The competition among the computing networks is warming up, with decentralized players coming into the stage with backing from the crypto ecosystem. Decentralized storage and computing network Aleph.im completed a $10 million funding round led by Stratos Technologies. Zeeprime, NOIA Capital, Theia, Bitfwd Capital have contributed to the funding, among others. The cross-blockchain network aims to provide fully decentralized computing power and censorship-resistant data storage, according to the announcement. Aleph.im scheduled its first computing resource node rollout for January following the funding round. The nodes would eventually become the decentralized network’s main processing power source. Aleph.im rewards its core channel …

It’s another shake-up for the finance industry as Montreal-based Bitcoin (BTC) startup Shakepay raised $35 million from investors. The fresh funding from the United States-based venture capital firm QED Investors values the company at $251 million. Founded in 2015, Shakepay allows Canadians to buy and sell BTC and pay their friends. It also supports the purchase of Ether (ETH). The startup aims to use the funds to consolidate growth, focus on bringing on additional products to market such as the recently launched Shakepay Visa Prepaid Card, and expand the team. Speaking to Cointelegraph, ShakePay CEO Jean Amiouny said: Shakepay’s seen …

BlockFills, a digital asset electronic market making, trading and prime brokerage, has announced the completion of a $37 million Series A funding round. Institutional investors, including Susquehanna Private Equity Investments LLLP, CME Ventures, Simplex Ventures, C6 Ventures, and Nexo Inc., led the round. Since its inception in 2018, the firm has received a total of $44 million from institutional investors in two funding rounds. We’re excited to announce the successful close of our Series A #funding round totaling $37 million! See how this funding will support our global expansion and help institutions safely and efficiently engage #digitalasset markets: https://t.co/lfXHHxCaS1. #VC …

Secret Network is offering $400 million in funding to grow its privacy-oriented ecosystem and expand user adoption. Secret Network is a decentralized ecosystem that utilizes trusted execution environments to enable private, secure computation over encrypted data. The ecosystem has four components: Secret Tokens, Secret Bridges, Secret Finance and Secret NFTs. According to a Jan. 19 announcement, the privacy-oriented platform is offering a $225 million ecosystem fund and a $175 million accelerator fund with support from 25 existing investors and partners, including BlockTower Capital, Arrington Capital, Fenbushi Capital, Outlier, Spartan Group, and Figment. The Founder of Secret Foundation Tor Bair told …

The nonfungible token marketplace Autograph co-founded by Super Bowl champion Tom Brady has announced it closed on a $170 million funding round. In a Wednesday announcement, Autograph said Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z, and VC firm Kleiner Perkin co-led the $170-million Series B round with contributions from crypto investor Katie Haun’s firm, Nicole Quinn of Lightspeed Venture Partners, and San Francisco-based venture firm 01A. The company said it planned to use the funds to scale its NFT technology and hinted at a series of partnerships aimed at expanding its user base. In addition to the funding round, Haun, a16z general partner …

Web3 and social games publisher Carry1st has raised $20 million in Series A funding to further expand product development in Africa — a continent that could become the premier hub for the gaming industry over the next decade. The investment round was led by Silicon Valley venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, which has been highly active in the blockchain space, with additional participation from Avenir and Google-parent Alphabet. Carry1st’s existing backers, including Riot Games, Konvoy Ventures, Raine Ventures and TTV Capital, also participated in the investment round. The cash injection will be used by Carry1st to expand its content portfolio, grow …

Cryptocurrency individual retirement account and 401(k) provider iTrustCapital said it had raised $125 million in a growth equity investment, making its valuation reach $1.3 billion. In a Wednesday announcement, iTrustCapital said it had completed a $125 million Series A growth equity investment led by New York-based VC firm Left Lane Capital. The company said it planned to use the funds for expanding its existing product and service line in addition to exploring strategic acquisitions. "We are equally excited to partner with iTrustCapital to help support their mission to provide access to cryptocurrency and other alternative investment products through self-directed IRAs,” …

The Solana (SOL) network is ready to see the mainnet launch for another decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol, aimed at Web3 development and backed by bigshots from the crypto industry. Hubble Protocol, a project aiming to develop a censorship-resistant crypto-backed stablecoin among other DeFi services, has raised $10 million from Three Arrows / DeFiance Capital, Delphi Digital, Digital Currency Group (DCG), Crypto.com Capital, ParaFi, Jump Capital, Decentral Park Capital, CMS, Spartan, DeFi Alliance and Mechanism Capital. Hubble plans to expand its team and DeFi products with fresh funds, starting with its scheduled mainnet launch on Jan. 28, according to the announcement. …

Hong Kong-based software and venture firm Animoca Brands has secured $358.8 million in capital investments to fuel new acquisitions in the nonfungible token (NFT), gaming and metaverse sectors, further cementing crypto’s biggest trends in 2022. The funding round was led by Liberty City Ventures and had participation from some of blockchain’s biggest venture funds, including 10T Holdings, Gemini Frontier Fund, ParaFi Capital, Provident, Sequoia China, and Winklevoss Capital, among several others. Animoca said the capital injection will go towards financing strategic acquisitions and investments, product development, and license acquisition for intellectual properties. The company said its vision is to create …

Bitcoin price is still a ways from its $69,000 all-time high but this isn't stopping altcoins from moving toward new highs. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that since hitting a low of $0.13 on Dec. 4, the price of Harmony (ONE) has risen 163% to establish a new all-time high of $0.38 on Jan. 14 Three reasons for the growing strength of Harmony include an expanding ecosystem, the launch of multiple cross-chain bridges and developers interest in finding Ethereum network alternatives. ONE benefits from Harmony's $300 million ecosystem development fund One of the biggest boosts to the …

The layer one (L1) battle is starting to heat up again and multiple protocols have seen their token values rise in recent weeks as traders venture out to see what life is like outside of the Ethereum (ETH) network. One L1 protocol that has seen its token price climb to a new all-time high this week was NEAR, a community-run cloud computing platform focused on interoperability and lightning quick transaction speed. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView show that, following a pullback that hit a low of $13.10 on Jan. 9, the price of NEAR climbed more than 50% …

Cryptocurrency accounting and data company Lukka said it had raised $110 million in a new funding round led by hedge fund giant Marshall Wace. In a Friday announcement, Lukka said it had completed a $110 million Series E funding round led by Marshall Wace, with participation from Soros Fund Management — a fund created by billionaire investor George Soros — Liberty City Ventures, S&P Global, and accounting advisor CPA.com. Lukka said it planned to use the funds for “aggressive growth and global expansion strategy” with its current customer base dealing in derivatives, decentralized finance, and other products related to the …