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 …

FTX, a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, has closed a $900 million funding round, highlighting once again that venture capitalists are shrugging off market turmoil in their quest to uncover quality blockchain plays. The Series B investment round had over 60 participants, including Softbank, Sequoia Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Multicoin, VanEck and the Paul Tudor Jones family. With the raise, FTX’s valuation has grown to $18 billion, making it one of the largest cryptocurrency companies in the world. Just one year ago, the derivatives exchange had a valuation of $1.2 billion. Related: FTX crypto exchange integrates institutional trading tool …

DeFine, a socially oriented nonfungible token platform, has raised $5 million in strategic investments as part of a wider effort to onboard more companies to the NFT world. The raise was led by Huobi Ventures, eSports entertainment company Abyss and global game developer PearlAbyss, the company announced Tuesday. Several Asian blockchain funds also participated, including Draper Dragon, NGC Ventures and SevenX Ventures. “It is my pleasure to have these major gaming and entertainment companies in Asia as strategic investors,” said Myoung Hoon Kang, DeFine's global operations lead. “Strategic investment and partnership will allow us to jointly develop new market opportunities …

CoinFund, a blockchain investment firm behind several recent venture raises, has closed an $83 million funding round as part of its ongoing initiative to bootstrap promising crypto-focused startups. The oversubscribed fundraise was led by Venrock, a California-based venture capital firm founded in 1969. CoinFund said several other “forward-thinking institutional allocators” contributed to the raise, but did not name them. David Pakman, partner at Venrock, touted CoinFund’s ability to identify and help develop leading crypto startups: “CoinFund’s deep connectivity throughout the entire crypto ecosystem, the firm’s critical technical insights and its ability to incubate projects at the earliest stages differentiates them …

Iris Energy, a Sydney-based Bitcoin (BTC) mining firm that invests in data centers powered by renewable energy sources, reportedly plans to raise new funds ahead of the expected Nasdaq listing. Bloomberg reported that the new fundraising round is looking to raise roughly $200 million to prepare for the United States exchange listing. Iris Energy has already met with prospective investors and plans to go for the Nasdaq listing before the end of the year. The report calls up earlier talks on special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), which would enable a potential U.S. listing aimed at $300–$500 million for the green …

The cryptocurrency community is highly anticipating the release of a new documentary about the Ethereum blockchain, with the film’s funding campaign exceeding expectations. A crowdfunding round for the Ethereum-themed documentary, dubbed Ethereum: The Infinite Garden, has surpassed its goal of 750 Ether (ETH), raising a total of 1,035.96 ETH worth $1.9 million as of Friday, the creators announced. And that’s a wrap. 984.16 ETH raised for the film. 31.08 ETH to @gitcoin grants. 20.72 ETH to @Carbonfundorg. THANK YOU to everyone who supported, and congratulations to our new producers. Now let’s go make a movie! See the complete set of …

Interlay, a Bitcoin (BTC) interoperability project that first launched on Polkadot, has concluded a $3 million seed round to further develop its flagship decentralized finance product, marking another important capital raise in the blockchain industry. The funding will go towards supporting Interlay’s interBTC platform, which allows users to invest, earn and pay with Bitcoin on any blockchain. Originally commissioned for Polkadot, interBTC will expand to other blockchains including Ethereum (ETH) and Cosmos. As Cointelegraph reported, Interlay began building its Bitcoin bridge in early 2020 after receiving a grant from Web3 Foundation, a technology steward for the decentralized web. Interlay claims …

Reports have surfaced that French NFT-based soccer trading card game developer Sorare is closing in on a $532 million funding round with a valuation of at least $3.8 billion. According to unnamed sources in Business Insider, the latest funding round is expected to be led by Japanese telecommunications giant SoftBank, along with participation from European venture capital firm Atomico. Other backers thought to be in the mix include European investment firm Eurazeo, and Blisce, a fund founded by French entrepreneur Alexandre Mars. Sorare was founded in 2018 and the firm’s NFT-based soccer collectible card game now has 142 licensed teams …

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 …

Blockchain security firm CertiK announced Wednesday that it has received $37 million in fresh financing to expand its product and security capabilities for the cryptocurrency and DeFi industries. “We’re proud to advance transparency in the space by providing the tools and resources – including our official audit reports – so the community can make sense of vital security information,” said CertiK co-founder Professor Ronghu Gu. Kai Jiang, a partner at Coatue Management, said blockchain security is becoming increasingly important amid the DeFi revolution: “Decentralized finance has grown enormously over the last 18 months, giving millions of people access to innovative …

Shenzhen-based crypto mining firm, Bit Mining, is raising $50 million to fund an expansion out of the Chinese market. Announced on July 12, the firm has entered into an agreement with select institutional and accredited investors to raise $50 million through a private placement. Bit Mining is raising the funds in response to the Chinese Communist Party’s crackdown on crypto mining in May, noting plans to “acquire additional mining machines, build new data centers,” and expand its infrastructure overseas. US$50 Million Private Placement! Ready for greater expansion! — BIT Mining Limited (@BITMining_BTCM) July 13, 2021 Bit Mining is owned by …

Cryptocurrency staking protocol ClayStack has secured $5.2 million in seed funding from several prominent blockchain investor funds, putting it on course to introduce new innovations in staking later this year. The seed round was co-led by CoinFund and ParaFi Capital, with around a dozen other venture funds also participating, ClayStack announced Tuesday. Most notably, Coinbase Ventures, Solana Foundation, Hashed and Spartan Group were among the investors. On an individual level, some of the seed investors who participated in the round include Meltem Demirores of CoinShares, Aave founder Stani Kulechov, Solana co-founder Raj Gokal and Sandeep Naiwal, the co-founder of Polygon. …