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

Ben Strack

<div id="highlights-block_622f623c547c2" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The NFT holders will have access to conversations with climate scientists and the Kurani campaign’s Earth Day party in the metaverse</li>
 <li>Kurani, if elected, would prioritize clear guidelines on know your customer and anti-money laundering reporting while seeking to protect privacy</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Congressional candidate Shrina Kurani is using NFTs to raise awareness for her campaign and bring attention to climate-friendly Web3 solutions.&nbsp;



Kurani, a Democrat running for a seat in California’s 41st District, teamed up with NFT (non-fungible token) marketplace Abris to launch 230 NFTs — signifying the 230 billion tons of carbon remaining in the world’s &#8220;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-020-00064-9" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">carbon budget</a>.&#8221;



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="250" height="250" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Shrina-NFT.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-18610" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Shrina-NFT.jpg?w=250 250w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Shrina-NFT.jpg?w=150 150w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Shrina-NFT.jpg?w=219 219w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Shrina-NFT.jpg?w=80 80w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Shrina-NFT.jpg?w=50 50w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px" /><figcaption>Shrina Kurani NFT</figcaption></figure></div>



Available through March, the NFTs are priced at $1,250 and $5,800. They will grant holders access to airdrops from other crypto and climate projects, conversations with climate scientists and the campaign’s Earth Day party in the metaverse.



The NFTs serve as the campaign’s “merchandise,” Kurani told Blockworks, and funds from them will be used for communications and “building a team that has run similar races before, and won.”



“When innovative ideas meet technology, fundraising becomes a memorable experience,” Abris CEO Priya Samant said in a statement.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“It is very promising to see political candidates getting creative and venturing into the world of NFTs.”</blockquote>



Abris is built on Algorand, which partnered with ClimateTrade to offset its emissions and become a carbon-negative blockchain network. 



Kurani said that legislators who are literate in technology and crypto are essential to ensuring Web3 innovation. She is challenging US Rep. Ken Calvert, a Republican who has held the district seat since 2013. Other candidates include Democrat Will Rollins and Republican State Sen. Melissa Melendez.



Kurani is a vice president of business for Republic, a New York-based financial technology company with a retail investment platform, a blockchain advisory service and a private capital division. The company has deployed more than $700 million in investments and supported about 600 companies



A former mechanical engineer at NASA, Kurani in 2015 co-founded FoodNest, a Berlin-based start-up offering access to food inventory, and served as its CEO until January 2018. She later served in leadership roles at Sutro, a company focused on building water solutions, and venture capital firm Better Ventures.



Now, Kurani said, the US has a chance to invest in emerging technologies and digital services focused on transparency, efficiency and access.&nbsp;



“With crypto, we can democratize access to financial services at large and use the closely intertwined relationship between technology and ownership to streamline processes, educate the American population, and encourage financial literacy, particularly for communities who have been historically disenfranchised,” she told Blockworks.&nbsp;



In terms of crypto legislation that Kurani would support if elected, she called tax and accounting reporting frameworks “low-hanging fruit” that would benefit the industry. She would prioritize clear guidelines on know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) reporting while seeking to protect privacy, Kurani added.



President Biden <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/bidens-crypto-executive-order-may-be-watershed-moment-despite-lack-of-specifics/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">signed an executive order</a> last week that calls on government agencies to study potential approaches to digital assets. It focuses on consumer protection, financial stability, risk mitigation, the US’s financial leadership, financial inclusion and responsible innovation around crypto.



“The first phase of legislation begins with education and discourse, and the executive order is laying a pathway to do just that,” Kurani told Blockworks.



The NFT drop, designed to engage the crypto community to participate in the future of crypto legislation, follows <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/andrew-yang-turns-to-dao-in-web3-lobbying-push/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Andrew Yang’s creation of Lobby3</a>, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that intends to fund advocacy organizations to form relationships with lawmakers and educate them on Web3.



The former presidential candidate <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/andrew-yang-we-must-avoid-politicizing-crypto-web3/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told Blockworks in an interview last month</a> that ensuring there is sensible regulation is crucial for the industry.



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congress

Congressional Candidate Uses NFTs To Raise Awareness, Funds

<div id="highlights-block_61f02195423f5" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>NFTs could be another revenue stream for YouTube creators, according to the CEO</li>
 <li>Shares of YouTube parent Alphabet Inc. traded 1.8% lower at time of publication</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



YouTube may incorporate non-fungible tokens onto its platform in the future, the video hosting platform’s CEO Susan Wojcicki said in a <a href="https://blog.youtube/inside-youtube/letter-susan-our-2022-priorities/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">letter</a> on Tuesday.&nbsp;



“We’re always focused on expanding the YouTube ecosystem to help creators capitalize on emerging technologies, including things like NFTs, while continuing to strengthen and enhance the experiences creators and fans have on YouTube,” Wojcicki said.



Wojcicki said that Web3 has been “a source of inspiration” for YouTube, adding that NFTs and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO) have the “unimaginable opportunity to grow the connection between creators and their fans.”&nbsp;



Colin Fitzpatrick, founder and CEO of Animal Concerts, a startup focused on virtual concerts in the metaverse, described the possible NFT integration as “a great way for creators to monetize their channels without needing to rely on advertising revenue.”



“If YouTube is going to facilitate NFTs on their platform, it is possible that demonetizing content creators is something they are forced into by their advertising partners,” Fitzpatrick told Blockworks. “Introducing NFTs could be a way for them to circumvent corporate interests and give their users alternative methods to generate revenue.”



Indeed, YouTube&#8217;s CEO said NFTs could be another form of revenue for creators. She did not, however, provide additional details or specify a timeline.&nbsp;



The letter follows closely on the heels of Twitter’s <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/twitter-integrates-nfts-with-new-profile-picture-feature/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announcement </a>of supporting verified NFT profile pictures. Users of the company’s Twitter Blue subscription service can link ether-based wallets to their account and display their NFTs as profile pictures.&nbsp;



Shares of YouTube’s parent company Alphabet Inc. were trading 1.84% lower at $2,567.99 at the time of publication.


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