Michael Bodley

The planned rollout of a former SoftBank professional’s own crypto venture capital firm has joined a long list of promising 2022 launches bumped back — or called off entirely — according to sources familiar with the matter.&nbsp;



It’s pretty much impossible to pin down how many crypto launches of all varieties — including the likes of hedge and venture funds, tokens, ETFs and Web3-oriented startups — got knocked off course in the fourth quarter.



Whatever the exact number is, it’s a big one, industry participants told Blockworks.



Several startups that had been eagerly anticipated by prospective limited partners as their staff and strategies took shape last year stand out. <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/robinhood-crypto-revenues-sbf-stock">The fallout hasn’t been confined</a> to portfolio managers. Emerging protocols and at least one metaverse collective in the works have been blown off course, too.&nbsp;



David Wang, the former head of a Latin American-focused <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/softbank">SoftBank</a> blockchain fund, has called off his capital-raise, according to two sources familiar with the matter.



Wang, who spent about two and a half years at venture capital giant SoftBank, had planned to already be up and running by now with his new firm, both sources said. 



The startup, Palmera Crypto Partners, planned to key in on emerging market blockchain venture plays, according to one source, an emerging markets specialist — complemented by an opportunistic liquid token strategy.



The same source said the Wang was supposed to launch toward the end of last year’s fourth quarter or early in the first quarter, but has “completely stopped fundraising, just because of market conditions.”



Wang, who spent time at Morgan Stanley before joining SoftBank, did not return a request for comment.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Due diligence measures mounting</h3>



Scores had been counting on — and were closing in on — hefty capital contributions from legacy finance allocators chomping at the bit of digital assets. 



Until what happened in the fourth quarter, that is.



Interesting limited and general partners from that buttoned-up world before that already had “so many layers of approval that they have to go through to get anything done,” according to Dan Eskow, the founder of crypto recruiting firm Up Top Search. Eskow declined to discuss specific firms or clients. 



Even so, crypto funders have this year largely added to existing reams of due diligence red tape, and ensuing delays for upstart managers hitting the funding trail, according to Eskow.&nbsp;



The veteran headhunter said he’s picked up on a number of recent crypto-native placements into Wall Street firms, one signal that “<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bad-for-crypto-good-for-traders">things are still trending positively</a>” on the whole.



On the crypto sunny side, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/amazon-nft-marketplace-web3">Amazon is making a big push into NFTs</a>, according to previous Blockworks’ reporting informed by sources. That effort is separate from <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/aws-deal-with-ava-labs-web3">AWS’ developing partnership with Ava Labs</a>.



And it’s not the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ebay-nft-jobs-web3-knownorigin-amazon">only e-commerce giant doing so</a>, adding up to <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/nfts-are-a-trojan-horse-coming-at-record-labels-and-the-music-industry">an emerging NFT opportunity</a>, even considering the depressed valuations of digital collectibles. 



Even though more red tape, according to Eskow, has <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/inside-crypto-lp-big-leagues">been wound around due diligence processes that were already rigorous</a>.



“So, it seems the push hasn’t gone away, but they move so slow that there’s no action that’s really been taken — until the markets turn up a little bit,” Eskow told Blockworks. “Given the market, they’re just slowing down even more, so they don’t come in at a bad time.”



Read More: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/vet-recruiter-crypto-and-wall-street-dont-speak-the-same-language">Crypto and Wall Street didn’t “speak the same language” last August</a>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Ex Genesis execs delayed, too</h2>



There’s more. 



A launch helmed by former Genesis and Galaxy Digital executives is among them, three sources said.



Josh Lim, formerly Genesis Global Capital’s derivatives head, and Roshun Patel set out to raise half a billion dollars in the fourth quarter, SEC filings show. News of the then-pending launch, DBA Crypto, was first reported by <a href="https://www.axios.com/pro/fintech-deals/2022/08/29/galaxy-digital-genesis-500m-fund">Axios</a>. Additional staffers were then on board, including at least one Galaxy professional who jumped ship to join the launch. Genesis has faced a number of challenges since, including <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/genesis-layoffs-more-bad-news">slashing its sales team</a>.



