Sebastian Sinclair

<div id="highlights-block_62a1463432ad3" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Several notable investor participated in Ancient8&#8217;s funding round including Morningstar Ventures and Pantera Capital</li>
 <li>Funding will be used to further develop the company&#8217;s GameFi infrastructure software as well as grow its community, it said</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Vietnam-based blockchain firm Ancient8 said it has raised millions in additional funding to further its efforts in developing infrastructure for the GameFi sector in Web3.



In a statement on Wednesday, the company said it has raised $6 million in a funding round led by interactive entertainment venture capital firm Makers Fund and C² Ventures.



Participation from existing and new investors also came via Pantera Capital, 6th Man Ventures, IOSG Ventures, Folius Ventures, Morningstar Ventures, Th3ia Capital, Sky9 Capital and Play Ventures.



Funding will go toward the firm&#8217;s efforts in building out its software products as well as growing its community and gaming guild, Ancient8 said. The firm has an active user base of around 200,000 members, per the statement.



&#8220;We think Web3 games have brought a paradigm shift in the gaming industry for gamers and game developers,&#8221; Ancient8&#8217;s co-founder Howard Xu told Blockworks in an email. &#8220;Gamers get&nbsp;a new experience where they can earn substantial income by doing the things they love &#8211; playing games.&#8221;



GameFi – a portmanteau of gaming and decentralized finance – is a relatively new concept within the Web3 ecosystem designed to provide players with avenues of earning while they play, offering economic incentives including tokens and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).



Xu said it was thanks to major crypto gaming titles such as Axie Infinity – based out of Ho Chi Minh City – that the domestic sector began picking up steam. GameFi&#8217;s daily unique active wallets surpassed 1 million unique users for the first time last year, mainly driven by Axie Infinity, Xu said.



&#8220;We see thousands of blockchain games being developed&nbsp;since&nbsp;the success of Axie,&#8221; the co-founder said. Axie is the world&#8217;s leading blockchain game by total monthly active users.



Ancient8 is attempting to ride the <a href="https://fortune.com/2022/05/04/axie-infinity-sky-mavis-vietnam-crypto-blockchain-startups/#:~:text=Axie%20Infinity%20inspires%20a%20generation,the%20country%20from%20foreign%20investors." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">coattails of that success</a> and has established the &#8220;largest blockchain gaming guild&#8221; in the country. It also said it has partnered with more than 25 leading GameFi projects. Those partnerships include Axie Infinity and Phantom Galaxies – an open-world space simulation game published by Animoca Brands.



In the coming months, Ancient8 is expected to launch a &#8220;GameFi identity product&#8221; along with a pair of tokens designed to engage users via a go-to-market strategy for Web3 gaming. The firm added it would use the products to link up with other top blockchain games.



&#8220;Blockchain is revolutionizing the way games are being made by shifting a lot of the power originally held by game publishers to the hands of the game studio and players,&#8221; Xu said. &#8220;Gamers get&nbsp;a new experience where they can earn substantial income by doing the things they love – playing games.&#8221;



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Vietnam’s Ancient8 Gets $6M To Build Infrastructure Software for GameFi

Ben Strack

<div id="highlights-block_62a0c1c2c1d5a" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Valkyrie seeks to hire developers and sales and distribution professionals to handle demand for crypto ETFs, trusts</li>
 <li>The company is prepping launches of private funds and separately managed accounts and plans to file for more ETFs</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Crypto-focused asset manager Valkyrie Investments has raised roughly $11 million as part of a strategic round that will help the firm hire more people and add to its product lineup.&nbsp;



Despite crypto companies such as <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/coinbase-latest-crypto-firm-to-cut-costs-amid-market-downturn/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Coinbase</a> and <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/gemini-joins-growing-list-of-crypto-exchanges-cutting-staff-amid-downturn/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Gemini</a> revealing plans to slow hiring or make staffing cuts, Valkyrie continues to make hires on a rolling basis, a spokesperson said.



“We are actively hiring both developers and sales and distribution [professionals], both of which we need in order to handle the significant inbound interest in our ETFs and protocol trusts, our hedge funds and our venture fund,” Valkyrie Chief Investment Officer Steven McClurg told Blockworks.



