Ben Strack

<div id="highlights-block_6283d6fdf5a40" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Ape Board lets users track their yield-farming assets across blockchain networks</li>
 <li>Nansen said it was looking to acquire following its $75 million Series B funding round in December</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Blockchain data analytics platform Nansen has acquired DeFi portfolio tracker Ape Board to bolster its Web3 data capabilities.&nbsp;



The acquisition, revealed Tuesday at Blockworks’ Permissionless conference, closed earlier this month. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.&nbsp;



<a href="https://www.nansen.ai/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nansen</a> — which began building its platform in 2019 to help users know more about the wallets that are transacting on-chain — combines on-chain data with a growing database of millions of wallet labels.



Founded last year, <a href="https://apeboard.finance/dashboard" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ape Board</a> lists nearly 400 protocols across 33 blockchains and one exchange. Its cross-chain decentralized finance (DeFi) dashboard lets users track their yield-farming assets in each network and automatically calculate their net worth.



The acquisition will help Nansen become the “definitive information super-app of web3,” the company said in a news release. It will also spur the future launch of features, such as portfolio tracking, programmatic access to on-chain data and Web3-native communication.



Nansen CEO Alex Svanevik said obtaining data from DeFi protocols and blockchain is complex and fragmented.



“Across the Web3 landscape, investors are forced to utilize an assortment of different tools in order to obtain a singular piece of data that will help inform their investment strategy,” Svanevik said in a statement. “With this acquisition, we take a big step towards bringing all the market intelligence a trader, institution or business needs under one roof.”



The acquisition follows <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/blockchain-data-analytics-platform-nansen-closes-75m-series-b-round/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nansen’s $75 million Series B funding round</a> in December, which was led by Accel, GIC, a16z, Tiger Global, SCB and 10X. The firm <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/andreessen-horowitz-leads-12m-funding-round-for-nansen/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">raised $12 million</a> for its Series A in June.&nbsp;



Svanevik said after the more recent fundraise it would hire more team members and look to do strategic acquisitions. The CEO added that the company would spend 2022 focusing on offering institutional clients access to its on-chain data programmatically.



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Nansen Acquires DeFi Portfolio Tracker To Boost Web3 Capabilities

Jacquelyn Melinek

<div id="highlights-block_61bafd723fd38" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Round comes six months after its $12 million Series A, since then the platform’s user base has risen over 400%</li>
 <li>Nansen expects 10% of its annual recurring revenue growth to be generated by its institutional segment this quarter, as its use cases grow</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Blockchain data analytics platform Nansen raised $75 million in a Series B round, the company’s CEO and co-founder Alex Svanevik said to Blockworks.&nbsp;



The round was led by Accel, GIC, Andreessen Horowitz (<a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/a16z-launches-400m-seed-fund-to-expand-into-new-technology/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a16z</a>), Tiger Global, SCB and 10X. Other angel investors and venture capitalists also participated in the round.&nbsp;



This Series B comes six months after it raised <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/andreessen-horowitz-leads-12m-funding-round-for-nansen/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$12 million for its Series A</a> in late June. Within that time frame, the company has expanded with 55 new employees across 28 countries and its user base has increased over 400%. In total, Nansen has raised $88.2 million, Svanevik said. 



“To accelerate Nansen’s next phase of growth, we intend to use the fresh capital to hire more team members across product, engineering, operations, finance, sales, and marketing,&#8221; Svanevik said. &#8220;Furthermore, we are now in a position to make strategic acquisitions that are complementary to Nansen,&#8221; he added. The funding will also be used to expand the platform’s features and multichain integrations internationally.



Its <a href="http://nansen.ai" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">platform</a> integrates on-chain data with a database of activity and movement across 100 million blockchain wallets, so that users can monitor real-time insights and transactions. Nansen also analyzes billions of on-chain data points and thousands of entities on blockchains like <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/podcast-bitcoin-vs-ethereum-in-2022-avi-felman/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ethereum</a>, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/polygon-acquires-mir-in-400m-deal-to-scale-ethereum-and-web3/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Polygon</a>, Binance Smart Chain, Fantom, Avalanche and Celo.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/2021-12-16-Nansen-founders-1024x654-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-12738"/><figcaption>Alex Svanevik and Evgeny Medvedev, co-founders of Nansen&nbsp;</figcaption></figure>



The one-year-old company has experienced rapid growth and user adoptions among retail investors and <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/wave-financial-ceo-institutional-adoption-of-bitcoin-defi-and-nfts-will-increase/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">institutional investors</a> including Three Arrows Capital, DeFiance Capital, Genesis Block Ventures, Not3Lau Capital, Polychain, YBS Capital and Acheron Trading.&nbsp;



Additionally, the platform is used by crypto teams at <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>, Polygon, and Lido, and has had over 20 times increase in subscribers over the last year, it said.&nbsp;



“95% of Nansen users were individual innvestors before our Series A and the creation of an institutional team at the end of the summer,” Alexandre Caillol, the company’s head of institutional sales said to Blockworks.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“During Q4 2021, the team has met 100+ institutions from crypto-native [or crypto-curious] asset managers and banks, to DEXes and NFT-syndicated investment communities,” Caillol added.&nbsp;</blockquote>



During this current quarter, Nansen expects 10% of its annual recurring revenue growth to be generated by its institutional segment as its use cases grow beyond being a tool for “retail yield farmers and legendary NFT collectors,” Caillol said.&nbsp;



Going into 2022, Svanevik said the company plans to introduce new product lines such as Nansen API and Nansen Query, which will allow institutional clients to access its on-chain data programmatically.&nbsp;



“Nansen is building institutional-grade tools to support the future of finance, and we&#8217;re hiring actively for it,” Caillol said.