The New York-based DBA was endeavoring to launch sometime around year end 2022 or at the start of 2023, according to two of the sources. Lim and Patel were poised to take in significant sums of institutional capital last fall. Lim did not have a comment. 



Then the market fell apart, leading DBA and its peers in the precarious position of burning through proprietary or outside capital to fund operations in the interim. That becomes an increasingly costly proposition the longer the delay drags on — one that often leads to launches closing their doors before even getting off the ground. (There’s no indication that DBA is set to do so, according to sources.) Details around what, exactly, has been delaying their launch aren’t clear. But it’s known that the startup was in advanced talks with a number of potential backers last year. One source said there have been complications in terms of negotiating the executives&#8217; exit from their former employer, Genesis, as well. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Cold Q4 crypto feet</h2>



Perhaps the most consequential rationale behind it all: Institutional backers of early-stage digital assets initiatives got cold feet in the fall. <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/regulators-speeding-up-crypto-timeline">Rising regulatory scrutiny</a> certainly played a role.



From Wall Street to Mayfair, London’s high finance hub — and from the crypto-heavy Chicago proprietary trading scene to sector hotbeds in Asia — allocators primed to deploy substantial sums pulled back in the fourth quarter. 



No small number of traditional finance power players hit the pause button, or shelved their developing Web3 efforts entirely, as spot cryptoasset volatility took off. A number of those deep-pocketed backers — encompassing both crypto natives and long running allocators to financial instrument staples such as stocks, commodities and structured products — simply stopped backing launches and emerging managers running crypto strategies. 



And limited partners certainly curtailed their check sizes, and, in some cases, the number of managers under their investment umbrella at one time. The pullback, industry participants told Blockworks, started even earlier than the last three months of 2022, when <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ftx">FTX’s</a> abrupt fall sent markets spiraling.&nbsp;



The industry’s first two black swans over the last 12 months got that bearish limited partner ball rolling to an extent, according to fund of funds operators, as well as additional institutional backers — such as crypto hedge and venture fund seeders and anchor investors, plus suppliers of acceleration capital.&nbsp;



Ryan Rasmussen, an analyst for crypto investment firm Bitwise Asset Management, said that generally speaking, “large corporations that have started to dip their toes in crypto” are now doing so from a “more long-term strategic investment standpoint.” 



The sentiment is indicative of what market participants dubbed a substantial, if emerging, sector shift: Allocators with dry powder to blow are overhauling their due diligence standards. Internal vetting processes of outside portfolio managers is taking longer. Executives who oversee those mechanisms are increasingly cognizant of US regulators (further) cracking down on cryptocurrencies this year.



How it’ll all end, at least in terms of the quarters to come, is anyone’s guess.&nbsp;



“So, the public perception of how things are going might fluctuate with market sentiment, but [there are a] lot of big brands…still moving full force,” Rasmussen said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">When does FTX go away?</h2>



How it all started is more apparent.



<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sdny-wants-sec-cftc-to-postpone-cases">Aftershocks from the disarray</a> of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, plus the added-on failures and funding freezes by a handful of the industry’s other former giants, are here to stay — at least for the foreseeable, according to Faris Oweis, the founder of Crypto Coach.



“It’s not like [FTX’s fall] was a moment that just stayed stagnant and only lives there, right?” Oweis said. “It permeates and then spreads to the following quarters. So now, you have a lot of [launches] that are quite literally just trying to complete [their rounds]. And you have people that are trying to build and fundraise at the same time.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



Oweis’ firm in part acts as a consultant for Web3 founders ready to raise. He declined to comment on specific clients.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Rounds have been slowing down over the last three to four months, Oweis told Blockworks, adding that it’s been especially tricky for otherwise promising DeFi yield newcomers to justify pitching products.



“The problem is that the business model really exists, but you need underlying liquidity for that business model to quite literally also exist,” he said. “So, you have a TVL and token product problem…They’re kind of between a rock and a hard place.”