BNY Mellon, which added Valkyrie to its <a href="https://www.bnymellon.com/us/en/about-us/newsroom/company-news/bny-mellon-welcomes-the-accelerator-program-class-of-2022-innovation-through-collaboration.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Accelerator Program</a> in April, participated in the funding round. A spokesperson at the company declined to comment on the investment. 



Other investors included Coinbase Ventures, Wedbush Financial Services, Clearsky, Zilliqa Capital, C Squared Ventures, Belvedere Strategic Capital and SenaHill Partners.



Nashville-based Valkyrie will also seek to build out its offerings following the fresh funding. It has three ETFs trading in the US with combined assets under management of roughly $30 million, according to ETF.com.&nbsp;



The Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BTF), which became the US’s second ETF to invest primarily in bitcoin futures contracts when it launched last October, holds about 90% of those managed assets. The firm also has a Balance Sheet Opportunities ETF (VBB) and a Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI), which Valkyrie brought to market in December and February, respectively.&nbsp;



Valkyrie is working to offer another bitcoin futures ETF — this one filed under the Securities Act of 1933 — and plans to file for other crypto ETFs soon, McClurg noted. The firm declined to share specifics on potential future products.



“We have a few additional private funds and [separately managed accounts] set to launch, and we are also building out the proprietary technology needed for larger institutional clients, such as fund administration and reporting,” McClurg added.



Valkyrie unveiled <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/valkyrie-launches-its-first-multi-coin-trust/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">its first multi-coin trust</a> for accredited investors in April, following up that launch by offering its first <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/crypto-asset-manager-valkyrie-launches-avalanche-trust-for-accredited-investors/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Avalanche-focused investment vehicle</a>. 



The SEC has rejected the company’s spot bitcoin ETF proposals, but the firm, along with others, continue to engage with the regulator about launching such a fund.



“The race to be first to market will not be for the faint of heart, and we embrace this challenge,” Valkyrie CEO Leah Wald told Blockworks in March.



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Valkyrie Raises $11M in Push To Offer More Crypto Funds

<div id="highlights-block_6284fcb366613" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>FTX Ventures and Liberty City Ventures led the round, banking on DoraHacks&#8217; capacity to facilitate funding in Web3 startups</li>
 <li>Total funding to date for Dora has reached almost $50 million since its inception in late 2020</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Crypto Web3 developer incentive platform DoraHacks has raised tens of millions of dollars in fresh funding from some of the industry&#8217;s largest investment arms.



According to a press release on Wednesday, the platform has picked up $20 million in a Series B1 funding round aiming to accelerate its offerings, including its decentralized autonomous organization, Dora Grant DAO, which launched earlier this year.



The investment, led by FTX Ventures and Liberty City Ventures, will also go toward Dora&#8217;s Infinite Fund which aims to pour money into &#8220;disruptive ideas&#8221; in fintech. The fund is slated for sometime later in the year via a non-fungible token (NFT) drop, Dora said.



Circle Ventures, Gemini Frontier Fund, Sky9 Capital, Crypto.com Capital and Amber Group also participated in the round.



The funding follows on the heels of an $8 million strategic round led by Binance Labs last year. The platform also picked up a further $20 million raise for its DAO-as-a-service incubator. Total funding to date for the budding ecosystem has reached nearly $50 million, per the release.



DoraHacks&#8217; platform supports and curates Web3 startups via hackathons – an event for programmers, designers and others to collaborate on projects. The platform said it has raised $25 million worth of grants for more than 2000 startups since its inception, per the release.



More than 40 Web3 ecosystems including the likes of Solana, Polygon and Avalanche have adopted DoraHacks as a &#8220;core partner&#8221; in hackathons and community grant programs, providing access to the global developer community, Dora said.



“DoraHacks is key to advancing the development of the infrastructure for Web3,&#8221; Liberty City Ventures partner Emil Woods said. &#8220;We expect increased engagement with our portfolio companies as the ecosystem grows.&#8221;



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Web3 Hackathon Incubator DoraHacks Nabs $20M From FTX, Liberty City

<div id="highlights-block_62583d7c49a9d" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The reported raise follows an incentive program aiming to develop application-specific blockchains on Avalanche</li>
 <li>Previous investors in the Avalanche ecosystem include Andreessen Horowitz, Three Arrows Capital and Polychain</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



The lead developer of the Avalanche blockchain is reportedly in the midst of a funding round that puts its valuation at $5.25 billion. 



