When you're no longer at the helm of a publicly-traded company, you have more leeway to express controversial views. Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey took to social media this week to express his discontent over venture capital's role in Web 3.0. Some of his Twitter followers agreed with his views, others disagreed and some even blocked him entirely. Below is the concise version of the latest “Crypto Biz” newsletter, which is sent to your inbox every Thursday. For a comprehensive breakdown of business developments over the last week, register for the full newsletter below. "You don't own Web 3.0," says …

Arcade, a platform that allows users to utilize nonfungible tokens as loan collateral, has raised $15 million in a Series A funding round with participation from Pantera Capital. In a Wednesday announcement, Arcade said Pantera, Castle Island Ventures, Franklin Templeton Blockchain Fund, Golden Tree Asset Management, Eniac Ventures, Protofund, Probably Nothing Capital, and Lemniscap in addition to angel investors BlockFi CEO Zac Prince and Quantstamp CEO Richard Ma were behind the investment in an effort to connect NFT-collateralized lending with the decentralized finance space. The platform is also coming out of a private release with $3.3 million in total loan …

Binance Labs, the venture capital and incubation arm of Binance cryptocurrency exchange, has led a financing round for the cross-chain protocol Multichain, previously known as Anyswap. Shortly after rebranding from Anyswap last week, Multichain has raised $60 million in a seed funding round led by Binance Labs, the firm officially announced on Dec. 21. Other participants in the raise included major VC firms and industry investors like Sequoia China, IDG Capital, Three Arrows Capital, Primitive Ventures, DeFiance Capital, Circle Ventures, Hypersphere Ventures, HashKey and Magic Ventures. Apart from providing capital investment for Multichain, Binance is also building a stronger relationship …

While the Fed’s decision to reduce market liquidity could impact crypto investors in the short term, Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and DeFi are carving out their own narratives heading into 2022. Those narratives could supersede the latest episode of central-bank tightening. Below is the concise version of the latest “Crypto Biz” newsletter. For a comprehensive breakdown of business developments over the last week, register for the full newsletter below. Block’s Cash App will allow users to gift BTC for the holidays If you’re concerned about inflation and central bank policy, the best gift you can give this holiday season is …

Institutional interest in cryptocurrencies is increasing as the space continues to mature. A survey released on Dec. 8 by European investment manager Nickel Digital Asset Management found that 85% of institutional investors and wealth managers have dedicated teams to review cryptocurrencies and digital assets. The study noted that the investors surveyed manage around $108.4 billion in assets. The London-based firm also released a report in September of this year showing that 62% of global institutional investors with zero exposure to cryptocurrencies expect to make their first crypto investments within the next year. It’s also notable that Wall Street veterans are …

Bitcoin’s (BTC) return to sub-$50,000 levels has many market participants fretting over the legitimacy of their favorite price models. For venture capitalists and other smart money investors, the latest decline is nothing but noise. Instead, they see the emergence of an entirely new economy that is transforming business, redefining monetary value and pushing the internet to a new frontier. This week’s Crypto Biz newsletter highlights four major funding deals from the world of blockchain. Below is a concise version of the Thursday edition of our newsletter. 10T Holdings plans $500M crypto fund Earlier this week, equity fund 10T Holdings filed …

Hong Kong venture capital firm Chiron Partners has launched a new ecosystem fund dedicated to Terra (LUNA), opening the door to new innovations for the layer-one decentralized finance, or DeFi, protocol. The Chiron Terra Fund I, also referred to as CTI, will deploy $50 million in capital to support innovative projects building on top of the Terra ecosystem. Projects at the intersection of decentralized finance and “metaverse-linked” nonfungible token platforms are eligible for support, the company announced Wednesday. Built using Cosmos SDK and Tendermint, Terra is a DeFi protocol that uses fiat-pegged stablecoins to power global payment systems. The native …

Mysten Labs, the research and development firm founded by former engineers from social media giant Facebook, has announced the completion of a $36 million funding round towards its goal developing a Web 3.0 infrastructure platform. In a Monday announcement on Medium, the team behind Mysten Labs said the firm had raised $36 million in a Series A funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Redpoint, Lightspeed, Coinbase Ventures, Electric Capital, Standard Crypto, NFX, Slow Ventures, Scribble Ventures, Samsung NEXT, and others. According to a CNBC report, CEO Evan Cheng said Mysten would use the funds to build the …

Crypto converted another Wall Street veteran this week after former Citi executive Matt Zhang launched a $1.5 billion digital asset fund. A new funding mechanism allowing users to access early-stage crypto startups shined the spotlight on Cardano’s massive community. One of Latin America’s biggest crypto exchanges raised $50 million in private funding to expand its operations. 1inch Network raised another $175 million from some of crypto’s biggest venture funds to expand DeFi liquidity. These were just some of the week’s biggest headlines from the world of crypto. Every Thursday, Cointelegraph’s Crypto Biz newsletter gives readers a pulse of the business …

Digital asset investment firm Maven 11 Capital has announced a $120 million funding round for its private investment establishment, Venture Fund II, in a move that will further expand its financial footprint across emerging sectors of decentralized finance (DeFi) and Web 3.0. The funding round builds off a successful inaugural raise of $40 million in June of this year. Established in May 2017, Maven 11 Capital has invested in 27 companies exclusively within the DeFi and Web 3.0 space. The firm was the lead investor in private seed rounds for data oracle service RedStone and metaverse stack firm Odyssey in …

Decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch Network has concluded a sizable Series B investment round, raising $175 million as part of a broader effort to expand protocol utility and increase access to liquidity within the decentralized finance, or DeFi, market. The investment round vastly exceeded the initial target of $70 million amid active participation from leading venture funds, 1inch Network disclosed Wednesday. Crypto-finance unicorn Amber Group led the funding round, which comprised roughly 50 investors. VanEck, Jane Street, Fenbushi Capital, Alameda Research, Celsius, Nexo, Tribe Capital and Gemini Frontier Fund were among the investors. 1inch Network will use the funds to increase …

Global blockchain security firm CertiK has concluded an $80 million investment round backed by some of crypto’s biggest venture funds, putting the company on track to reach the lofty $1 billion valuation mark in the foreseeable future. The Series B2 investment round was led by Sequoia, a California-based venture fund, with additional participation from Tiger Global, Coatue Management and GL Ventures, CertiK announced Wednesday. In the startup world, Series B or B2 financing refers to the second round of funding for a business through either private equity or venture capital. CertiK has now raised over $140 million over the past …