Problems have plagued more than DeFi. Futureverse — which <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mitchellmartin/2022/12/23/futureverse-combines-eight-companies-in-effort-to-create-user-controlled-metaverse/?sh=11cd17eb7d9f" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly</a> came out of the gates with bold December ambitions with eight crypto companies on board to collectively craft a user-centric metaverse — has delayed its own pending launch, one HNW crypto investor said.



The metaverse, which has tapped the likes of Keanu Reeves as advisers, has set out to “take a different [Web3] path” with a “different structure,” according to the project’s white <a href="https://www.futureverse.com/whitepaper" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">paper</a>.



Futureverse has positioned itself as the antithesis of metaverses controlled by big corporate players, such as Meta, in a bid to capture market share by emphasizing its decentralization. The initiative plans to run on the Root Network, its in-house blockchain. 



“The same few companies continually consolidate the economy and our attention, economic value, and influence over how we think,” the white paper said.&nbsp;



The “large valuation” project and its peers, as well as its competitors, have “delayed their launch for more favorable market conditions where hype and meme-status may make or break their success,” the source said. Representatives for the startup and its associated foundation did not return a request for comment.



The Web3 initiative clearly has company in the delayed launch department.



The website of Palmera, the planned launch led by Wang, the former SoftBank crypto investor, was still standing as of publication. On its otherwise-sparse landing page, the Miami startup described itself as a “global crypto venture fund backed by the largest names in crypto and institutional investors.”



An additional request for comment emailed to the firm’s general inbox bounced back.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



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Ex SoftBank, Genesis Traders Delay or Call Off Crypto Launches

Morgan Chittum

<div id="highlights-block_623b4bbd4efac" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The NFT marketplace will partner with video game developer Square Enix and entertainment franchise Yoshimoto Kogyo</li>
 <li>Rakuten, a Japanese e-commerce company, announced its own marketplace for blockchain-based digital collectibles last month</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Japanese messaging giant Line Corp. announced the launch of its forthcoming NFT marketplace on Wednesday.&nbsp;



The marketplace, which is slated to go live on April 13, will run on the LINE blockchain — the company&#8217;s proprietary network. Users can hold their digital collectibles in the company’s LINE BITMAX wallet.&nbsp;



The platform, called Line NFT, will sell over 100 kinds of NFTs (non-fungible tokens), per a Coinpost <a href="https://coinpost.jp/?p=332888" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>. NFTs will be integrated as avatars for Line’s messaging services in the future. 



The marketplace will partner with various Japanese companies including video game developer Square Enix, entertainment franchise Yoshimoto Kogyo and Patlabor.&nbsp;



Z Holdings, another subsidiary of SoftBank, will <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/2022/03/11/softbanks-internet-unit-plans-nft-investments-to-expand-global-reach/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly</a> build a similar marketplace, DOSI, in 180 countries. Line&#8217;s platform, however, is separate from Z Holdings’ NFT plans.



“It’s possible Web3 will herald a world where life is completely different, and we don’t want the company to miss out on the huge growth opportunity,” Kentaro Kawabe, co-chief executive of Z Holdings, said in an <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/2022/03/11/softbanks-internet-unit-plans-nft-investments-to-expand-global-reach/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">interview</a>.



The formation of both subsidiaries of the Japanese conglomerate follow closely on the heels of e-commerce company Rakuten’s NFT plans.



Rakuten <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/japans-e-commerce-giant-rakuten-launches-nft-marketplace/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a> its marketplace for blockchain-based assets on Feb. 25 and will allow users to buy, sell and trade cryptoassets based on Japanese manga and TV shows.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



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SoftBank Messaging Giant To Launch NFT Marketplace in Japan

Jacquelyn Melinek

<div id="highlights-block_6189a348003e4" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The company said it will spend up to $9 billion to buy back about 15% of its shares</li>
 <li>“We are in the middle of a blizzard,” SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son said during a news conference</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