The latest Ava Labs raise, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-14/crypto-startup-ava-labs-is-said-to-raise-at-5-billion-valuation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to Bloomberg News</a>, amounts to $350 million. The news organization cited “people familiar with the discussions.” 



A spokesperson for the company did not immediately return a request for comment.&nbsp;



Founded in 2018, Ava Labs had <a href="https://medium.com/avalancheavax/avalanche-ava-monthly-update-may-2019-7a78657217f4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">raised $6 million</a> in February 2019 from investors such as Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain.



Avalanche <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/avalanche-closes-230m-token-sale-backed-by-three-arrows-capital-polychain/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">closed a $230 million token sale</a> led by Three Arrows Capital and Polychain in September. The company said at the time that it would use the proceeds to accelerate the growth of DeFi, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other new asset classes on its blockchain. 



The Avalanche Foundation also <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/avalanche-foundations-multiverse-incentive-program-to-invest-up-to-290m/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">revealed an incentive program</a> last month that would put up to four million AVAX tokens — currently worth about $312 million — toward a program called Avalanche Multiverse. The initiative aims to grow its “subnet” functionality, which helps develop application-specific blockchains on Avalanche.



Currently, Avalanche’s C-chain, which is its Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible smart contract chain, carries the bulk of its transaction volume. 



Along with other layer-1 protocols like Solana, Cardano and Polkadot, Avalanche has sought to solve for scale, speed and cost issues on the Ethereum blockchain. It touts itself as the fastest smart contracts platform, as measured by time-to-finality, and as having the most validators securing its activity of any proof-of-stake protocol.&nbsp;



Avalanche’s native token, AVAX, had a price of about $78 Thursday morning and a market capitalization of roughly $21 billion, according to data compiled by Blockworks.&nbsp;



Ava Labs President John Wu <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/das-2021-ava-labs-wu-says-economies-will-depend-on-next-gen-layer-1s/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said at Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit</a> last September that the new wave of Ethereum competitors would be the home of economies. He noted at the time that “you don’t have an economy unless transactions are easily done and affordably done.” 



Ethereum is working to merge its mainnet with the Beacon chain proof-of-stake system later this year, in part to increase its energy efficiency. At a market cap of $367 billion and a DeFi total value locked of about $117 billion, it remains considerably larger than all other EVM-compatible smart contract platforms combined.



The report of Ava Labs’ funding round comes as crypto companies have reeled in huge valuations in recent months.&nbsp;



FTX’s company valuation <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/ftx-valued-at-32-billion/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">rose to $32 billion</a> after its funding round in January.  



<a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/gemini-aims-to-raise-400m-to-bring-valuation-over-7b/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Gemini</a> and <a href="https://consensys.net/blog/press-release/consensys-raises-450m-series-d-funding/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ConsenSys</a> completed funding rounds in November and March, respectively, valuing the businesses at roughly $7 billion.



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Ava Labs Reportedly Hits $5.25B Valuation With New Raise

<div id="highlights-block_6230c5dec273b" class="highlights">
 
</div>


<div id="highlights-block_6230c60fc273c" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>MetaMask eclipsed 30 million monthly active users in January</li>
 <li>Proceeds from the round, led by ParaFi Capital, will be converted to ether</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



ConsenSys has raised $450 million — valuing the company at $7 billion — as it now looks to onboard more talent and continue accelerating Web3 adoption.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The blockchain infrastructure company’s Series D funding round follows a raise of $200 million in November, which valued ConsenSys at $3.2 billion.



Its main product, Metamask, eclipsed 30 million monthly active users in January — a 42% increase in fourth months.



A major redesign of MetaMask is slated for later this year, according to the company. ConsenSys also plans to roll out a plug-in extensibility system to allow integration with various blockchain protocols and account security schemes.



