Bessie Liu

FTX’s disaster has caused the market to be filled with fear of uncertainty and doubt (FUD), and major cryptocurrencies related to Sam Bankman-Fried have suffered as a result, but Polygon (MATIC) and tokens backed by gold, have outperformed.



The price of Polygon’s MATIC token has gone up by <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/prices/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">6%</a> over the past week. By comparison, it’s competitor, Solana has seen the price of its token SOL dip by <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/prices/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">46 %</a>.



In addition to stablecoins, traders looking for a safe haven have turned to PAX Gold (PAXG) issued by Paxos, which has seen an <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/pax-gold" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">8.2%</a> price increase.



Chris Kline, chief revenue officer and co-founder of Bitcoin IRA told Blockworks that MATIC is more hyper-focused and specialized than other cryptocurrencies, which may have allowed it to protect itself during market fluctuations.



“Polygon&#8217;s MATIC token is used to pay transaction fees and participate on the network,” Kline said. &#8220;Although MATIC, like all other cryptocurrencies, is 60%+ lower than its all-time highs of 2021.



MATIC’s price has likely outperformed thanks to the announcement of Polygon’s partnership with Instagram last Thursday, where creators will be able to make their own digital collectables and sell them on the platform.&nbsp;



<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">🚨 MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT🚨 💻Earlier this year, we announced a display partnership with <a href="https://twitter.com/Meta?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Meta</a>. ⛓️Now, <a href="https://twitter.com/Meta?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Meta</a> has selected <a href="https://twitter.com/0xPolygon?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@0xPolygon</a> for MINTING digital collectibles! For the first time ever, creators will be able to mint &amp; sell Polygon-powered digital collectibles on <a href="https://twitter.com/instagram?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@instagram</a>! <a href="https://t.co/bU0NorU7pe">pic.twitter.com/bU0NorU7pe</a>&mdash; Ryan Wyatt (@Fwiz) <a href="https://twitter.com/Fwiz/status/1587930023884791808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 2, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



As drama unfolds with FTX and other crypto communities, Polygon developers have been actively working on building products to integrate Blockchain technology with Web2.&nbsp;



In fact, yesterday, Polygon revealed that it was working with Disney to develop a proof of concept for exclusive digital collectables.&nbsp;



<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">The MAGIC continues! 🪄✨ Polygon is working w/ <a href="https://twitter.com/WaltDisneyCo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WaltDisneyCo</a> after participating in <a href="https://twitter.com/DisneyAccel?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DisneyAccel</a> 🫱🏾‍🫲🏼 For starters, we’re developing a proof of concept for EXCLUSIVE digital collectibles to recognize Disney employees during special occasions ✨&mdash; Polygon &#8211; MATIC 💜 (@0xPolygon) <a href="https://twitter.com/0xPolygon/status/1590861662235811840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 11, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Tapping into the creator economy space may have been the reason that the Polygon token has held up during the cryptocurrency meltdown.



&#8220;The value added to the creator economy is unmatchable and championing verifiable digital ownership on a platform with such reach will help us further our goal of onboarding the next billion users to Web3,&#8221; Sandeep Nailwal, the co-founder of Polygon <a href="https://twitter.com/0xPolygon/status/1587933034665287682" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a> in a tweet.&nbsp;



This sentiment is shared by Harsh Rajat, CEO at Push Protocol who told Blockworks “the reason the price of MATIC has been trending upwards and will likely continue to do so is because the number of wallet addresses continues to do so as well.”



Adding that, “the number of unique wallet addresses is the simplest indicator in the health and growth of a network, and it’s clearly thriving on Polygon as more addresses are being added every day despite a downturn in the market.”



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Gold-linked Tokens and Polygon Buck Crypto Downtrend

<div id="highlights-block_630cbd1aa69ec" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Symbolic Capital raised a $50 million venture fund to support building Web3 companies</li>
 <li>Animoca Brands KK is supporting Web3 efforts in Japan after raising $45 million</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Web3 startups continued to be an area of focus for investors this past week.