SoftBank Group Corp. showed its Vision Fund dropped about $10 billion during its first quarter to the second quarter of the fiscal year 2021, according to the company’s financial <a href="https://group.softbank/system/files/pdf/ir/financials/financial_reports/financial-report_q2fy2021_01_en.pdf">report</a> during a six-month period ending on September 30, 2021.&nbsp;



The decline comes at a time when share prices in some of its portfolio companies also dropped and China’s increase in regulation on tech-based companies impacted its investments’ performance.&nbsp;



The company said it will spend up to $9 billion to buy back about 15% of its shares. The <a href="https://group.softbank/system/files/pdf/ir/presentations/2021/earnings-presentation_q2fy2021_01_en.pdf">report</a> is a signal that China’s corporate crackdown is affecting companies and investors alike.&nbsp;



Although the Japanese-based technology investor has business ties to China, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son said its China risk is “not so huge,” Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/softbank-reports-3-5-billion-loss-hit-by-chinas-tech-crackdown-11636354966">reported</a>.&nbsp;



The SoftBank Vision Fund 1 focuses on medium- to long-term perspectives and large-scale investments for companies leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) while having a “unicorn” status, which is when the valuation is greater than $1 billion, it said in the report. Separately, Vision Fund 2 launched in October 2019 and aims to “facilitate the continued acceleration of the AI revolution through investment in market-leading, tech-enabled growth companies across vintage years,” it said. 



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="512" height="284" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/unnamed-13.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-10787" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/unnamed-13.jpg?w=512 512w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/unnamed-13.jpg?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/unnamed-13.jpg?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/unnamed-13.jpg?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/unnamed-13.jpg?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/unnamed-13.jpg?w=80 80w" sizes="(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px" /><figcaption>Vision Fund changes quarterly measured in Japanese Yen (billions) Source: SoftBank</figcaption></figure></div>



“We are in the middle of a blizzard,” Son <a href="https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1457817704144900103">said</a> during a news conference. He mentioned he was “not proud” of this quarter’s reports on its Vision Fund and said the company would make future steps to double its “golden eggs,” or good investments, compared to last year.&nbsp;



SoftBank has continuously made headlines for its big investments in the crypto space through its Vision Funds. Most recently, the firm led a <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/the-sandbox-raises-93m-in-round-led-by-softbank/">$93 million round</a> for The Sandbox, an open NFT metaverse platform. In the past, it has led rounds ranging from <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/softbank-leads-680m-series-b-for-nft-soccer-platform-sorare/">$680 million</a> for a NFT Soccer Platform Sorare to lower levels like <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/?s=softbank#:~:text=Blockchain%20Analytics%20Firm%20Elliptic%20Raises%20%2460M%20SoftBank%2C%20Wells%20Fargo%2C%20More">$60 million</a> for a blockchain analytics firm Elliptic.&nbsp;



Separately, earlier this month China state media reported that three of the country’s major technology giants signed a self-regulatory pledge to keep their growing NFT marketplaces away from cryptocurrencies. This news came at a time when Chinese regulators reinforced their position that bitcoin is without legal standing, but NFTs are allowed some room to operate, Blockworks previously <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/chinas-tech-giants-yes-on-nfts-no-on-cryptocurrencies/'">reported</a>. 



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SoftBank’s Vision Fund Fell $10B From Q1 to Q2 2021

Sam Martin

<div id="highlights-block_61816154303fa" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The Sandbox, subsidiary of Hong-Kong based Animoca Brands, announced this morning that it has secured $93 million in a Series B led by Softbank Vision 2 Fund</li>
 <li>NFT funding growth has been remarkable over the last 12 months, with a growth rate of 6,523% year-over-year and total funding of over $2 billion in 2021</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



The Sandbox (SAND), the leading open NFT metaverse platform, announced today that it has secured $93 million in a Series B fundraising round led by Softbank Vision 2 Fund, marking the fund’s first investment in crypto assets.&nbsp;



The news comes shortly after Facebook <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/zuckerberg-says-facebooks-new-name-will-be-meta/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a> its rebranding to ‘Meta’, sending gaming/metaverse tokens soaring over the last week.&nbsp;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“Facebook is trying to claim the term metaverse. While it’s great to see the term going mainstream, the company has historically monetized peoples’ data and taken ownership away from the users. At The Sandbox, we are aiming to create an open metaverse where users get to own the platform they use,” Sebastian Borget, co-founder and chief operating officer of The Sandbox, told Blockworks.&nbsp;</blockquote>



Additional investors in the round included Animoca Brands, True Global Ventures, Galaxy Interactive, SCB 10X, Polygon Studios, Samsung Next and more.



