Cryptocurrency custody services firm Anchorage has added insurance coverage for storing digital assets, it announced in a blog post on May 29. In the post, Anchorage — which raised $17 million in a Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz — announced insurance coverage for institutions that covers digital assets under custody. The coverage comes as the result of a partnership with major insurance broker Aon. Previously, Aon stated that the firm was seeing more cryptocurrency-specific protections catering to the new cryptocurrency industry. Anchorage outlined in the post that not all coverage of cryptocurrency custody insurance is equal as most …

Emin Gun Sirer, a professor at Cornell University and a major global blockchain expert, will launch his own cryptocurrency and blockchain network, Bloomberg reported on May 16. Sirer, the creator of the first crypto based on proof-of-work (PoW) — Karma System — is now planning to launch a blockchain network that he touts as running as many transactions per second as payment giant Visa. Having raised $6 million from major investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Polychain and MetaStable in February, Sirer’s Ava Labs has reportedly launched a private test version of the Ava network on May 16, while the public …

Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm and high-profile crypto investor Andreessen Horowitz has raised $2.75 billion for two new funds, according to a company announcement published on May 1. The lion’s share of the new capital will go toward a specialized $2 billion late-stage venture fund (LSV Fund I), headed by Andreessen Horowitz general partner David George. The $750 million has meanwhile been raised for a sixth general fund — focused on early-stage enterprise, consumer and fintech offerings — which will sit alongside the company’s existing specialized cryptocurrency and bio funds. As managing partner Scott Kupor notes in yesterday’s announcement, cryptocurrency …

Blockchain payments startup Celo has raised $30 million from well-known crypto investors Polychain Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on April 2. Celo, which is the trading name of A Protocol Inc., plans to use an in-house digital token and stablecoin to facilitate cross-border payments, primarily focusing on the unbanked using smartphones. Having raised $6.4 million in previous cash injections, the company is now conducting pilot-phase tests in Argentina. “We see big potential in letting people — directly on their smartphone — access basic financial services,” Rene Reinsberg, cofounder of Celo, told the WSJ. He added: …

American venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is restructuring by registering all of its employees as qualified financial advisors, Forbes reported on April 2. Andreessen Horowitz — a Silicon Valley company specializing in investing mostly in technology and financial services startups, having raised $1.7 billion across seven funds — told Forbes that it is registering their all 150 employees as financial advisors, which renounces the company’s status as a venture capital firm entirely. The restructuring will purportedly enable Andreessen Horowitz to take riskier bets on certain business areas, including digital currencies. “If the firm wants to put $1 billion into cryptocurrency …

The Anchorage cryptocurrency custodian for institutional investors launched following a $17 million funding round led by venture fund Andreessen Horowitz, a press release states Wednesday, Jan. 23. According to the announcement, PayPal co-founder Max Levchin’s SciFi VC, venture company Khosla Ventures, Mark McCombe of investment firm Blackrock, and others also took part in the series A funding round. The developers claim they intended to make a custodian that would be more secure than cold storage in order to better support institutional investments, along with enabling active on-chain participation. Anchorage claims to be based on the principles of easy access to …

The head of policy at Coinbase has left the U.S.’ largest exchange and wallet provider to work at investment giant Andreessen Horowitz, Bloomberg quotes a statement as confirming Nov. 22. Mike Lempres, who worked only briefly in the role after swapping over from being Coinbase’s legal head in September, had already decided to leave at the time, the publication says. Like all exchanges serving the U.S. market, Coinbase continues to battle patchwork regulatory frameworks that vary state to state, as well as ongoing reviews of the status of certain types of cryptocurrencies. While it remains unknown who will replace Lempres, …

Dapper Labs, developer of the world’s most used blockchain app CryptoKitties, has received $15 million in another financing round, global news agency PR Newswire reported on Nov. 1. The new funding will help the Canada-founded Dapper Labs to expand it services on a local and global scale, as well as to address infrastructure issues and to boost mainstream adoption of distributed ledger technology (DLT). According to the press release, the company is planning to set up a subsidiary in the U.S. headed by execs from video gaming firms Unity and Disney. Led by Venrock, the official venture capital arm of …

Major U.S. crypto exchange and wallet provider Coinbase has raised $300 million in a fresh funding round that brings its post-money valuation to $8 billion, according to an official blog post published today, Oct. 30. The Series E equity financing round was reportedly led by investment firm Tiger Global Management, with participation from a host of backers well-known for their investments in the crypto space, such as Y Combinator Continuity, Wellington Management, Andreessen Horowitz, and Polychain, among others. According to Coinbase, the funds will be used to “accelerate” the adoption of cryptocurrencies, with plans to build infrastructure to support regulated …

Blockchain cloud computing platform Oasis Labs announced a partnership with major names in crypto and venture capital to launch a blockchain tech hub called the Oasis Startup Hub, the firm announced at San Francisco Blockchain Week October 8. According to the company’s press release, the Oasis Startup Hub aims to create an ecosystem for blockchain developers, investors, technologists, and industry key-players to collaborate, as well as technical support from Oasis Labs engineers, and “early access” to Oasis latest technology disruptions. The new blockchain hub’s high-profile partners include Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto venture fund a16zCrypto, Accel, Binance Labs, Pantera Capital, and Polychain …

American venture capital fund Andreessen Horowitz has invested $15 million into blockchain startup MakerDAO (MKR), according to an announcement published September 24. MakerDAO is the firm which stands behind Ethereum-based stablecoin Dai (DAI) and its accompanying decentralized credit system. DAI is pledged to U.S. dollars but collateralized by Ethereum (ETH). DAI users can generate the stable coin by locking up an excess amount of ETH in a smart contract, so if a user wants to access their collateral, they have to pay back the DAI debt. Per the announcement, Andreessen Horowitz via its investment fund a16z acquired 6 percent of …

Swiss and US-based blockchain cloud computing startup DFINITY has closed a new funding round worth over $100 million from repeat backers including Andreessen Horowitz, it confirmed August 29. DFINITY, which aims to build what it describes as an “Internet Computer,” raised a total of $102 million Swiss francs ($105 million) from partners that also featured blockchain-focused investment outfit Polychain Capital. Both Polychain and Andreessen via its investment fund a16z had previously participated in the startup’s investment, contributing to a $61 million round in February. Having raised a total of just under $200 million since its foundation in 2015, DFINITY ultimately …