Cryptocurrency venture capital firm Symbolic Capital, led by Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, raised a <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/polygon-founder-raises-50m-for-web3-fund/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$50 million</a> venture fund to support building Web3 companies.



Along with Kenzi Wang, co-founder of Cere, Symbolic Capital wants to use its newly raised funds to back consumer-facing decentralized apps. It has previously invested in gaming studio BlinkMoon and other Polygon-based platforms.



On the other side of the world in Japan, Animoca Brands KK also raised a significant amount of money — <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/animoca-brands-japan-raised-45m-to-foster-local-web3-efforts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$45 million</a> — to support Web3 and NFT efforts in the country. 



The latest capital will also be directed into securing licenses for intellectual property (IP) of popular anime and manga series and increasing the value and utility of the company’s branded content.



Estonian crypto startup focused on cryptocurrency options trading, BITLEVEX, secured $50 million from GEM Capital, an alternative investment group that has poured millions of dollars into Web3 companies this past month.



GEM Capital previously committed <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/funding-wrap-gaming-startups-still-a-hot-item-for-venture-capitalists/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$50 million</a> to decentralized farming protocol XION Finance and $25 million to Geeq, a multi-blockchain platform that uses a patent-pending blockchain consensus mechanism.



Web3 developer platform thirdweb also locked in a significant amount of cash from investors this week, closing a $24 million Series A led by crypto investment firm Haun Ventures, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Shopify, Protocol Labs, Shrug VC and Joseph Lacob.&nbsp;



Katie Haun, founder and CEO of Haun Ventures, said in a statement that she hopes that the firm&#8217;s investment portfolio can “accelerate the next generation of the internet.”



“As complexity to develop in Web3 continues to increase, the experienced team at thirdweb led by Furqan and Steven have built an elegant solution that allows developers to build fast while avoiding costly mistakes,” she said. “I’m pleased to see proven founders of this caliber dedicating their next chapter to crypto and look forward to supporting their efforts.”



Steven Bartlett, thirdweb’s founder is a university dropout who previously built Web2 company Social Chain, valued at $600 million. His latest project, thirdweb, provides tools for its users to launch and manage Web3 projects including NFT (non-fungible token) drops, digital marketplaces, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), games and many more. 



“Web3 is the most important technological shift I&#8217;ve witnessed in my lifetime,” Bartlett said in a statement. “I don’t think anybody quite realizes how much Web3 is going to change the world.”



Other worthy fundraise mentions this week:



<ul><li>Credit risk assessment infrastructure Web3 startup Spectral secured $23 million from General Catalyst and Social Capital.</li><li>Comm, a company that wants to be Web3’s Discord, raised a <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/web3-startup-comm-raises-5m-in-bid-to-compete-with-discord/">$5 million</a> seed round.</li><li>Solana mobile stack, a subsidiary of Solana Labs, secured <a href="https://twitter.com/solanafm/status/1563049379405017088?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet">$4.5 million</a> in seed funding led by SBI Holdings.</li></ul>



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Funding Wrap: Venture Capitalists Continue to Prioritize Web3

Ornella Hernandez

<div id="highlights-block_63091143de596" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Symbolic Capital is backing emerging founders and early-stage decentralized applications</li>
 <li>The funding follows $500 million in combined raises by CoinFund and Shima Capital last week </li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal has raised $50 million for a new venture fund focused on early-stage Web3 startups.&nbsp;



Nailwals’ firm, Symbolic Capital, is backed by a number of undisclosed venture arms of crypto exchanges and family offices, as well as fellow venture capitalists. 



Symbolic is set to offer advisory and recruiting services for its portfolio companies, as well as public relations, marketing and auditing services.&nbsp;



Kenzi Wang, co-founder of Cere Network, has joined the startup as a partner. The duo have co-invested in more than 40 companies together — including Axie Infinity, Yield Guild Games and Biconomy — since meeting at Binance Labs in 2019.



