MobileCoin, a crypto-focused digital payment ecosystem, announced Wednesday that it has concluded a $66 million funding round as part of a wider effort to bring more of its products and services to market. The Series B had participation from several leading venture funds from within the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry, including Alameda Research, BlockTower Capital and Coinbase Ventures. Berggruen Holdings, General Catalyst, Vy Capital and TIME Ventures also participated. Several entrepreneurs and investors also contributed to the funding round. MobileCoin said the funding will be used to further develop its core crypto offerings, including MOBot, which is described as the …

Blockchain security firm CertiK has concluded a $24-million-dollar funding round as part of its ongoing efforts to expand its product and security offerings for the decentralized finance, or DeFi, sector. The funding round, which was co-led by Tiger Global and GL Ventures, comes on the heels of the successful launch of Skynet Premium, an active monitoring platform for DeFi applications. Since its inception, Skynet has monitored over 2 million smart contract addresses and over 2 billion on-chain transactions. Related: Blockchain security firm CertiK raises $37M to combat DeFi and crypto risks CertiK claims to have served over 1,300 enterprise clients …

Helium Network, a provider of decentralized wireless infrastructure, has concluded a $111 million token sale led by some of the biggest venture firms in the blockchain industry. The sale, which centered around Helium’s native token, HNT, was scooped up by several venture capital firms, including Andreessen Horowitz. Alameda Research, Multicoin Capital and Ribbit Capital also contributed, according to BNN Bloomberg. General partner at Andreessen Horowitz Ali Yahya told Bloomberg that new cryptocurrency protocols like Helium will “challenge centralized incumbents” and compete with bigger telecommunication service providers. Yahya tweeted Tuesday that his firm will work with Helium to create a "grassroots …

Mumbai-based crypto exchange CoinDCX has raised $90 million in a Series C funding round, becoming the first crypto business in India to reach unicorn status. According to an announcement, the funding round was led by B Capital Group and saw participation from returning investors including Block.one, Coinbase Ventures, Polychain and Jump Capital. Following the investment round, CoinDCX reached a valuation of $1.1 billion, placing the company among crypto giants such as Binance and Ripple. CoinDCX CEO Sumit Gupta said the firm will use the new funds on business initiatives, adding: “We will be joining hands or enter into partnerships with …

Luxembourg-based Blocktrade has become the latest cryptocurrency exchange to receive major backing from venture capitalists, offering further evidence that digital asset startups are becoming a prime target for investment funds. Private investors across 33 countries participated in the $25.8 million, or 22 million euros, Series A round, Blocktrade announced early Tuesday in Europe. The investors were not disclosed. Blocktrade said that the funding will go toward improving internal operations, especially in the areas of security, fiat onramps and market-making. The company also said it would allocate more resources to growing its potential user base, as well as pursue other business …

Pintu, Indonesia’s first mobile native cryptocurrency wallet and trading platform, has raised $35 million from some of blockchain’s biggest venture funds — putting the company on track to expand its team and product offerings in the near future. The Series A was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, a technology-focused investor with broad exposure to blockchain, fintech and data analytics. Several other high-profile venture funds also participated in the raise, including Alameda Ventures, Blockchain.com, Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Castle Island Ventures and Intudo Ventures. With the funds, Pintu plans to hire additional talent, roll out new product offerings and fuel future …

Despite the recent slight recovery of the cryptocurrency market, there is no denying the fact that the crypto industry has been faced with a great deal of volatility over the last few months, made evident by the total market capitalization of the sector that dipped from $2.5 trillion to $1.18 trillion over a 45-day span earlier this year. Through all these ups and downs, however, 2021 has continued to see an increasing amount of capital enter this fast-evolving space. For example, reports indicate that over the first half of the year alone, venture capital (VC) funds poured in $17 billion …

Cryptocurrency market intelligence provider Messari has concluded a $21 million fundraise that was supported by some of the biggest venture firms in blockchain, once again highlighting growing investor appetite for budding crypto startups. The new funding will aid Messari in expanding its product suites as well as hiring and retaining more engineering and research talent. The company also plans to expand its enterprise offerings targeting institutional players. Ryan Selkis, Messari's co-founder and CEO, further explained to Cointelegraph how the funds will be deployed: "We haven’t yet burnt through our seed capital from 2019, and have been highly capital efficient to …

MakersPlace, a nonfungible token (NFT) market dedicated to digital art, has secured $30 million in Series A financing, highlighting once again that venture funds are keen to back promising NFT plays. The funding round will be used by MakersPlace to scale business operations and acquire additional talent as it continues to attract new users and artists to its platform. The investment was co-led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Pantera Capital, with additional participation from Coinbase Ventures, Sony Music Entertainment, Uncork Capital, Dragon Digital Assets and 9Yards Capital. Several notable angel investors also participated in the round, including Acquavella Galleries, Sabrina …

This year has been foundational for the success of projects running on the Ethereum blockchain. Sharing the limelight is Livepeer, an Ethereum-based video streaming network that announced it had raised $20 million in a Series B funding round. Led by Digital Currency Group, the funding for Livepeer saw participation from large venture capitalists, including Coinbase Ventures, CoinFund, Northzone, 6th Man Ventures and Animal Ventures. Based on the announcement, Livepeer’s latest funding will be used to build an in-house protocol to experiment with livestream use cases, such as scene classification, object recognition, song-title detection and video fingerprinting. Previously, Northzone led the …

As cryptocurrency continues to take over mainstream finance, formerly cautious investors across the globe are rethinking their stance of counting crypto as a bad investment. This change of heart has led to a higher market valuation of crypto businesses due to increased funding from goliath investors. Citing this trend, PricewaterhouseCoopers crypto leader Henri Arslanian claimed that larger players from venture capital, private equity and pension funds are outplaying smaller boutique firms and family offices from participating in the latest innovations around crypto. Arslanian sided with smaller VC firms as he shared an example stating that a deal worth $10 million …

2021 has been a rollercoaster year for the crypto industry, with Bitcoin (BTC) scaling up to an all-time high of $65,000 earlier this year in April, only to dip down to the sub $30,000 zone just months later. However, a moment that is widely considered by many to be a tipping point for the industry — at least in terms of mainstream legitimization — was when Coinbase (COIN) made its debut on Nasdaq via a direct listing. Leading up to April 14, the day of the aforementioned listing, COIN’s reference price was set at $250. However, it is worth recalling …