than <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/near" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$10 billion</a> as of Wednesday.



The funding round, led by Tiger Global, will be put toward growing regional hubs in key community centers across the globe, according to a statement.



“NEAR is poised to be a leading smart contract blockchain platform, combining first-rate technology with a fast-growing developer ecosystem,” partner at Tiger Global John Curtius said in a statement.



The protocol has established communities in Asia, Africa and Europe, and it aims to expand support in emerging communities in Latin America, Turkey and India, the company said.



Since its mainnet launch in late 2020, the NEAR network has processed over 70 million transactions and supported over 2.3 million accounts. Its Ethereum-compatible <a href="https://aurora.dev/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Aurora</a> scaling solution is responsible for $800 million of Near’s $1.1 billion in total value locked (TVL), <a href="https://defillama.com/chain/Aurora" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to DefiLlama</a>.



After its January raise, the protocol’s native token, NEAR, jumped nearly 10% to trade just under $20 before falling to around $15 in recent weeks. It was trading down about 3% Wednesday afternoon.



NEAR, which seeks to rival layer-1 protocols including Solana and Ethereum and claims to be the first truly <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sharding.asp" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sharded</a> network in the world, also recently <a href="https://near.org/blog/near-in-march-unchain-fund-sailgp-and-daos/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a> a series of decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) partnerships, including being selected by Orange DAO as its preferred layer-1 blockchain for Web3.



“We are thrilled to have been selected by some of the brightest minds in the world as the preferred layer-1 chain on which Orange DAO members will want to build,” Marieke Flament, CEO of the NEAR Foundation, said in a statement. “We know that community-driven innovation benefits everyone, and this partnership is simply another example of our mission in practice.”



Illia Polosukhin, NEAR’s Ukrainian co-founder, is also a key player in the cryptocurrency community working to help efforts in Ukraine. He has helped evacuate at least 50 people out of Ukraine and raised more than $3 million, according to a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-09/ukraine-s-crypto-community-sends-donation-support-after-russia-invasion" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bloomberg</a> report.



Other investors in the latest round include FTX Ventures, Dragonfly Capital and Blockchain Ventures.



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NEAR Raises $350M To Bring Market Cap Over $10B

Macauley Peterson

<div id="highlights-block_61afc985294b3" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Tiger Global led a funding round with participation the venture capital arm of American Express, Visa, Citigroup, along with DRW Venture Capital, Jump Capital, Marshall Wace, Block (formerly Square, Inc.) and PayPal Ventures.</li>
 <li>TRM Transaction Monitoring is used by major crypto firms like FTX US, Circle and MoonPay to detect suspicious activity and comply with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



San Francisco-based TRM Labs announced today its Series B raise of $60 million. Born from the famed <a href="https://www.ycombinator.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Y Combinator</a> incubator program in 2019, TRM has grown its team to a headcount of 60, while revenue is up 600% year-over-year.



The company works with financial institutions, cryptocurrency-focused companies, and public sector agencies on issues of fraud and financial crime. Its toolkit includes services for monitoring and screening cryptocurrency wallets and transactions, to help companies manage risk and comply with regulations.



Tiger Global, helmed by billionaire Chase Coleman, led the funding round. &#8220;TRM is well-positioned to lead the industry as the premier blockchain intelligence solution,&#8221; said Tiger Global’s John Curtius, in a statement.



Block, which recently <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/jack-dorseys-square-to-change-its-name-to-block/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">changed its name</a> from Square Inc., was among the participants in the Series B. Mike Brock, who leads Block’s TBD division, noted of TRM Labs’ business, that “risk and compliance is a crucial piece of the puzzle as financial institutions, blockchain-based businesses, and government entities look to bring crypto into the world of finance.”



Multiple other venture firms and prominent individual investors participated in the round. Venture capital funding came from B Capital Group, Bessemer Venture Partners, Blockchain Capital, Cap Table Coalition, Castle Island Ventures, Initialized Capital, Operator Partners. Among 50 individual investors were Emilie Choi, President and COO of Coinbase, Frank Slootman, Chairman and CEO of Snowflake along with Snowflake’s CFO Michael Scarpelli.



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