Katie Haun, crypto investor and board member for Coinbase and OpenSea announced that she had raised $1.5 billion for her new fund, Haun Ventures. On Tuesday, March 22, Haun posted an article on Twitter, briefly introducing the firm and sharing that the funds would be used to invest in Web3 projects. Introducing @HaunVentures, a firm built for the next generation of the internet. We’ve raised $1.5 billion across two funds to invest in web3. An exciting first step, but the real work begins now. https://t.co/tBeE4OEJkD — Kathryn Haun (@katie_haun) March 22, 2022 The firm will invest through two funds, a …

Digital asset analytics provider The TIE has closed a strategic investment round backed by some of blockchain’s most prominent investors, underscoring heightened demand for crypto data and software services. The TIE raised $9 million in Series A funding at a valuation of $100 million, making it one of the largest crypto analytics services in the market. The funding round was led by Blizzard, an Avalanche-focused investment fund, with additional participation from executives at Golden Tree Asset Management, Nexo, Gemini, Frontier Fund, Republic Capital, Hudson River Trading and New York Digital Investment Group, better known as NYDIG. The TIE said the …

The cryptocurrency market has failed to make significant headway in recent months, but that hasn’t stopped the industry’s builders from building. Nonfungible tokens (NFTs), crypto mortgages, blockchain-powered cellular networks and Web3 gaming have all piqued the interest of venture capitalists. These new and familiar investment themes headline the latest edition of VC Roundup, as venture funds continue to target blockchain’s most promising value plays. a16z execs back new NFT fund Andreessen Horowitz’s foray into the blockchain industry continued this month after a large segment of its investing team backed a new nonfungible token fund called Curated. The fund, which is …

Analyzing the labor market is a passion of mine. In my past life, I worked as a labor market analyst for a Canadian think tank specializing in the IT sector. Tech employees always enjoyed higher demand, higher pay and lower jobless rates than workers in the rest of the economy. Although blockchain and crypto were virtually nonexistent during my tenure, these emerging technologies are now leading exponential growth for an industry evolving from Web2 to Web3. This week’s Crypto Biz newsletter highlights the growing demand for crypto professionals in the traditional finance and payment industries. We also survey the latest …

Crypto-focused financial modeling platform Gauntlet has achieved unicorn status after raising $23.8 million in Series B funding from some of blockchain’s biggest venture funds. The investment round was led by Ribbit Capital, a Palo Alto-based venture firm, with participation from existing investors Paradigm and Polychain Capital, Bloomberg reported Monday. Gauntlet said the funding will be used to hire additional workers and expand into new industry verticals, including gaming. Gauntlet was founded in 2018 by Tarun Chitra, a Wall Street executive who previously worked at multinational hedge fund D. E. Shaw. Gauntlet provides financial modeling and simulation tools to the cryptocurrency …

Wall Street’s embrace of digital assets is showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, they don’t even need to tell us about it as the proof is in the fine print. This week, a United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing revealed that multinational investment bank Goldman Sachs has been quietly offering clients exposure to Ether (ETH) through Galaxy Digital, a crypto-focused financial services provider headed by billionaire Mike Novogratz. Of course, this isn’t the first time Goldman has worked with Galaxy Digital to offer clients a gateway to digital assets. In June 2021, the investment giant began …

Singapore-based decentralized finance (DeFi) services firm Cake DeFi announced the launch of a $100 million venture arm dedicated to serving as accelerators for Web3, gaming, nonfungible tokens (NFT) and other crypto initiatives. The newly launched $100 million venture arm, Cake DeFi Ventures (CDV), will fund crypto startups that complement the company’s core business. According to Cake DeFi, the venture firm “will be focused on investing in tech startups across Web3, the metaverse, the NFT space, gaming, esports and fintech spaces.” Cake DeFi’s primary suite of services includes liquidity mining, staking and lending of cryptocurrencies — aimed at generating high returns …

Crypto’s reputation as a boys’ club does not come as a surprise: It sits at the very intersection of tech and finance, perpetuating the legacy of “bro culture” that is coded into Silicon Valley and Wall Street. It was only in 2020 when Citigroup bank appointed the company’s first female CEO, Jane Fraser. This was a milestone in its 200-year long history and in the history of Wall Street itself, having the first woman lead one of the largest Wall Street banks. Meanwhile, cases of sexual harassment run rampant across pioneering tech firms, as seen in the case of Riot …

Bain Capital Ventures, one of the world's largest startup-investment firms with $5.1 billion in assets under management, has announced the formation of a new $560 million fund that will focus on crypto-related investments. According to a March 8 Bloomberg report, the fund closed in November and it has already invested $100 million in 12 undisclosed projects. Bain Capital Ventures has a history of investing in the crypto and blockchain sector, having previously backed companies such as BlockFi, Compound, and Digital Currency Group. The most recent fund BCV Fund I is the first of its kind from Bain Capital Ventures, focusing …

Despite extreme volatility in the price of crypto assets, venture funds continue to make strategic investments in the industry. In recent weeks, the focus has shifted to infrastructure developers in Web3, play-to-earn and GameFi — nascent industries that still have significant upside ahead. Cointelegraph’s latest VC Roundup provides a rundown of funding stories that didn’t get front-page coverage but still generated significant interest from the venture capital realm. Related: VC Roundup: Animoca leads NFT3 raise, Arca launches NFT fund and Alexis Ohanian broadens crypto exposure Pantera leads $32.9M Subspace Labs funding round Web3 infrastructure developer Subspace Labs concluded a $32.9 …

Peter Thiel-backed city-building startup Praxis has raised $15 million in Series A funding from a variety of crypto venture firms led by Paradigm Capital, Sam Bankman-Fried's Alameda Research, and Three Arrows Capital. Dryden Brown of New York University, and Charlie Callinan of Boston College, co-founded Praxis, formerly Bluebook Cities in 2019, describing their goal as: “building the city-cryptostate to realize a more vital future,” according to the company website. Praxis wants to pivot away from “artificially scarce metaverses” to build a city-state that is organized around “shared values,” rather than the “labor market principles of the Industrial Age”. The cryptocurrency-run …

Blockchain data indexing protocol The Graph has launched a $205 million ecosystem fund to lure new developers to its platform, offering further evidence that venture capital firms were still keen to support growth funds centered around decentralized applications. The ecosystem fund was financed by Digital Currency Group, Multicoin Capital, Reciprocal Ventures, Gumi Cryptos Capital, NCG and HashKey. The fund’s stated purpose is to accelerate the growth and development of key projects in The Graph’s ecosystem. HashKey Capital managing director Deng Chao said the company will provide resources and guidance to decentralized application developers and projects looking to gain access to …