<a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SAND</a> was last trading at $2.64, up roughly 225% over the last seven days.&nbsp;



<a href="https://pro.nansen.ai" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nansen</a> data shows that 80% of the supply has been held for one to two years and new wallet addresses holding the SAND token has recently gone parabolic:



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="512" height="165" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Sandbox1.jpg" alt="The Sandbox " class="wp-image-10237" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Sandbox1.jpg?w=512 512w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Sandbox1.jpg?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Sandbox1.jpg?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Sandbox1.jpg?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Sandbox1.jpg?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Sandbox1.jpg?w=80 80w" sizes="(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px" /><figcaption>Source: Nansen</figcaption></figure></div>



As one of the largest destinations for entertainment in the metaverse, The Sandbox has experienced massive growth in 2021. It plans to use the funds to scale the platform and keep up with demand from users as artists seek out new ways to strengthen their brands and engage with their fanbases.&nbsp;



Snoop Dogg is one of the high-profile names to take part in The Sandbox metaverse after launching tickets to a private event which can be found on the popular NFT marketplace, <a href="https://opensea.io/assets/0xa342f5d851e866e18ff98f351f2c6637f4478db5/55464657044963196816950587289035428064568320970692304673817341489688059316224" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">OpenSea</a>, for more than $5,800 per ticket.&nbsp;



The Sandbox now has over 500,000 registered wallets and 12,000 unique virtual LAND owners, and generated over US$144 million in lifetime gross merchandise volume, according to a company press release.&nbsp;



Some of the well-known LAND owners in The Sandbox include the Winklevoss twins, Stephen Curry endorsed Bored Ape Yacht Club, Binance and many others.&nbsp;



“The Sandbox aims to bring blockchain into mainstream gaming, attracting both crypto and non-crypto game enthusiasts by offering the advantages of true-ownership, digital scarcity, monetization capabilities, and interoperability” according to The Sandbox <a href="https://installers.sandbox.game/The_Sandbox_Whitepaper_2020.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">whitepaper</a>.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">NFT funding booms</h3>



NFT funding growth has been remarkable over the last 12 months, with a growth rate of 6,523% year-over-year. Funding for NFT based projects is now over $2 billion for 2021, while 90% of the deals have been early-stage ventures according to a <a href="https://www.cbinsights.com/research/report/blockchain-trends-q3-2021/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a> from CB Insights. 



The report also showed that the third quarter of 2021 marked a record quarter in terms of both the number of deals and gross dollar amount invested as seen in the chart below:



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="512" height="281" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Sandbox-2.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-10238" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Sandbox-2.jpg?w=512 512w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Sandbox-2.jpg?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Sandbox-2.jpg?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Sandbox-2.jpg?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Sandbox-2.jpg?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Sandbox-2.jpg?w=80 80w" sizes="(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px" /></figure></div>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">More money for the metaverse</h3>



Separately in metaverse news, Sanctor Capital, a blockchain-focused investment firm, also <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/fund-news-sanctor-capital-raises-20m-hutt-capital-closes-23-4m/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">raised</a> $20 million for its inaugural fund which will in part focus on GameFi and cross-chain infrastructure projects.



