Venture capital investment in cryptocurrency and blockchain startups will likely set a new all-time high in 2019, Reuters reported on April 17, quoting figures from market data provider PitchBook. Following on from the $2.4 billion in funding the industry received from backers last year, the $850 million raised this year already looks set to beat all previous records. At the same time, while continuing to avoid direct involvement with cryptocurrency handling, investors appear to be contributing larger sums per deal. 2018’s total came from 117 investments, whereas this year’s tally stems from just 13, Reuters reports. While Reuters did not …

Ripple’s developer ecosystem project Xpring and Bain Capital Ventures have invested in early-stage blockchain venture capital (VC) firm Robot Ventures, head of the fund Robert Leshner wrote in a blog post on April 10. Leshner, who also founded Ethereum-based financial open-source protocol Compound, has already completed two investments within its new venture capital initiative. Targeting fintech and product strategy disruptors, Robot Ventures invested in crypto mining firm Coinmine and Point, a startup developing new debit card solutions. As Leshner told Cointelegraph, both investments were completed in Q1 2019. Leshner declined to reveal any additional information regarding the financial details of …

Facebook is reportedly seeking support from various venture capital (VC) firms to develop its supposed digital token, New York Times (NYT) tech reporter Nathaniel Popper tweeted on April 8. Citing sources familiar with the matter, Popper states that Facebook is seeking a $1 billion sum to develop its cryptocurrency project. He states that seeking outside investment could keep the project more in line with the crypto community’s decentralized ethos: “Given that one of the big allures of blockchain projects is the decentralization, getting outside investors could help Facebook present the project as more decentralized and less controlled by Facebook.” Popper …

Cryptocurrency hedge fund Pantera Capital is close to completing funding for its third venture fund, already raising $160 million, the company announced in a blog post оn March 27. Pantera, which debuted its first fund in 2013, has since risen to become a conspicuous player in the crypto startup industry. Its latest project, dubbed Venture Fund III, has a fundraising target of $175 million. “We project making a total of 35 investments, with an average deal size of $3.5 million, and an 11% target average equity stake,” the blog post revealed. Activity among entities building out the cryptocurrency-related ecosystem has …

New blockchain startup Bison Trails has received an investment of $5.25 million in a seed round backed by Mike Novogratz’s crypto merchant bank Galaxy Digital. The firm announced the fundraising in a Medium post on March 15. Led by two early stage venture capital firms Initialized Capital and Accomplice, the series seed round was also backed by both Galaxy Digital and blockchain-focused asset management firm Distributed Global. Other investors included Notation Capital, Homebrew and Charge Ventures. Bison Trails’ blockchain infrastructure is designed to offer a way to launch secure, available and geographically distributed nodes on a participatory blockchain network, the …

A blockchain-based home equity loan platform, Figure, has raised $65 million from various major financial and venture capital firms, tech news site TechCrunch reports on Feb. 27. The firm, which was founded by SoFi founder and former CEO Mike Cagney, reportedly raised the funds from such majors as Morgan Creek, DCM, Ribbit Capital, Nimble Ventures and partners from DST Global. The recent investment bumps the total funds raised by the firm up to $120 million, according to TechCrunch. Cagney’s new firm, which reportedly has issued over 1,500 equity lines, is purportedly targeting older clients who are “cash light and rich …

Amid the 2018 market slump, the launch of new crypto venture funds for the first time exceeded that of new hedge funds in the space, according to a Bloomberg report on Jan. 30. Bloomberg cites data from Crypto Fund Research that indicates that 125 new crypto venture funds — which typically provide capital in exchange for an equity stake — launched in 2018, as compared with 115 new investment-oriented crypto hedge funds. In 2017, by contrast, new hedge funds outnumbered venture funds by 47: 136 hedge funds as compared with 85 venture funds. In 2016, 36 hedge funds were launched …

Decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator Totle has closed a fresh funding round led by major blockchain investors, according to a blog post from the firm Jan. 14. Arrington XRP, a crypto-focused hedge fund created by TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, alongside top blockchain investment funds NEO Global Capital (NGC) and Goren Holm Ventures, have reportedly jointly led the $1 million round. Headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, Totle focuses on building infrastructure to support the decentralized application (DApp) and DEX ecosystem — notably through the recent launch of its API. As the post outlines: “[The API aims to] relieve the need to integrate with …

Digital assets platform Bakkt — created by the operator of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) — has announced the completion of its first funding round in a blog post today, Dec. 31. The institutional investor-focused cryptocurrency platform from the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has officially raised $182.5 million from 12 partners and investors, according to the post. The partners and investors reportedly include major names in both traditional finance and crypto-oriented investing, including ICE, Boston Consulting Group, Galaxy Digital, Goldfinch Partners, Alan Howard, Horizons Ventures, Microsoft’s venture capital arm and Pantera Capital. Bakkt also noted in the announcement that the …

A Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article published today, Dec. 28, suggests that Bitcoin (BTC)’s correlation with traditional assets markets has been high in recent days. Citing data from research firm Excalibur Pro Inc., the WSJ states that the top cryptocurrency has traded at a 0.84 correlation to gold over the past five days, where -1 indicates complete inversion and +1 perfect correlation. Moreover, Bitcoin has traded at a 0.77 correlation to the Chicago Board of Options Exchange’s Volatility index (VIX), a benchmark index for the United States equity market volatility. While the WSJ frames the strong correlation between traditional markets …

Major United States-based stablecoin project Basis will shut down operations and return most of its funds to investors, crypto news outlet The Block reports today, Dec. 12. Citing “multiple people with direct knowledge of the situation,” the reports states that the algorithmic stablecoin project is set to return the majority of the $133 million in funding it raised in a private placement in April. Basis’ investors include major names in venture capital, among them Bain Capital Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. The Block reports that the firm plans to communicate directly on the reported shutdown later Wednesday evening, again citing a …

For every Da Vinci funded by the Borgias and Edison patronized by Ford, there are tens, if not hundreds of inventors and genius scientists, whose innovations have never been noticed. In many cases, it was the inability to attract investors that buried promising technologies. A startup called ScientificCoin, based in California, aims to have a solution for this centuries-old problem. Nerds to the rescue The company has developed an algorithm for a bias-free, decentralized evaluation of projects so that investors can fund venture projects in science and other areas including initial coin offerings (ICOs) with more confidence. Vladimir Kozhevnikov, the …