Sky Mavis, the studio behind the popular Axie Infinity nonfungible token (NFT) game, has announced a fresh round of funding for the company. In a statement issued on Tuesday, Sky Mavis announced that it had closed a $152-million Series B funding round. According to the announcement, notable crypto and blockchain investors such as global exchange giant FTX, venture capital fund Andreessen Horowitz participated in the investment round. Other investors in the $152-million funding round included Accel, Paradigm, Standard Crypto, as well as Fabric Ventures and Samsung Next among other notable backers. The Axie Infinity maker said it was going to …

Crypto regulation has become an increasingly relevant topic over the past several years. To address these legal ins and outs amid the ever-changing regulatory waters, VC firm Andreessen Horowitz has called upon a previous leader of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s, or CFTC, to join its team. “As part of our larger effort to make sure we have a world-class support system in place when it comes to policy and regulatory matters, I’m thrilled to announce that Brian Quintenz, a former Commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, is joining as an advisory partner on the crypto team,” …

California-based venture fund Andreessen Horowitz announced Tuesday that it is leading a Series A investment round for Syndicate, a decentralized platform with the lofty vision of democratizing investing by allowing users to create decentralized autonomous organizations, or DAOs. Ali Yahya, one of Andreessen’s general partners, said that the company was attracted to Syndicate’s vision of DAOs being at the center of economic coordination between people. DAOs, which are internet-native organizations that are collectively owned and managed by community members, have the potential to replace the archaic legacy systems currently in use. The Andreessen executive compared DAOs with corporations, arguing that …

Among the more than 11,000 listed cryptocurrencies are a few projects that are revolutionary use cases capable of improving the way that society operates through the integration of blockchain technology. One such project is Helium, a decentralized peer-to-peer 5G wireless network that made headlines on Aug. 10, thanks to the successful completion of a token sale that raised $111 million from multiple investors, including Andreessen Horowitz. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the price of HNT spiked 30% from a low of $14.03 to an intraday high at $18.14 following the fundraising announcement. There are three reasons …

Helium Network, a provider of decentralized wireless infrastructure, has concluded a $111 million token sale led by some of the biggest venture firms in the blockchain industry. The sale, which centered around Helium’s native token, HNT, was scooped up by several venture capital firms, including Andreessen Horowitz. Alameda Research, Multicoin Capital and Ribbit Capital also contributed, according to BNN Bloomberg. General partner at Andreessen Horowitz Ali Yahya told Bloomberg that new cryptocurrency protocols like Helium will “challenge centralized incumbents” and compete with bigger telecommunication service providers. Yahya tweeted Tuesday that his firm will work with Helium to create a "grassroots …

Marc Andreessen, co-founder and general partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (also known as a16z), made a case for crypto and blockchain as the most significant new architecture change in the tech industry. In a Bloomberg Wealth interview with David Rubenstein, Andreessen reframed the terms of the debate and shifted away from the talk as to whether Bitcoin (BTC) — and crypto more broadly — is or is not an endurable investment proposition. “Crypto is a bit like the parable of the blind men and the elephant. People touch it from different sides. They get distracted and carried away …

OpenSea has become the latest crypto unicorn after it announced a $100 million Series B funding round led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz at a valuation of $1.5 billion. The unicorn status is attributed to firms that are valued at over $1 billion, and OpenSea now joins a long list of crypto unicorns such as Coinbase, Animoca Brands and Chainalysis to name a few. We're expanding! Announcing our $100M raise and $1.5B valuation, led by @a16z OpenSea is also now cross-blockchain. NFTs that you create can now be gas-free, allowing creators to fully earn their way into crypto for …

Major venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz will be promoting a former employee of digital asset infrastructure provider BitGo to assist in running its $2.2 billion crypto fund. According to Andreessen Horowitz general partner Katie Haun, Arianna Simpson will be joining partners Chris Dixon, Ali Yahya and Haun for the launch of the firm’s $2.2 billion venture fund, Crypto Fund III. Simpson has been a general partner at the company for more than a year and will be promoted to the position of deal partner to assist the fund aimed at financing cryptocurrency networks and teams contributing to the decentralized economy. …

Cryptocurrency wallet provider Phantom has secured $9 million in Series A financing to launch a new multichain wallet designed to help DeFi users access decentralized applications across multiple blockchains. The raise comes on the heels of a successful beta launch in April of this year that saw 40,000 new Phantom users. The company also secured $500,000 in grants from Serum and Solana during the beta phase. Brandon Millman, Phantom’s co-founder and CEO, said his platform enables users to easily access decentralized exchanges and nonfungible token platforms, explaining: “With the world moving into a multi-chain future, the strong interest from the …

Several venture capital firms including Andreessen Horowitz have thrown their weight behind Nansen, an up-and-coming blockchain analytics platform for the DeFi sector. The $12 million Series A funding round included participation from Skyfall Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, imToken Ventures, QCP Capital and Mechanism Capital, Nansen announced Tuesday. Nansen said the funding will be used to hire additional talent, grow its analytics platform and provide additional services to networks like Polygon and Binance Smart Chain, among others. As a blockchain analytics platform, Nansen analyzes the activity of over 90 million Ethereum wallets. The platform integrates massive data sets and translates them into …

Blockchain analytics company Chainalysis has secured $100 million in Series E financing, bringing its total valuation to a staggering $4.2 billion and highlighting once again the tremendous growth of the cryptocurrency industry. The round was led by global investment manager Coatue, with additional participation from 9Yards Capital, Altimeter, Blackstone, GIC, Pictet, Sequoia Heritage and SVB Capital, Chainalysis announced Thursday. Chainalysis said the funds will go toward expanding its blockchain data capabilities, which includes investing in new data tools, software and APIs. “We believe blockchain data is the asset that can help public and private sector organizations understand the risks and …

Andreessen Horowitz is launching a new crypto-focused fund dedicated to expanding the size and marketability of blockchain projects, offering further evidence that venture funds believe in the staying power of digital assets. Crypto Fund III, a $2.2-billion venture fund co-led by Andreessen Horowitz general partners Chris Dixon and Katie Haun, was officially announced Thursday morning. The fund will be used to finance cryptocurrency networks and teams that are contributing to the new decentralized economy. “This fund allows us to find the next generation of visionary crypto founders, and invest in the most exciting areas of crypto,” Andreessen Horowitz said. “We …