Crypto.com's capital arm is expanding the size of its investment fund from the $200 million unveiled in March 2021 to $500 million now. Jon Russell, the Singapore-based exchange giant's newly hired General Partner based in Bangkok, said Tuesday the fund will do seed and Series A deals, typically up to a $10 million check for the Series A.
He noted the fund will be focused on growing the overall crypto ecosystem, not just about making investments where Crypto.com thinks it can attract business. He added that firms the fund invests in will not necessarily get their tokens listed on the Crypto.com exchange. The fund will focus on investing in decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens, and gaming, and it will typically aim to lead funding rounds.
Crypto.com's maiden fund so far has invested in play-to-earn guild YGG SEA, Ledger, and Frax Finance. Although the fund is based in Southeast Asia, it will have a global investment scope.
Here is the rest of the week in review:
Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) and Mastercard (NYSE: MA) announced Tuesday they reached a partnership. As part of the deal, Coinbase customers will be able to use Mastercard credit and debit cards to make purchases on the exchange's upcoming non-fungible tokens marketplace. Last year Coinbase unveiled its plan to launch a platform for minting and buying NFTs, which have surged in popularity over the past 12 months. Mastercard's Raj Dhamodharan said: "Getting more people involved safely and securely is perhaps the best way to help the NFT market thrive. As it does, Mastercard sees even greater potential for NFTs' underlying tech to go beyond art and collectibles into many more areas." Mastercard wants to expand consumer choice on how to pay for NFTs, and Coinbase executives said the team up with Mastercard will help reduce friction in the NFT purchase process. Mizuho (NYSE: MFG) analyst Dan Dolev praised the partnership as another example of Mastercard's "out-of-the-box thinking" in its approach to the crypto asset space.
Animoca Brands announced Tuesday it has raised about $360 million in a funding round that brings its total raised to $604 million and increases its new valuation from $2.2 billion in October to over $5 billion. Liberty City Ventures led the latest round, with participation from Gemini Frontier Fund, Sequoia China, Soros Fund Management, Winklevoss Capital, and several other backers. The Hong Kong-based crypto investment firm said it sold over 111.1 million new shares at a price of $3.24 apiece, noting: "Secondary placement of shares is occurring because there was high demand that could not be fulfilled in the primary placement." Anicoma owns a "broad portfolio of game products, both centralized and decentralized, branded and original, with coverage across most primary platforms including mobile devices, game consoles, PC, web, and blockchain." The firm holds stakes in several other blockchain-related startups such as Dapper Labs, Sky Mavis, and OpenSea, with holdings worth about $16 billion. It recently invested in Indian gaming startup nCore Games, Kansas-based NFT data aggregator CryptoSlam, and New York-based NFT auction developer Burnt Finance.
Crypto prices fell to $1.61 trillion this week amid a major selloff in riskier assets. For the majors, all ended in the red. In the top 100, the biggest decliners were GALA, down 44%, NEAR Protocol, down 44%, and Harmony (ONE), down 43%. The biggest gainers were stablecoins Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), and Binance USD (BUSD). Next week traders will watch if Bitcoin (BTC) can recover toward the $40,000 level.
The author owns a small amount of BTC.