Jacquelyn Melinek

<div id="highlights-block_61fd75403556f" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>On Friday, layer-2 infrastructure firm Qredo closed its $80 million Series A round led by 10T Holdings</li>
 <li>Earlier this week, Seven Seven Six closed a whopping $500 million venture fund for its second fund, which will focus primarily on crypto startups</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Capital continued to pour into crypto this week, despite a recent downturn in digital asset markets.



“Significant capital raises that closed last year will be deployed now, I expect an increased pace of activity,” Stan Miroshnik, co-founder of 10T Holdings, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/crypto-vc-market-poised-for-growth/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a> Blockworks earlier this week.



Layer-2 infrastructure firm Qredo closed its $80 million Series A round Friday, led by 10T Holdings, with participation from Coinbase, Avalanche and Terra. The raise brings its valuation to $640 million, after raising $120 million across the past 12 months.



“Infrastructure is a key battleground for scaling crypto adoption,” <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/podcast-is-the-crypto-bull-market-over-dan-tapiero-and-dan-morehead/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dan Tapiero</a>, founder and CEO of 10T Holdings, said.



More than $800 million was raised this week, according to PitchBook data. Some of the larger rounds include <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/ftx-valued-at-32-billion/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">FTX’s $400 million</a>, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/crypto-wallet-raises-109-million/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Phantom’s $109 million</a> and <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/web3-data-firm-dune-analytics-hits-unicorn-status/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dune Analytics’ $69.42 million</a> capital raises.



Other fundraisers include:



<ul><li>Pixel Vault’s $100 million, which will be used to help launch an NFT platform</li><li>Tribal Credit, which offers crypto financial services, raised $60 million in a round led by SoftBank to expand into Latin America</li><li>CoinFund co-led $5.7 million seed round in prime brokerage liquidity protocol Primex Finance</li><li>Celebrity-focused NFT platform Colexion’s $5 million raise to expand into the metaverse</li><li>DAO-to-DAO credit lending platform Kyoko Finance closed $3 million private round led by Animoca Brands</li></ul>



Meanwhile, Reddit Co-founder Alexis Ohanian’s venture capital firm, Seven Seven Six (776), closed a whopping $500 million venture fund. The raise was oversubscribed, with $300 million going toward funding early-stage startups and $200 million going toward companies in growth stages.



The firm plans to primarily invest in crypto startups by the end of the year, Ohanian <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/alexis-ohanians-venture-capital-firm-raises-500-million-doubles-down-on-crypto-startups-11643716803" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a> the Wall Street Journal. The VC has over $750 million assets under management, just $26 million short of matching their name, 776, Ohanian <a href="https://twitter.com/alexisohanian/status/1488496693549142019?s=20&amp;t=Vp_Sq3zKGfyP5m6tHu0NWg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">quipped</a> on Twitter.



Ark Invest filed to launch a venture fund that would invest in companies involved in disruptive innovation, including those related to crypto and blockchain technology, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/ark-invest-seeks-to-launch-venture-fund/">Blockworks reported</a>.&nbsp;



Separately, Arca also launched its NFT fund this week, which oversubscribed its initial cap of <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2022/02/03/2378523/0/en/Arca-s-Oversubscribed-NFT-Fund-Closes-At-50M-Cap.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$50 million</a>. The fund joins the firm’s three other investment products, including its Digital Assets Fund and Digital Yield Fund. The fund will invest in NFTs, as well as digital property, in-game assets, DeFi-integrated NFTs and utility- and reward-based NFTs.



“We believe that, at present, there is a dislocation between the value of non fungible assets and the value of the underpinning ecosystem via equity, tokens, etc,” Arca Portfolio Manager Sasha Fleyshman told Blockworks in a statement. “We look to both capitalize on that mismatch and catalyze the perception change of investing directly into NFTs as investment grade assets.”



Check back next week for even more funding news.



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Fundraising Wrap: Over $800M in Investments Poured into Crypto This Week

Morgan Chittum

<div id="highlights-block_60e4b37a09895" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Qredo raised $11M in seed funding back in May.</li>
 <li>Coinbase, Prime Ledger and Figment have all previously invested in Qredo.</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Nexo, a regulated institution for digital assets, is joining Coinbase, Figment and Ledger Prime as a leading strategic backer, by jumping into a $16 million investment round in digital asset custodian Qredo in the run-up to its public token sale on July 8.



“DeFi’s rapid growth has been luring institutional investors for the past years, yet disruptive fintech companies have been held to a rigorous regulatory standard, hampering direct institutional engagement,” Nexo’s Head of Corporate Finance, Tatiana Metodieva, said to Blockworks.&nbsp;



Nexo has championed itself as the first to offer an Instant Crypto Credit Line, one of the company’s many attempts to lure big banks and institutional investors to the asset class. Nexo offers loans in more than 40 fiat currencies, according to its <a href="https://support.nexo.io/hc/en-us/articles/360008238873-In-what-currencies-and-or-crypto-can-I-obtain-a-Nexo-loan-" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">website</a>.&nbsp;



Nexo had $1 billion in AUM in March 2020 and has $15 billion now, CoinDesk <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/crypto-lenders-say-wednesdays-crypto-crash-cleaned-up-excessive-leverage" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a> in May.



Qredo will be launching its initial coin offering (ICO) on July 8 via Coinlist, with 112,160,000 of its tokens up for sale. Each will go for $0.225, according to a <a href="https://www.economywatch.com/news/5-best-upcoming-icos-for-july-2021" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a> by Economy Watch.



“This funding will mean we can rapidly integrate more layer 1 blockchains into the Qredo ecosystem, enhancing the cross-chain functionality that it brings,” added Qredo COO Josh Goodbody. “Additionally, it will give us the development resources we need to accelerate the path to decentralization, which will increase the overall security of the Qredo Network.”



Metodieva, CFA, described Nexo and Qredo’s “strategic liaison” as “simply the best of both worlds.”



“It combines the highest industry standards in terms of compliance thanks to Nexo’s experience in following the traditional licensing and regulatory path for the better part of the past three years with Qredo’s undisputed technological advancement – using a next-generation blockchain protocol to allow institutions secure exposure to the decentralized network,” the head of corporate finance said.



Qredo recently raised $11 million in seed funding back in May and has previously attracted big-name investors like <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/coinbase-compound-labs-launch-usdc-high-yield-accounts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Coinbase</a>, Prime Ledger and Figment.