Johnna Powell, global co-head of ConsenSys NFTs, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/onboarding-the-next-wave-of-metamask-users-through-nfts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told Blockworks last month</a> that the company is seeking to bring the next tens of millions of users into Metamask through NFTs (non-fungible tokens). It is also exploring collateralization, fractionalization, swapping, borrowing and lending in the segment.



ParaFi Capital led the latest fundraising effort. Participants of the Series C round that invested in ConsenSys again were Third Point, Marshall Wace, TRUE Capital Management and United Talent Agency’s venture fund. New investors included Temasek, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Microsoft, Anthos Capital, Sound Ventures and C Ventures.



“As a long-time power user of ConsenSys’ products and services, ParaFi is thrilled to be an investor and thought partner as the company continues to operate at the forefront of decentralized infrastructure,” ParaFi Capital founder Ben Forman said in a statement.



The proceeds from the round will be converted to ether to rebalance the ratio of ETH to US dollar-equivalents in line with ConsenSys’ treasury strategy, according to the company.



“Next round will be our ‘Series ETH’ where we will assist investors in getting fully crypto native to contribute ETH as a symbol of and commitment to the ongoing paradigm shift,” ConsenSys founder Joseph Lubin said in a statement.



The funding will also go toward hiring more than 600 new employees, the company announced. With nearly 700 full-time employees, <a href="https://consensys.net" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ConsenSys</a> plans to have more than 1,000 by the end of 2022.



A ConsenSys spokesperson noted in February that nearly half of ConsenSys’s 366 hires over the past six months were coming from the Web2 ecosystem, while about one-third joined the company from a different industry.



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ConsenSys Plans To ‘Redesign’ MetaMask and Hire 600 New Employees

Jacquelyn Melinek

<div id="highlights-block_622a36a4be63d" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>“Since StarkNet was launched, interest from devs and investors has gone through the roof,” an anonymous company source told Blockworks</li>
 <li>In an interview with Blockworks in November 2021, one of the four co-founders said that they “didn’t need the money” from its Series C, but the funds helped them grow their operations even faster</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Ethereum layer-2 developer StarkWare is raising at least $100 million, for a valuation of $6 billion, Israeli newspaper Calacalist <a href="https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/rjm00s7wbq">reported</a>.



StarkWare declined to comment Thursday. However, a company source, who spoke under anonymity to Blockworks, said they couldn’t confirm it, “but it sounds entirely plausible.”



“Since StarkNet was launched, interest from devs and investors has gone through the roof,” the source said.



The new valuation is triple its previous $2 billion valuation from just four months ago, when the company raised <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/starkware-valuation-hits-2b-after-50m-series-c-round/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$50 million</a> in a Series C round led by Sequoia Capital.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“It seems to be the idea of letting anyone build Web3 that&#8217;s caught the imagination of venture capital,” the source said. “So, while the numbers cited are high, if I arrive at work and hear it&#8217;s accurate, I won&#8217;t be surprised.”</blockquote>



StarkWare is a four-year-old startup — created by four co-founders Eli Ben-Sasson, Alessandro Chiesa, Uri Kolodny and Michael Riabzev — that offers blockchain scaling services through “STARK” proofs, which are Ethereum-based products using rollups technology invented by Ben-Sasson and Riabzev.



The StarkWare-based solutions include its two products — StarkEx, a permissioned validity rollup, and StarkNet, a permissionless decentralized zero-knowledge rollup  — which aim to increase speed and reduce the cost of Ethereum gas fees.



The largest dApp on StarkEx, by total-value-locked (TVL), is decentralized derivatives exchange <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/?s=dydx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">dydx</a>, with roughly $1 billion in TVL, <a href="https://defillama.com/protocol/dydx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to DeFi Llama</a>.



Two weeks ago, StarkNet began deploying decentralized apps, or dApps, with zero-knowledge rollup technology to help alleviate the blockchain’s scaling problem.&nbsp;



In an interview with Blockworks in November 2021, Kolodny said StarkNet “didn’t need the money” from the Series C, but the funds helped them grow their operations faster.



