Chainlink Labs recently announced a program that provides a blueprint to help new crypto projects in their blockchain business building journey. According to the company, the program called Startup with Chainlink will help early-stage founders and entrepreneurs with free information resources, community groups and access to mentors from a pool of business and technical experts. David Post, a Chainlink Labs executive who contributed to creating the program mentioned that the it will let startups access scaling information, operations best practices, webinars, events and community groups. However, top projects will be able to access more benefits such as mentors and venture …

The startup ecosystem has historically played a vital role in shaping the crypto community into an almost $2 trillion industry. However, numerous players bank on this notion to consistently overpromise and underdeliver the big WAGMI dream. Back in December 2021, Redditor busterrulezzz thought they landed their dream job after being hired by a crypto startup — only to realize that they were now a part of the problem and resigned from the position two months later. As narrated by busterrulezzz: “First of all, the level of disorganization and chaos was absolute madness. Each morning we had a different objective, based …

Alex Kriete, Co-Head of Digital Assets at Citi, announced his resignation from the banking giant after 11 years at the firm on March 10 via LinkedIn. He stated in his post that he intends to devote himself full-time to developing a new cryptocurrency company but provided no additional details at the time. Kriete co-led the Digital Assets Group with Greg Girasole for less than a year since the unit launched in June, 2021. Girasole also announced his departure via LinkedIn and, together him and Kriete plan to start their own blockchain-related venture. The two said they will share more details …

Web2 lets big tech companies collect consumer data without paying the people behind the statistics. However, the advent of Web3 technologies may change the way data is collected and let consumers get compensation for the information they share, according to the founders of Chain Collective, a Web3 startup that enables consumers to monetize their data using blockchain. Skills acquired from working in business intelligence and machine learning coupled with a passion for Web3 technologies led Jenny Walker and Greta Menzies to create a data marketplace. With blockchain technology, the all-female team aims to help consumers monetize their data and inspire …

Last year was impressive for blockchain startups, as research from CB Insights found that venture capital funding reached new heights during every quarter of 2021. According to CB Insights’ “State Of Blockchain 2021” report, $25.2 billion worth of venture capital funding went to global blockchain startups last year, demonstrating a 713% increase from $3.1 billion in 2020. The report also found that the United States led the greatest amount of funding deals in Q4 of last year, generating $6.26 billion for 157 deals. The document notes that global growth was driven by increasing consumer and institutional demand for crypto-related products …

Virtual world project The Sandbox announced its metaverse accelerator program that will push the development of the open metaverse by investing $50 million in startups. The Animoca Brands subsidiary is partnering with the venture accelerator firm Brinc to target 30 to 40 blockchain startups a year for the program. The Sandbox Metaverse Accelerator Program will allocate up to $250,000 in investment to each potential project and will give additional incentives to top-performing projects. The bonuses include The Sandbox (SAND) digital asset and LAND, digital real estate within The Sandbox’s metaverse. Apart from this, the best-performing startups will also have access …

Cathie Wood's Ark Invest has reportedly purchased 6.93 million shares of the special purchase acquisition company, or SPAC, that is merging with Circle, for $70.6 million through the company’s ARK Fintech Innovation exchange-traded fund (ETF). This purchase would represent a new position for the ETF, according to MarketWatch. Ark Invest's ETFs have a history of bold purchases within the tech industry as indicated by their move to buy $80 million in Robinhood shares after the prices dipped back in October 2021. Wood is also bullish on crypto despite passing on buying the first Bitcoin futures ETF that same month. Circle …

The advent of the internet led to a paradigm shift that has transformed nearly every aspect of society since then. This was compounded by the growing interconnectivity of an ever-increasing amount of WiFi-enabled devices known as the Internet of Things (IoT) that fostered the development of Web 2.0. Innovations enabled by blockchain technology, such as decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible tokens (NFTs), are now being referred to as the basis for Web 3.0. Whereas Web 2.0 integrated the internet into our daily lives and greater culture and society, Web 3.0 portends a decentralized digital version of the world online, which …

Crypto startup Palm NFT Studio announced a Series B raise of $27 million on Thursday led by Microsoft’s venture fund M12. Palm NFT, cofounded by ConsenSys founder and Ethereum cofounder Joseph Lubin, provides strategic and technical services for creators to build NFT marketplaces. Other major backers include Griffin Gaming Partners, RRE, Third Kind Venture Capital, Sfermion, the LAO, Warner Bros., and SK Inc. According to the statement issued on their company blog, the raise will enable the team to scale the Palm NFT Studio’s technology platform and offer it to third parties looking to deploy NFT projects across movies, games, …

Israel-based StarkWare announced on Nov 16 via Twitter that it had raised $50 million in a Series C funding round, and that the firm’s valuation is now at $2 billion. Sequoia Capital was the lead investor, among other contributors. Seven months ago, StarkWare raised $75 million in a Series B funding led by Paradigm. We are excited to announce our Series C of $50M at $2B. A big thanks to our lead investor, @sequoia, our wonderful follow-on investors, and the dozens of ecosystem partners and collaborators who participated in this round, for their vote of confidence in our products and …

THORChain hasn’t had an easy year. After three exploits in the space of a month during the summer the protocol’s native token (RUNE) took a beating, plummeting from all-time highs over $20.00 in May to a low of around $3.50 in late July. Billed as a way to exchange crypto assets across different blockchains without an intermediary, the protocol disabled swaps completely as it looked to harden the network against exploits. With the relaunch of Ethereum swaps in late October, however, THORChain’s recovery was virtually complete — and the price of RUNE was within striking distance of the $20.00 mark …

MoonPay, a fintech startup dedicated to building crypto payments infrastructure, is reportedly expected to reach a valuation of $3.4 billion after conducting its first round of venture capital funding. The VC funding for the crypto payments startup is being co-led by Tiger Global Management and Coatue Management and will inject funds worth $400 million into the bootstrapped company. The MoonPay platform allows the purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies and digital assets using mainstream payment methods such as debit and credit card and local bank transfers. While the funding information is not officially announced, a report from The Information suggests that …