According to a company press release, Sanctor launched a Y-Combinator style mentorship program that was custom-tailored to bring projects to market with the help of domain experts from industry-leading organizations such as The Sandbox.&nbsp;

The Sandbox Raises $93M in Round Led by Softbank

<div id="highlights-block_617fd943e4287" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>SoftBank invested through its technology-focused investment fund Vision Fund 2 and its Latin America Fund, which aims to partner with companies and entrepreneurs “defining the future of the region”</li>
 <li>The investment allows some DCG investors to take profits, although founder and CEO Barry Silbert is not among them — he continues to own almost 40% of the company</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Digital Currency Group, a cryptocurrency-focused capital market company, has raised $700 million in its latest investment round, bringing its valuation to $10 billion.&nbsp;



The round was led by SoftBank Group, Alphabet Inc.’s growth fund CapitalG and Ribbit Capital, the company announced on Monday. SoftBank invested through its technology-focused investment fund Vision Fund 2 and its Latin America Fund, which aims to partner with companies and entrepreneurs “defining the future of the region.”



The investment also wasn’t about raising funding for the company, Barry Silbert, founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/digital-currency-group-wants-to-be-cryptos-standard-oil-11635764400?st=7a338mejs53urq0&amp;reflink=desktopwebshare_twitter" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a> the Wall Street Journal, but was rather an opportunity for early investors to take profits. While some DCG investors took profits, Silbert was not among them and continues to own almost 40% of the company. 



The company was not available for immediate comment requested by Blockworks on Monday.



DCG is the parent company to several big name crypto companies including asset management firm Grayscale, trading-based Genesis and the news company CoinDesk.&nbsp;



While DCG states it’s “not a venture fund” it is a strategic investor in 165 early-stage investments in digital currency and the blockchain ecosystem. To date, its portfolio has <a href="https://dcg.co/#support" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">raised $1.1 billion,</a> according to the company’s website. 



“We’re the best proxy for investing in this industry,” Silbert <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/01/digital-currency-group-sees-10-billion-valuation-as-softbank-google-invest.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a> to CNBC in an interview. “We were looking for the type of backers that could be, and hopefully will be with, with us on this journey for the next couple of decades,” he added.

Digital Currency Group Raises $700M, Now Valued at $10B

<div id="highlights-block_616456c209801" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>“Interest in crypto continues to grow at pace, and it’s clear that banks and tech companies have recognized that crypto is an inevitable part of our future finance and tech ecosystems,” Maini said</li>
 <li>The London-based company provides services to traditional financial institutions, FinTechs, crypto businesses and government agencies</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Elliptic, a blockchain analytics and crypto compliance company, raised $60 million in a Series C funding round led by Evolution Equity Partners, the company said in a statement Monday.&nbsp;



The round included new investment from SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and included existing investors Wells Fargo Strategic Capital, AlbionVC, Digital Currency Group, Octopus Ventures, SBI Group, SignalFire and Paladin Capital Group.



“Interest in crypto continues to grow at pace, and it’s clear that banks and tech companies have recognized that crypto is an inevitable part of our future finance and tech ecosystems,” Simone Maini, CEO of Elliptic, said to Blockworks in an email. 



The fundraise will be used to help the company capitalize on this growing momentum and interest in the space through team expansion and product development, Maini said.



The London-based company provides services to traditional financial institutions, FinTechs, crypto businesses and government agencies. To date, it has raised $100 million and is on track for 100% year over year growth in revenue by early 2022, Maini said.



Elliptic was founded in 2013, and in the span of eight years, the crypto landscape has changed dramatically, Maini said. According to its <a href="https://www.elliptic.co/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">website</a>, the business has over 100 customers across 29 countries and about ⅔, or 66%, of crypto volume runs through exchanges using Elliptic, which provides more than 100 crypto assets and over 10 billion data points. 



“Awareness, excitement, innovation and regulatory clarity have all grown considerably and this has changed the investment landscape for us at the same time,” Maini said. “We’ve been committed to bringing about mainstream crypto adoption for many years and that clarity of purpose has served us well,” she added. 



