Decentralized exchange dTrade has raised $22.8 million for a market-making fund designed to provide the ecosystem with higher liquidity, potentially setting the stage for wider DeFi adoption on Polkadot once the DEX launches later this year. The funds will enable dTrade to launch with “deep liquidity” backed by some of crypto’s largest market makers, the company announced Tuesday. Specifically, the capital will be used to facilitate on-chain loans to market makers that provide order book liquidity on dTrade. Community members will also have the opportunity to participate in the on-chain program once dTrade launches, which is expected soon after Polkadot …

NFT company Recur has seen its valuation swell to $333 million after concluding a successful investment round endorsed by billionaire Steve Cohen’s family office. The Series A raised $50 million, mainly through contributions from the Cohen-backed investment platform Digital, according to a statement. Some of Recur’s previous investors include Hashed, Gemini, CMT Digital, JST Capital and Delphi Ventures. The investment will be used to bootstrap the company’s go-to-market strategy, which includes hiring over 150 people, developing new brand experiences and launching a new NFT platform called NFTU.com. As Cointelegraph reported, Recur raised $5 million in March to address some of …

Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, is planning to raise $1.5 billion via a debt offering, the company officially announced Monday. The Nasdaq-listed crypto exchange is looking to use the capital raised to further grow the company’s balance sheet for general corporate purposes as well as potential investments and acquisitions of other companies, products or technology, Coinbase said. The closing of the offering is subject to market and other conditions, the firm noted. The new raise specifically aims to offer a $1.5-billion aggregate principal amount of the company’s senior notes due 2028 and 2031, which will be …

Protocol and community development initiatives have become the latest trend in the cryptocurrency market after a number of projects have launched multi-million dollar funds aimed at enticing builders and investors to make the cross-chain migration into the layer-two ecosystem. The latest project to capitalize on this trend is Harmony (ONE), a blockchain protocol that boasts a two-second transaction finality and offers cross-chain bridges to a handful of layer-one protocols, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Polkadot (DOT) and the Binance Smart Chain (BSC). Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that, since hitting a low of $0.095 on Aug. 31, …

Decentralized lending protocol Pledge has secured $3 million in investments for its cross-chain ecosystem focused on long-term financing, highlighting continued innovation in the DeFi sector. The investment round was led by DHVC, a Palo Alto-based venture capital firm, with additional participation from U.C. Berkeley Professor Gary LaBlanc and Stanford University community members Ray Wong and Torsten Wendl. The raise will support Pledge's mission to become a premier crypto-asset lending platform that eventually paves the way for tokenized real-world financial assets. Pledge was created by a group of blockchain-focused researchers at Stanford University, including Professor David Tse, Nicole Chang, Ray Wong …

Blockchain gamification platform DeFi Land has secured $4.1 million in investments to launch a new decentralized finance game on Solana, further highlighting the growing ecosystem surrounding SOL. The investment round had participation from over 40 investors, including some of the biggest names in blockchain venture capital. Animoca Brands, Alameda Research, Jump Capital, NGC Ventures, Solana Foundation and Gate.io were among the major investors involved. DeFi Land operates as an agriculture simulation game designed to gamify all aspects of decentralized finance. The goal is to create educational solutions for users looking to explore DeFi or other alternative finance solutions. The platform …

Ethereum transaction protocol Eden Network has raised $17.4 million in seed funding from some of blockchain’s biggest venture funds, underscoring the need to address ongoing challenges facing the block production economy. The funds will be used to support the adoption of Eden Network among developers, miners and users, the company announced Wednesday. The network claims all users will benefit from its ordering rules thanks to an improved block production system. The investment round was led by Multicoin Capital with participation from Alameda Research, Jump Capital, Wintermute, GSR and DeFiance Capital. Genesis Capital executive Joshua Lim and Andre Cronje of Yearn.finance …

Decentralized data aggregator SubQuery has concluded a $9 million funding round to build Polkadot’s first data aggregation layer, a move that could strengthen data indexing for the emerging interoperability network. The investment funds will be used to continue building SubQuery’s data indexing infrastructure for all Polkadot and Kusama applications, the company announced Wednesday. SubQuery also announced the investment would help it expand its technical abilities and support the open-sourcing of its software. This investment round was co-led by Arrington XRP Capital, Digital Currency Group and Stratos Technologies with additional participation from Hypersphere Ventures, NGC Ventures, Wintermute and Skynet Trading. Previously, …

The United States-based blockchain startup Simba Chain, which provides technology for several U.S. defense organizations, raised fresh funds to scale the business and tap new opportunities like nonfungible tokens (NFTs). The $25 million Series A funding round was led by Valley Capital Partners with the participation of Notre Dame Pit Road Fund, Elevate Ventures and Stanford Law School Venture Fund, according to an official announcement. Simba Chain will use the new funding to scale several departments within the company and to dedicate resources to emerging trends like NFTs. The company aims to be the tech provider for business enterprises, academic …

Decentralized talent network Braintrust has officially launched its BTRST token on the Ethereum mainnet, setting in motion a new governance framework as it aims to drive mass enterprise adoption of its services. The project launched publicly in June 2020 and has now generated $31 million in gross services revenue, up from $3.5 million during the time of the unveiling, Braintrust announced Wednesday. Since June of last year, Braintrust’s community has tripled in size, boasting enterprise clients such as Goldman Sachs, American Eagle Outfitters, Atlassian, Porsche, Under Armour and Wayfair. The average monetary value of projects listed on Braintrust has grown …

Financial service platform Evrynet has concluded a $7 million fundraiser for its forthcoming decentralized finance app targeting institutional investors, offering further evidence that DeFi has an institutional-grade audience. The private investment round was led by Signum Capital, a Singapore-based blockchain venture fund, with participation from Petrock Capital, Ellipti Ventures and others. Evrynet’s previous backers include HashKey Capital, Everest Ventures, Hanwha Investments and Securities, and Seven Bank, among others. The funds will aid Evrynet in providing institutional-grade DeFi services to investors through its forthcoming Evry.Finance application, which will serve as an exchange, liquidity pool and staking platform. The company is also …

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 …