The fund’s mission is to foster mass adoption of blockchain technology and Web3, the founders said in a statement. It seeks to support consumer-facing decentralized applications — such as zero-knowledge proof or metaverse apps and those that drive interoperability between blockchains — as well as NFT startups and the broader business of creators and influencers.&nbsp;



<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">With Symbolic, we’ll be able to create that shared vision for web3 by funding projects that will help onboard the next 1b users to crypto.&mdash; Kenzi🚀 (@0xkenzi) <a href="https://twitter.com/0xkenzi/status/1563156363475566596?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 26, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



The fund has already invested in more than a dozen projects, including Web3 gaming studio BlinkMoon, Polygon-based metaverse Planet Mojo and e-sports platform Community Gaming.



The move comes after <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/venture-capitalist-launches-200m-crypto-fund-as-web3s-missing-layer/">Shima Capital’s private crypto fund</a> raised about $200 million, Blockworks reported last week. The firm’s limited partners include hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman, former presidential candidate Andrew Yang and crypto-focused venture firm Dragonfly Capital.&nbsp;



The same week, digital assets specialist firm <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/coinfund-on-the-lookout-for-promising-web3-companies-after-300m-raise/">CoinFund took in $300 million</a> for its latest venture vehicle that plans to supply capital in later funding rounds. CoinFund, run by venture capitalist David Pakman, has invested roughly $1 billion in seed-stage startups since 2015.&nbsp;



The startups have commenced operations in the midst of what market participants have dubbed a crypto winter, indicating a growing interest in opportunistic strategies as both private and liquid digital asset markets have presented bargains for deep-pocketed investors.



Venture capitalists invested $9.3 billion in crypto companies in the first six months of 2022, <a href="https://news.crunchbase.com/fintech-ecommerce/crypto-funding-falls-h1-2022/?utm_source=cb_daily&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=20220715&amp;utm_content=intro&amp;utm_term=content&amp;utm_source=cb_daily&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=20220715">according</a> to Crunchbase data — down from $12.5 billion during the same period last year.



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Polygon Founder Raises $50M For Web3 Fund

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

Morgan Chittum

<div id="highlights-block_61bcd9ff02dfb" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Morgan Stanley sees the metaverse as an $8 trillion market</li>
 <li>Goldman Sachs said blockchain is one of the most “disruptive technologies” since the 1990s</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Morgan Stanley, the Wall Street giant that manages<a href="https://www.investmentnews.com/morgan-stanley-will-reach-10-trillion-in-aum-gorman-205368" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> $6.4 trillion</a> in assets, said the metaverse will be “the next big investment theme” in a note to clients last month. On Tuesday, Goldman Sachs then described blockchain as being key to Web3 development in a report.&nbsp;



More and more behemoth financial institutions are addressing the metaverse to clients and investors.&nbsp;



&#8220;[The metaverse] can fundamentally change the medium through which we socialize with others,&#8221; Edward Stanley, an Equity strategist at Morgan Stanley, said.&nbsp;



Stanley added that certain stocks in gaming and tech sectors such as Roblox and Meta (formerly Facebook), along with those concentrated on augmented reality like Alphabet Inc., can benefit from growing adoption of the concept as well.&nbsp;



Goldman Sachs sees blockchain as one of the most “disruptive technologies” in the past several decades, including the advent of the internet.&nbsp;



&#8220;We believe that the metaverse is likely to be an amalgamation of different 3D spaces and that users will move between these regularly,&#8221; Rod Hall, an analyst for Goldman Sachs, said. &#8220;If any virtual goods or services are unable to move from one space to another with the user, we believe their value is likely to be more limited.&#8221;



Atomic Form co-founder Garrette David described the banks’ reports as “a huge positive,” adding it signals further adoption by institutions who have been historically skeptical of cryptocurrency as an asset class at all.



“Given the speed at which they&#8217;re reporting it, I would say we are definitely mainstream. It took banks years to publicly sell interests in, or comment on, economics behind public networks and blockchains,” David said, who runs a startup that develops non-fungible token displays and a Web3 platform.