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Blockchain Analytics Firm Elliptic Raises $60M SoftBank, Wells Fargo, More

<div id="highlights-block_614a5ef36b22c" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Over the past year, Blockdaemon has increased its valuation over 70 times and had a 20 times increase in revenue, it said</li>
 <li>One of the largest industrial-scale Bitcoin mining companies, Genesis Digital Assets, plans to expand mining operations in the US and Nordic countries</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Blockchain infrastructure company Blockdaemon has raised $155 million in a Series B round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, the company said in an announcement Tuesday.&nbsp;



The new fundraising brings Blockdaemon’s total valuation to $1.255 billion, adding it to the list of companies that have reached unicorn status, which consists of having a valuation of $1 billion or greater.&nbsp;



Over the past year, Blockdaemon has increased its valuation over 70 times and had a 20 times increase in revenue. Additionally it has averaged more than $10 billion in staked assets across the over 40 protocols it supports, the company said.&nbsp;



Additional participants in this round were Matrix Capital Management, Sapphire Ventures, and Morgan Creek Digital. Pre-existing seed round investors who also increased their investments this round are Boldstart Ventures, Goldman Sachs, Greenspring Associates, CoinFund, Kenetic, Kraken Ventures, Borderless Capital and Lerer Hippeau.



“We are committed to a future of decentralized financial infrastructure and accelerating the ease of integration to bridge traditional banking to the crypto ecosystem. As regulations get further defined, a backer of the caliber of SoftBank and Masa’s experience is crucial,” said Konstantin Richter, CEO and founder of Blockdaemon, in a statement.



The capital will be used to expand the company’s presence in Singapore, Japan, the United Kingdom and Germany. Additionally, it will help the company make acquisitions to build out its tech stack.



“Blockdaemon will also expand into providing liquidity solutions for large scale institutional adoption, starting with ETH 2.0, where Blockdaemon is active and running over 12,000 validators. This makes Blockdaemon the largest operator in the ETH 2.0 space,” according to a company blog <a href="https://blockdaemon.com/blog/announcing-blockdaemons-155-million-series-b-funding/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">post</a>. Since each validator requires 32 $ETH staked on Ethereum&#8217;s &#8220;beacon chain&#8221; (which is planned to merge with the current Ethereum mainnet in early 2022), that represents some 384,000 ether locked, worth over $1.1 billion as of today&#8217;s $ETH price. 



Tuesday was a busy day for SoftBank. Separately, the Japanese-based firm <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/softbank-leads-680m-series-b-for-nft-soccer-platform-sorare/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">also announced</a> it led the latest $680 million round for the NFT soccer platform Sorare. Paris-based Sorare will use the new funding to recruit new talent in Europe and the US, sign new partnerships, accelerate on mobile and marketing, and expand into new sports in 2022, beyond the world of soccer. 



In May, SoftBank tripled the size of its Vision Fund 2 to $30 billion, according to a previous statement by Navneet Govil, chief financial officer of SoftBank Investment Advisers. The fund is the company’s second massive venture capital-based portfolio.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Genesis Digital Assets New Funding&nbsp;</h3>



One of the largest industrial-scale bitcoin mining companies, Genesis Digital Assets, has announced a strategic raise of $431 million on Tuesday.&nbsp;



The round was led by Paradigm and included investments from NYDIG, Stoneridge, FTX, Ribbit, Electric Capital, Skybridge, and Kingsway Capital, who invested <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/genesis-digital-assets-lolli-and-prime-trust-raise-new-capital/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$125 million</a> in a previous round earlier this year. Investors in Kingsway Capital include the family offices of Paul Tudor Jones, Paul Marshall, and Winter Capital, the company said.&nbsp;



In addition to the round, Matt Huang, co-founder and managing partner of Paradigm, joined the company’s board of directors.&nbsp;



The company has been around since 2013, just a few years after the crypto industry began. Since then it has built over 20 industrial-scale mining farms and brought over 300,000 miners online. To date, it has mined over $1 billion in bitcoin, Blockworks previously <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/genesis-digital-assets-lolli-and-prime-trust-raise-new-capital/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>.&nbsp;



&#8220;As we work towards our goal of bringing 1.4 gigawatts online by 2023, the capital raised from this round will be used to expand our bitcoin mining operations in locations where clean energy is easily accessible,” which includes the US and Nordic countries, Marco Streng, CEO and co-founder of Genesis Digital Assets, said.&nbsp;



As of September, the company’s data center capacity was over 170 megawatts, which equates to a total hashrate of more than 3.3 exahashes or about 2.4% of the global bitcoin mining hashrate, it said.&nbsp;



During the next 12 months, the Bitcoin mining company expects another 8.6 exahashes to go online and by the end of 2023 it anticipates reaching a capacity of over 1.4 gigawatts.



