Institutional newsletter: $ 140 million bitcoin fund, NEAR startup sharding and other initiatives

We have collected the most significant and promising investment transactions of recent weeks in one digest.

The coronavirus pandemic negatively affected the dynamics of venture capital investments. However, business activity in the bitcoin industry is still considerable.

According to The Block, currently inat least 112 firms are working to create institutional-oriented digital currency infrastructure. $ 2.1 billion has already been invested in the projects of this niche. The most actively developing areas are those related to exchanges, payment and custodial solutions, as well as landing protocols.

Bitcoin fund launched for $ 140 million

The NYDIG Bitcoin Yield Enhancement Investment Fund, managed by NYDIG Asset Advisory, raised $ 140 million from three accredited investors a week before halving.

NYDIG Bitcoin Yield Enhancement Launched in Forma joint investment fund, which involves the participation of several investors. This has made it possible to simplify fundraising in accordance with Rule 506 (b) of Regulation “D”, which does not require registration with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In 2018, the company received BitLicense in New York.

Startup NEAR raised $ 21.6 million to develop sharding

Startup NEAR, which recently launched the main network of its blockchain, raised $ 21.6 million.

The round of financing was led by Andreessen Horowitz. Among the participants are Libertus, Blockchange, Animal Ventures, Pantera Capital and Electric Capital and other investors.

The startup had previously attracted investments from Multicoin Capital and Coinbase Ventures as part of the Series A funding round.

NEAR develops a public blockchain based onProof of Stake The system uses an innovative consensus mechanism called Nightshade with implementation of sharding, due to which in theory there are no restrictions on network bandwidth.

According to NEAR, after nearly two years of development, their platform is more productive and less expensive than Ethereum.

Andreesen Horowitz raised $ 515 million under the second cryptocurrency fund

Venture firm Andreesen Horowitz raised $ 515 million for a second fund focused on investments in the cryptocurrency industry.

Read more about the company's activity in the bitcoin industry in a special material.

Lolli Bitcoin Cash Platform Raises $ 3 Million

Lolli Cashback Platform Operatorin bitcoins for online purchases, raised $ 3 million in the seed financing round. Peter Thiel’s Pathfinder Founders Fund led the round.

The entrepreneur andMichelle Fan, a popular beauty blogger from YouTube, actor Ashton Kutcher, venture firm Sound Ventures, Craft Ventures, Company Ventures and Ventures Chapter One.

FJ Labs, Version One, Bain Capital Ventures, Digital Currency Group increased their investments in Lolli.

According to the startup, after launching the website and extensions for the Chrome and Firefox browsers in August 2018, the platform returned “hundreds of thousands” of bitcoin cashback to users.

The platform will direct attracted financing to launch a full-fledged mobile application and develop international business.

FalconX Bitcoin Exchange Raises $ 17 Million

FalconX cryptocurrency exchange raised $ 17 million from Coinbase Ventures and Avon Ventures. The latter is associated with FMR LLC, the parent company of Fidelity Investments.

The exchange plans to direct attracted capital to“The introduction of new products, a system for executing transactions and scaling up the infrastructure to support the growing institutional demand for cryptocurrency.”

FalconX announced the achievement of a trade volume of $ 7 billion over the past 10 months with a quarterly increase of 600%.

The exchange has a client base of more than 100 financial institutions, including hedge funds, private trading companies, payment gateways, over-the-counter trading tables and cryptocurrency miners.

Binance invested in Indonesian bitcoin exchange

The popular Binance exchange has invested in Tokocrypto, Indonesia's leading regulated cryptocurrency platform. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed.

Tokocrypto plans to forward the receivedfinancing for the expansion of services and product line, improvement of technologies, expansion within the country, as well as for the implementation of initiatives in the field of blockchain education in the region.

In 2019, Tokocrypto became the first cryptocurrency exchange regulated by the Indonesian Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency (BAPPEBTI).

Abra platform raised $ 5 million

Financial platform and cryptocurrency wallet provider Abra received a $ 5 million investment from the Stellar Development Foundation.

The organization’s statement said that thesethe investments are designed to accelerate the integration of Stellar as a backend solution and expand the financial services capabilities of the Abra platform, which will receive new products based on the Stellar blockchain.

Operating since 2014, the Abra platform is one ofBitcoin industry veterans. Last year, the company added the option of investing with the help of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in traditional financial instruments.