DFNS raises $13.5M. Coinpanion raises $5.5M. Zenith Chain raises $35M. Circle raises $400M.
Have a look at the first draft of the agenda and the new speakers confirmed at European Blockchain Convention 2022.
Prices go up on Sunday, so register now and secure your front-row seat.
Recap of the Week
Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter for $43 billion
Former Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith, sentenced to 5 years in prison for conspiring to help North Koreans evade U.S. sanctions via crypto
Ethereum developers implemented the network’s first-ever “shadow fork”
Mastercard files 15 crypto, NFT and metaverse trademarks
LEGO and Epic Games to launch kids metaverse experience
Pantera raises $1.5B for blockchain fund
FIS (the publicly-traded $62bn fintech) partners with Fireblocks to enable DeFi for capital markets clients
Coca-Cola unveils a new Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Byte that tastes like pixels
Meta wants 50% commission of each NFT sale
Argentinian town to invest in crypto mining to fight inflation
Brazilian Senate announces incoming approval of the ‘Bitcoin law’
Latest Funding Rounds in Crypto
DFNS raises $13.5M in Seed Round · Founded in 2020 · France
DFNS is a cloud-native developer tool that gives banks, investors and companies the freedom to enter crypto markets on a battle-designed security infrastructure.
The Techstars-backed startup will use the funds to expand its offering, beef up the R&D cryptography programmes, and stock up on staff.
DFNS secures digital assets by sharding crypto wallet passwords, known as private keys, and distributing the pieces across a peer-to-peer network.
Round led by White Star Capital.
Coinpanion raises $5.5M in Seed round · Founded in 2019 · Austria
Coinpanion enables people to invest in crypto automatically and securely without any previous knowledge.
Users can choose from different smart portfolios, which revolve around NFTs, the Metaverse & cryptocurrencies.
Round led by Wicklow Capital, Blockchain.com, Ledger & many others.
Zenith Chain raises an $35M in Seed Round · Founded in 2021 · Lithuania
Zenith Chain allows crypto-market participants to trade directly with one another. It uses a decentralized peer-to-peer exchange network.
The funds will be used to help the company further improve on its existing products and create an affordable blockchain solution that offers speed and security while maintaining a near-zero fee for transactions.
Round led by The Global Emerging Markets Group (GEM).
Circle raises $400M in Private Equity round · Founded in 2013 · US
Circle is the issuer of USD Coin (USDC), one of the fastest growing dollar stablecoins powering always-on internet-native commerce and payments.
USDC market cap is $51bn.
With this investment, BlackRock ($10tn of assets under management) plans to explore capital markets applications for USDC.
Round led by BlackRock, Fidelity, Marshall Wace LLP and Fin Capital.
Ethereum Push Notification Service raises $10M in Series A
EPNS is a communication protocol hoping to solve the lack of cross-blockchain communication.
The EPNS protocol enables on-chain communications with the ability to opt-in for permissionless channel notifications and subscriptions.
Since January, the protocol has powered 4 million notifications sent to more than 44,000 subscribers.
The round values the company at a $131M valuation.
Jump Crypto led the round with participation from Tiger Global, ParaFi, Sino Global Capital and Polygon Studios
Acquisitions
Bolt acquires Wyre
Acquisition of $1.5B
Bolt is developing a checkout experience platform that helps retailers convert and retain more of their shoppers.
Wyre is a crypto and payment infrastructure company that develops a variety of payment APIs.
Bolt expects to integrate its checkout system with cryptocurrencies by the end of 2022, allowing consumers to buy physical goods with crypto.
Meme of the Week
It’s never too late to remember when Elon was just a regular twitter user.