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Funding News: Blockdaemon Secures $155M, Genesis Digital Assets Raises $431M

<div id="highlights-block_6149ffb49aeed" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>With this new investment, the company said it is now valued at $4.3 billion</li>
 <li>In February, the company previously raised $50 million in a Series A round</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



The soccer-focused crypto platform Sorare has closed one of Europe’s largest Series B funding rounds at $680 million, led by SoftBank.



Investors in the round also include participation from Atomico, Bessemer Ventures, D1 Capital, Eurazeo, IVP and Liontree, as well as previous investors such as Benchmark, Accel and Partech, and business angels including Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and football players Gerard Piqué, Rio Ferdinand, Antoine Griezmann and César Azpilicueta, Sorare said.&nbsp;



In February, the company previously raised $50 million in a Series A round. With this new investment, the company said it is now valued at $4.3 billion.



The company was founded in 2018 as an online game for users to buy officially licensed cards of soccer players, which are traded in the form of NFTs. Players can build teams and play against each other through the platform and face outcomes based on the players’ outcome in reality during a game.&nbsp;



“When my co-founder and I first laid out our vision for Sorare in the summer of 2018, our ambition was to create a new game that could unlock the limitless potential of non fungible technology. Because of our shared passion for the beautiful game, creating a fantasy football product was the perfect place to begin our journey,” Nicolas Julia, co-founder and CEO of Sorare said in a blog <a href="https://medium.com/sorare/sorare-raises-a-record-680-million-series-b-round-to-build-the-next-sports-entertainment-giant-c9c987e4a26d" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">post</a>.&nbsp;



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="366" height="326" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Sorare.jpg" alt="Sorare" class="wp-image-8337" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Sorare.jpg?w=366 366w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Sorare.jpg?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Sorare.jpg?w=289 289w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Sorare.jpg?w=293 293w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Sorare.jpg?w=246 246w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Sorare.jpg?w=80 80w" sizes="(max-width: 366px) 100vw, 366px" /><figcaption>Sorare founders Nicolas Julia (left) and Adrien Montfort; Source: Sorare</figcaption></figure></div>



Paris-based Sorare will use the new funding to recruit new talent in Europe and the US, sign new partnerships, accelerate on mobile and marketing, and expand into new sports in 2022, beyond the world of soccer.&nbsp;



Although Sorare already holds a handful of partnerships with over 50 national teams and clubs, including soccer teams like Bayern Munich, Liverpool and Juventus, it also plans to use the funding to launch new partnerships with the top 20 soccer leagues onboard and the top 50 national teams, Julia said.&nbsp;



Earlier this month, the company also <a href="https://medium.com/sorare/laliga-joins-sorare-419405687d28" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a> a partnership with LaLiga soccer league, which is home to the top professional soccer teams in Spain and is one of the top soccer leagues in the world.&nbsp;



In general, the NFT space has taken the world by storm. In recent months, certain NFTs have sold for <a href="https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/beeple-nft-interview">$6</a><a href="https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/beeple-nft-interview" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">9</a><a href="https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/beeple-nft-interview"> million</a>, along with their marketplaces such as <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/opensea-hits-3b-in-monthly-nft-volume/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">OpenSea</a> reporting monthly trading volumes of over $3 billion.



During a fireside chat at Messari’s Mainnet conference on Monday, OpenSea Co-Founder Devin Finzer said that despite the surging popularity in art and collectibles on the marketplace, gaming could be the “next frontier” for non-fungible tokens, Blockworks <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/opensea-co-founder-gaming-to-be-the-next-frontier-for-nfts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>.



“I actually still believe this. A lot of games have been incredibly successful. I really do think gaming is the next frontier for NFTs,” Finzer said at the conference.



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