Key Takeaways

• Crypto exchange deals brings a combined $213 million in new funding this week
• Deal of the Week: Coinbase debut bonds are oversubscribed, offering increased to $2 billion
• Jump Capital and Skybridge Capital bring in over $600 million for new crypto funds

Venture Capital Deals

Idexo is an NFT-centric product that is focused on building no-code digital collectibles management systems. Idexo has raised $2.5 million to bring NFTs and gaming API to cross-chain.

Outlier Ventures, Floem Capital, InSquare Ventures, BlackDragon, Heat Capital, Panony, Aspectures Ventures, DAO Capital, CSP DAO, Defiants, C2G Ventures, Crypto Avengers, Moonwhale Ventures and Titan Ventures took part in the aforementioned funding of the idexo product. (Idexo Secures $2.5 million in Funding to Build Cross-Chain NFT and Gaming API).

Avalanche is a smart contract-enabled cryptocurrency, has received a $230 million investment from a group of VC companies. The funding round, which is being described as a private sale, was led by Polychain and Three Arrows Capital, with the participation of other companies. This investment will give these companies participation in on-chain Avalanche governance and exposure to the price via token ownership. (Avalanche Pulls Down $230 Million Investment Led By Polychain and Three Arrows Capital).

Audius is a blockchain-based music streaming platform with over six million monthly users, raised $5 million from artists such as Katy Perry, The Chainsmokers, Nas, Jason Derulo, Pusha T, Mark Gillespie, as well as industry leaders like former Sony Music CEO Martin Bandier, CEO of the investment firm K5 Global Michael Kives, and CEO of the performance rights organization SESAC John Josephson. (Blockchain-based music platform Audius raises $5 million from music industry giants).

FalconX, a digital assets and cryptocurrency financial services company that provides institutions trading, credit, and clearing across major cryptocurrencies, announced a $210M Series C financing round, valuing the company at $3.75 billion. The round was led by Altimeter Capital, Sapphire Ventures and existing investors B Capital Group and Tiger Global Management, with participation from Mirae Asset. Amex Ventures also increased its existing investment as part of this round. They join existing investors Accel, Accomplice VC, Coinbase Ventures, CMT Digital, Flybridge Capital Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Avon Ventures, a venture capital fund affiliated with FMR LLC, the parent company of Fidelity Investments (FalconX Raise $210M Following 30x YoY Revenue Growth).

Amberdata delivers comprehensive data and insights into blockchain networks, crypto markets, and decentralized finance. This week it announced it has raised $15 Million Series A led by Citi. Franklin Templeton, Galaxy Digital, Rovida Kruptos Assets, and executives at GoldenTree Asset Management also participated in the capital raise. They are joined by HWVP who previously led Amberdata’s Series Seed. (Amberdata Raises $15M Series A Led by Citi).

Domination Finance, a non-custodial, decentralized exchange for dominance pairs, reveals that it has finalized a $3.2 million seed round. Led by ParaFi Capital, an alternative investment company specializing in blockchain or DLT and decentralized finance (DeFi) markets, the investment round included investors such as Dragonfly Capital, AU21, Shima Capital, LD Capital, Huobi Ventures, OKEx BlockdreamVentures, KNS Group, GSR, CoinGecko and several angel investors. (Domination Finance Finalizes $3.2M Round From ParaFi Capital, DragonFly Capital, Others).

Abra is a leading wealth management platform for cryptocurrency investors, today announced it has raised $55 million in Series C funding. The round was led by IGNIA and Blockchain Capital, with new investors including Kingsway Capital, Tiga Investments and the Stellar Development Foundation. Additional investments from existing investors include Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Amex Ventures, Arbor Ventures, RRE Ventures, CMT Digital Ventures, and Kenetic Advisors. Also participating in the round were several Abra Platinum customers, including some of the most prominent individual crypto investors. The round brings Abra’s total funding to date to over $85 million since inception. (Abra Announces $55 Million in Series C Funding).

Floating Point Group, a Hoboken, N.J.-based, MIT-born provider of a platform that simplifies the backend operations for investors to deploy cryptocurrency-centric strategies at scale, raised $10m in Series A funding. Backers included Tribe Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Anthony Scaramucci, F A S T by Gettlylab, Borderless Capital, CapitalX, Formulate Ventures, and executives from GoldenTree Asset Management, HC Tech, and Pythagorus Investments. (Floating Point Group Raises $10M in Series A Funding).

Investment management firm Skybridge Capital launches two funds in one month. The SkyBridge fund for Algorand was created in partnership with the infrastructure project NAX. Its first funding round is capped at 250 million USD, of which 100 million USD are contributed by SkyBridge. Earlier this month, another DeFi-centric fund was launched under the name Viridis with an initial contribution of 150 million ALGO (~300 million USD) from treasury funds.(Skybridge Contributes $250 Million Towards DeFi on Algorand).

The American venture capital firm – Jump Capital – closed its largest fundraising round to date – $350 million. By doing so, the company intends to invest in cryptocurrency sectors like Web 3.0, DeFi, and blockchain and financial applications. This is Jump Capital’s seventh fundraise and it attracted 167 investors to take part in it. Interestingly, it is almost two times larger than the one before, which equaled $200 million. The venture capital firm has also made 30 investments in the crypto space this year alone. (Jump Capital’s latest $250M fund to be crypto-focused).

Deals of the Week

Leading United States-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has seen enormous demand for its junk-bond offering, with the firm increasing the size of the sale by one-third from $1.5 billion to $2 billion.

According to The Economic Times, at least $7 billion worth of orders were placed in competition for equal quantities of seven- and 10-year bonds, offering interest rates of 3.375% and 3.625%, respectively.

Junk bonds refer to corporate debt issued by a company that does not have an investment-grade credit rating. Due to the reduced credit rating, junk bonds command higher interest rates than investment-grade corporate bonds.

Why is this a Big Deal?

Coinbase is only the second major crypto firm to complete a junk-bond offering, with MicroStrategy issuing $500 million worth of notes to fund further Bitcoin (BTC) accumulation as the markets crashed in June.

Coinbase announced its debt offering on Monday, stating the funds may be used for “continued investments in product developments” and “potential investments in or acquisitions of other companies, products, or technologies” the firm may identify in the future. (Investor demand forces Coinbase to raise debt offering to $2B).