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Ethereum Scaling Startup Reportedly Triples Valuation in 4 Months

Michael Bodley

<div id="highlights-block_6228e88a70751" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The launch is one of a growing number from hedge fund managers focused on digital assets looking to increase their exposures to crypto private markets</li>
 <li>The firm invested in Animoca Brands, the parent company of The Sandbox metaverse, when the company was valued at $1 billion</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



A hedge fund firm specializing in DeFi is launching its first venture capital fund on the heels of investor demand following a series of winning private bets.



<a href="https://www.coralcapital.io" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Coral DeFi</a> held a first close of $5 million for its Coral Ventures LP Fund 1 In January, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The vehicle plans to raise about $50 million overall, with a second close penciled in for April or May.



Patrick Horsman, Coral’s managing partner, confirmed the fundraise to Blockworks. The firm has been investing in startups via its flagship hedge fund, Coral DeFi Ltd Fund, typically deploying less than 10% of the vehicle’s capital in side pockets — a type of account hedge funds use to segregate riskier bets from more liquid investments. The fund made about 15 such investments last year, gaining 43.7% in the process, with a net exposure of just 25%.&nbsp;



The firm took a stake in Animoca Brands, the parent company of The Sandbox metaverse, when the company had a $1 billion valuation. It most recently hit a $5.4 billion valuation after a <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/the-sandbox-parent-animoca-brands-raises-359m-to-build-out-open-metaverse/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$359 million fundraising haul</a>.



Crypto hedge fund managers — who specialize in trading liquid tokens — have increasingly proven unable to resist soaring valuations in private markets, despite the fact that such investments require a different skill set and vetting prowess. Others, including Travis Kling’s Ikigai Asset Management, have <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/crypto-hedge-fund-ikigai-tests-venture-capital-waters-sources/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">raised venture funds</a> after previous side pocket bets paid off.&nbsp;



Coral has just under $100 million of assets under management overall, predominantly from high-net worth individuals and family offices. The firm, though, is starting to get traction from larger institutions, including <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/sovereign-wealth-fund-vet-eyes-150m-for-crypto-fund-of-funds/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fund of funds</a>, which are on the <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/sources-fidelity-vet-launching-crypto-fund-of-funds/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">rise</a> this year.



The venture fund plans to key in on pre-seed, seed and Series A investments, with an emphasis on play-to-earn gaming and infrastructure plays across the DeFi (decentralized finance) space. Horsman is planning to hire a portfolio manager specifically for the vehicle.&nbsp;



“We want to be early, writing smaller checks to a decent amount of deals and getting in on the ground floor,” Horsman said.



Since starting to trade in January, the fund has invested in startups including Atmos, Boto,&nbsp;



DeVol, Flow Carbon, Near, Smart Valor and Tea. The strategy is a “little more focused on the token side,” Horsman said, but still does a “fair amount of equity deals.”



Partly because of the heavy token focus, the fund offers more liquidity than most pure-play venture vehicles. It has a three-year investment period, plus two optional one-year extensions.



In addition to cash, the fund accepts the stablecoin USDC for limited partner contributions, with Horsman saying about one-third of inflows are now in stablecoins.



While most venture funds draw down — or call — investor capital as deals pop up, Coral gives limited partners the option to park their funds in Coral High Yield Ltd Fund, a high-yield, market-neutral stablecoin strategy that targets returns of 15% to 20% a year.



The fund, which offers monthly liquidity, is also being marketed to other crypto venture capital firms looking for yield while they hunt for investments.&nbsp;



Coral also raised a few million dollars in December for a 5% general-partner stake in the firm, Horsman said, which is earmarked to make additional hires and build out internal risk controls.



The firm brought on Chase Mayeux as head operations in January. Horsman, an alternative investing veteran, previously founded Verified Organic, a seed-to-sale, Ethereum-based tracking mechanism for organic food. He has also been a managing partner at Cashmere Capital and Octopus Investments.&nbsp;



Horsman was sued for fraud and misrepresentation stemming from a role at a former company. He calls the legal action “basically a shakedown” that has no merit and has recently counter-sued for defamation, among other allegations.



David Namdar, who co-founded Galaxy Digital, SolidX Partners and NFT.com, is also a general partner at Coral. Thomas McLaughlin, formerly the CEO of crypto miner Blockstake and a veteran of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, is the firm’s chief investment officer.



