Crypto investors are dealing with the grim realities of plummeting prices as they count their losses in the wake of the carnage that rocked the industry. Despite the bearish sentiments, crypto firms are still raising millions of dollars in a bid to expand their operations to new frontiers.
Dogged founders of crypto firms are clinking glasses in celebration of recently completed funding rounds that increased their valuations in the middle of a harsh crypto winter. Leading digital assets platform FalconX is the latest firm to close a deal after it raised $150 million, raising the firm’s valuation to $8 billion.
The funding round was led by GIC and B Capital with a large chunk of the funds going into the company coffers while the rest will be used to settle a previously sold stake in the firm. Despite the gloom in the markets, FalconX is bucking the trend to bolster its staff strength by 30% with a little over 50 staff expected to be hired.
Raghu Yarlagadda, the firm’s CEO, remains optimistic in spite of the chaos in the market and sees “very strong opportunities for acquisitions”. He still warns players in the space to brace for increased volatility as the market finds its footing.
A fairy tale for Magic Eden
Magic Eden, an NFT marketplace on Solana recently closed a $130 million Series B funding to give the start-up a valuation of $1.6 billion. The road to attaining unicorn status was not a walk in the park for the firm, but in under 9 months, it had grown tenfold.
“As a bear market veteran, I can tell you that there is no time like now to build,” says Sidney Zhang, co-founder, and CTO at Magic Eden. Zhang took to Twitter to reel the ups and downs in achieving the milestone from the failure of his first crypto start-up to
He stated that the secret to the firm’s remarkable growth was that it paid attention to community feedback and shipped feature enhancements “at a crazy speed.” The firm is also bucking the trend by opening its doors to new staff with roles open in Corporate Operations, Marketing, and Security.
Other firms with raises in the bear market include Afropolitan raising $2.1 million to introduce Web 3 to the African diaspora, while Prime Trust raised an impressive $107 million in a Series B funding round to expand its crypto suite.
Binance and A16z are leading the charge
At the start of the month, Binance Labs announced that it had raised $500 million to invest in Web 3 start-ups. Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao, stated he is looking beyond the recent sentiments in the market to find founders building the next big thing in tech.
On the other hand, A16z launched a $600 million fund with a keen focus on gaming and a $4.5 billion fund for crypto start-ups. The venture capital firm believes that “games infrastructure and technologies will be key building blocks of the Metaverse.”
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