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Blockchain Data Analytics Platform Nansen Closes $75M Series B Round

Sam Reynolds

<div id="highlights-block_6193ea1f49ad2" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Panelists at Blockworks’ DAS London event discussed the future of the metaverse, and agreed that it is more than profile pics with unsustainable valuations</li>
 <li>But with Facebook’s push into the Metaverse via its rebranding, panelists wonder if that’s the right direction to build the industry while capturing the ethos of Web3</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



<a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/events/das-london/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Digital Asset Summit 2021, London</a> — Don’t think NFTs are just limited to Bored Apes, Chubby Penguins, and CryptoPunks, panelists said during an NFT and Metaverse-themed discussion at Blockworks’ DAS London event. These are merely the first examples of digital ownership.



“It&#8217;s not super sustainable to have profile pics traded at hundreds of thousands of dollars or even millions. NFTs are very early on in their journey,” Alex Svanevik, the CEO of crypto analytics firm <a href="https://www.nansen.ai/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nansen</a> said on stage.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“We’ve only scratched the surface of what we can invest in so far.”</blockquote>



Svanevik argued that the uses for NFTs are nearly infinite, and applicable with any circumstance where you need to prove ownership and identity.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/IW5_9264-1024x683.jpg" alt="Alex Svanevik, Nansen" class="wp-image-11251" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/IW5_9264-1024x683.jpg?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/IW5_9264-1024x683.jpg?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/IW5_9264-1024x683.jpg?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/IW5_9264-1024x683.jpg?w=386 386w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/IW5_9264-1024x683.jpg?w=392 392w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/IW5_9264-1024x683.jpg?w=329 329w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/IW5_9264-1024x683.jpg?w=80 80w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/IW5_9264-1024x683.jpg?w=1200 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>Alex Svanevik, Nansen; Source: Ian Walton for Blockworks</figcaption></figure></div>



Matteo Perruccio, Partner at Wave Financial Group gave an example from Korea, where the city of Seoul is building out a virtual replica of itself in the Metaverse. The reason? To reduce burden on the city’s infrastructure by encouraging citizens to do some things virtually and reducing urban congestion. Perruccio gave the example of going to court virtually, and having subpoenas or evidence delivered as an NFT.



“To properly represent these things virtually you would need an NFT as it’s non-fungible and can provide a true record of ownership,” he said.&nbsp;



Martha Reyes, head of research at Bequant, added that NFTs are the first example of virtual property rights and title — both things that were important to the historical development of the non-virtual economy.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/IW5_9006-1024x683.jpg" alt="Martha Reyes, Bequant" class="wp-image-11252" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/IW5_9006-1024x683.jpg?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/IW5_9006-1024x683.jpg?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/IW5_9006-1024x683.jpg?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/IW5_9006-1024x683.jpg?w=386 386w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/IW5_9006-1024x683.jpg?w=392 392w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/IW5_9006-1024x683.jpg?w=329 329w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/IW5_9006-1024x683.jpg?w=80 80w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/IW5_9006-1024x683.jpg?w=1200 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>Martha Reyes, Bequant; Source: Ian Walton for Blockworks</figcaption></figure></div>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Will Facebook’s meta move help or hinder the industry?</h3>



Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/zuckerberg-says-facebooks-new-name-will-be-meta/">rebrand social networking giant Facebook to Meta</a> in October could be seen as the ultimate vindication of the broader Metaverse thesis. But, at the same time, Meta-Facebook might also hinder its development.&nbsp;



Min Teo of Ethereal Ventures argued that this presents a “trade-off” that’s worthy of an industry-wide debate.&nbsp;



“The connecting pipes of Web3 can be quite brittle, but the benefit is you actually own them,” she said.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/IW5_9063-1024x683.jpg" alt="Min Teo, Ethereal Ventures discussing digital ownership" class="wp-image-11250" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/IW5_9063-1024x683.jpg?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/IW5_9063-1024x683.jpg?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/IW5_9063-1024x683.jpg?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/IW5_9063-1024x683.jpg?w=386 386w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/IW5_9063-1024x683.jpg?w=392 392w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/IW5_9063-1024x683.jpg?w=329 329w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/IW5_9063-1024x683.jpg?w=80 80w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/IW5_9063-1024x683.jpg?w=1200 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>Min Teo, Ethereal Ventures; Source: Ian Walton for Blockworks</figcaption></figure>



Meta is sure to make this a sleek user experience that could easily scale, but that comes with a cost —&nbsp; it will be Zuckerberg’s walled garden.&nbsp;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“Imagine if Zuckerberg owned your house and decided to take it away from you. That’s a pretty horrible experience,” she continued. “What’s the trade-off, is it worth it?”</blockquote>



Perruccio believes that the play by Facebook to rebrand as Meta is a desperate cry for help from the company, which is seeing younger users migrate away from its social apps.&nbsp;



“It&#8217;s counter-intuitive; Web3 was built around decentralization. I don’t see it being adopted by the very audience that’s creating the Metaverse. It’s going to be full of middle-aged people,” he said.&nbsp;



But Facebook isn’t the last company to announce a Metaverse strategy. Bequant’s Reyes thinks that while it’s a defensive move driven by a need for the company to constantly reinvent itself, she points to the fact that so many other fashion and tech companies are doing just the same.



“Every brand will have a Metaverse strategy,” she said.



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