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DeFi Hedge Fund, Fresh off Profitable Private Bets, Launches First Venture Vehicle

Morgan Chittum

<div id="highlights-block_621eabc4c01c6" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Led by Archetype, raise investors include Coinbase Ventures, Dragonfly Capital, Solana Ventures and ParaFi</li>
 <li>Parcl has 15 full-time employees but hopes to expand its staff to 25 by the end of the year</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Parcl, a startup that digitizes real estate investments via the Solana blockchain, raised a $4.1 million seed round Tuesday, earmarked for marketing and staffing.



The New York-based company has 15 full-time employees but aims to expand its staff to 25 by year-end, co-founder and CEO Trevor Bacon told Blockworks.



“It&#8217;s a tough hiring environment, but we&#8217;ve managed with our team and vision to have been able to attract some of the best talent,” Bacon said.



Parcl’s mission is to give everyone a chance to invest in real estate, a market which has historically high barriers to entry, but consistent returns.



Parcl’s protocol allows users to invest in a digital square foot of real-live property via its price index, which replicates the price per square foot in various neighborhoods. The platform has transaction fees, but no minimum investment requirement.



“[For example], Tribeca will have a price per square foot of like $2,000, and we&#8217;ll call that a ‘parcl,’” he added. “‘A parcl’ is one square foot of any given neighborhood, and the blockchain is what allows you to create those assets and trade them. It’s basically a way to gain exposure to real estate.”



Led by Archetype, raise investors include Coinbase Ventures, Dragonfly Capital, Solana Ventures, ParaFi, Shima Capital, Slow Ventures, Tribe Capital, Not Boring Capital and FJ Labs.



Parcl will launch a testnet, along with the release and sale of a non-fungible token (NFT) collection in the coming weeks. All of the proceeds, Bacon said, will go toward buying someone a house.



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Blockchain Real Estate Startup Raises Round To Expand Digitized Property Investments

<div id="highlights-block_620e829c7741a" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The fifty-year-old company has $80 billion in assets under management</li>
 <li>The firm&#8217;s involvement in crypto started back in 2015 when it began investing in the space through both equity and tokens</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Sequoia Capital is launching a new $500 million to $600 million sub-fund focused primarily on liquid tokens and digital assets, a spokesperson confirmed with Blockworks on Thursday.



The capital plans to complement its other crypto investments in seed, venture, growth and expansion funds. It is also one of the first sub-funds to be launched as part of its new Sequoia Capital Fund, an open-ended liquid portfolio, the company said.



The founders have asked the firm to take a more active role in managing its tokens through staking, providing liquidity, participating in governance and trading through portfolio companies’ platforms. This fund will give it the ability to engage further, the company shared.



“Our goal with this fund is to participate more actively in protocols, better support token-only projects, and learn by doing ourselves,” Sequoia Capital’s Michelle Bailhe, Shaun Maguire and Alfred Lin wrote on the Sequoia <a href="https://sequoia.medium.com/a-block-step-forward-14274f4a0e65" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">blog</a>.



The firm&#8217;s involvement in crypto started back in 2015 when it began investing in the space through both equity and tokens. In 2017, Sequoia invested through its main funds, while in 2021, 20% of its new investments throughout the US and Europe were in crypto.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“We believe that crypto is more than a sector; it’s a fundamental shift that will impact all sectors,” Sequoia noted.&nbsp;</blockquote>



In general, Sequoia Capital invests in a number of sectors aside from crypto, such as technology, financial services, energy and healthcare. The fifty-year-old company has $80 billion in assets under management, according to PitchBook data.



This scale of investment is not uncommon for the firm. Sequoia Capital’s India branch <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/polygon-closes-450m-raise-led-by-sequoia-india/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">led a $450 million</a> private token sale in <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/?s=polygon" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Polygon</a> — a decentralized Ethereum scaling platform — earlier this month. Separately, in January, Sequoia and Paradigm invested <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/sequoia-and-paradigm-invest-1-15b-in-citadel-securities/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$1.15 billion</a> in Citadel Securities.



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Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin">Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter</a>.



Get alpha directly in your inbox with the <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research">0xResearch newsletter</a> — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.



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