According to Goldman, it will take “many years” and &#8220;cross-company collaboration” to seamlessly onboard millions of users into the virtual augmented world.&nbsp;



“Investment implications are hard to predict at this juncture, but companies who are dependent on centralized control of user identity will likely find their business models challenged by the adoption of blockchain,” Goldman said.



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How Megabanks Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Are Talking About the Metaverse

<div id="highlights-block_61bcd9ff02dfb" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>&#8220;We are still in the early days of Web3 and the most obvious opportunities right now are in gaming and social,&#8221; said Alexis Ohanian, general partner and founder of Seven Seven Six</li>
 <li>Earlier this month, Polygon acquired a zero knowledge startup Mir in a $400 million deal to scale Ethereum and bring more users to Web3</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Polygon and Seven Seven Six partnered to launch a $200 million initiative to support social media projects on Web3, the companies shared on Friday.&nbsp;



Over the past few years, there has been a realization that social media businesses have a profound impact on society, Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder &amp; chief operations officer at Polygon said in a statement. “With Web3, users create the value, control the network and reap the rewards. This is not just a different way to share lolcats online, though we love those. We are inventing new high-fidelity means of transmitting culture itself,” Nailwal said.



&#8220;We are still in the early days of Web3 and the most obvious opportunities right now are in gaming and social,&#8221; Alexis Ohanian, general partner and founder of Seven Seven Six, said in a statement. &#8220;This initiative will do just that, with a focus on gaming properties and social media platforms built on Polygon&#8217;s scalable infrastructure,” Ohanian added.&nbsp;



Polygon and Seven Seven Six were not available for additional comment when requested by Blockworks on Friday.&nbsp;



<h3>Playing the long game</h3>



Ohanian co-founded Reddit in 2005 and Initialized Capital in 2010. While at his first venture firm, he was a seed investor in Coinbase, Instacart, Patreon and other major businesses. Ohanian founded Seven Seven Six in 2020 and has formed a portfolio of 35 companies, including the makers of <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/axie-infinity-developer-scores-152m-in-series-b-funding-nearing-3b-valuation/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Axie Infinity</a>, Sky Mavis. 



Polygon has an Ethereum-based proof-of-stake sidechain network that scales and powers some of the biggest DeFi and NFT projects including Aave, SushiSwap and OpenSea. The number of decentralized applications, or dApps, on the platform rose 9,900% from 30 in November 2020 to 3,000 in November 2021, Nailwal previously told Blockworks.



“We’ve already seen some of the best product founders in our portfolio start building on Polygon, and I’m excited for Seven Seven Six and Polygon to play a big role in shaping what the new internet looks like,” Ohanian said.&nbsp;



Polygon is also developing multiple alternative scaling solutions for Ethereum using zero-knowledge proof technology.



Earlier this month, Polygon acquired a zero knowledge startup Mir in a <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/polygon-acquires-mir-in-400m-deal-to-scale-ethereum-and-web3/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$400 million deal</a> to scale Ethereum and bring more users to Web3. At the time, Nailwal said to Blockworks, “We want to be the AWS of [the] Web3 platform for developers to build on by providing a spectrum of solutions.”



Separately, last month, Seven Seven Six joined Solana Ventures in a $100 million initiative to help fuel decentralized social media platforms on Solana’s blockchain, Blockworks previously <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/solana-and-seven-seven-six-double-initiative-to-100m-to-build-decentralized-social-media/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>. 



“The baggage of Web2 infrastructure and Web2 precedent is that you know you’re ultimately just harvested for an advertiser and that factors into product decisions and that factors into design decisions,” Ohanian said at the Solana <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/the-solana-summer-never-ends/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Breakpoint</a> conference. 



“What’s really exciting is there’s a whole new slew of founders who have a chance to jump into a very energized community and start building something with a very different business model in mind…that’s compelling. We could see new platforms emerge very fast,” Ohanian added at the time.



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