Morning News | Yuga Labs completes $450 million financing; Worldcoin plans to raise funds at a $3 billion valuation

Organizer: Hu Tao, Chain Catcher

"What important news has emerged in the past 12 hours?"

1、Insiders: Cryptocurrency project Worldcoin plans to raise $100 million in token financing, valued at $3 billion

According to two insiders who spoke to The Information, the cryptocurrency project Worldcoin plans to raise $100 million at a token valuation of $3 billion, with participating institutions including a16z and Khosla Ventures. The funds will be used to accelerate the production of spherical devices.

Worldcoin was founded by former YC president and aims to launch a universal, zero-threshold cryptocurrency by using a spherical device to scan irises and create a unique personal identification code, ensuring that the digital currency each person receives is unique. Last June, the project completed a $25 million financing round with participation from a16z and others. (Source link)
2、Web3 digital identity platform Unstoppable Domains is raising funds at a $1 billion valuation
Web3 digital identity platform Unstoppable Domains is raising funds at a $1 billion valuation, aiming for $60 million in this round. Investors include Draper Associates, Coinbase Ventures, Protocol Labs, and Naval Ravikant.
Unstoppable Domains allows people to create their usernames for crypto and establish decentralized digital identities. To date, the platform has over 240,000 users and has helped register over 2.1 million domain names, with plans to launch their TLD in collaboration with enterprises this year. (Source link)

3、BAYC parent company Yuga Labs completes $450 million financing at a $4 billion valuation, led by a16z

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) parent company Yuga Labs announced today the completion of a new round of financing of $450 million at a $4 billion valuation, marking the largest financing in the NFT industry to date. This round was led by a16z, with participation from Adidas Ventures, Animoca Brands, Samsung, Google Ventures, Tiger Global, FTX Ventures, Coinbase, and MoonPay. Additionally, a16z partner Chris Lyons will join the board of Yuga Labs.
Yuga Labs stated that the funds will be used to kickstart gaming and launch its own metaverse project: Otherside. BAYC co-founder Wylie Aronow mentioned that Otherside aims to build a "gamified" and "fully decentralized" "interoperable world," while attracting more NFT projects into its ecosystem. (Source link)

4、Former a16z partner establishes crypto VC firm Haun Ventures, raising $1.5 billion for two funds
Led by former a16z partner Katie Haun, the venture capital firm Haun Ventures has raised $1.5 billion for its two cryptocurrency-focused venture funds, with $500 million allocated for early-stage investments and $1 billion for an "accelerator" fund. Haun Ventures will directly invest in equity and tokens, having already invested in projects like Aptos and Autograph. (The Block)

5、Alameda co-CEO: Purchased all STG from Stargate's public offering, will not sell for 3 years
Alameda co-CEO Sam Trabucco stated on social media that Alameda Research participated in the public offering of the cross-chain bridge project Stargate on March 18 and purchased all shares (100 million STG, accounting for 10% of total supply). Cross-chain asset management opens up a range of potential DeFi use cases, making capital allocation for companies like Alameda more seamless and helping to improve the efficiency of the crypto market. Alameda appreciates the team and what they are doing, believing that the technology they are building is very important.
Additionally, Sam Trabucco mentioned that Alameda will not sell STG for 3 years and will make a long-term investment in the project and team, while not interfering with the project's governance and relinquishing its voting rights on aSTG to ensure a more equitable distribution of voting rights among early community members. (Source link)

6、Web3 infrastructure startup Mysten Labs launches a PoS blockchain called Sui

Web3 infrastructure startup Mysten Labs, founded by four former Meta engineers, announced the launch of its first product, a PoS blockchain network called Sui.

Mysten Labs today launched the public software development kit for Sui and showcased a demo version to developers. The testnet for the blockchain is expected to launch in the coming months, with the mainnet set to launch later this year, along with a native token. Last December, the project raised $36 million with participation from a16z and others. (Source link)

7、Grayscale creates smart contract platform fund, investing in tokens like Cardano and Solana
Cryptocurrency asset management company Grayscale is expanding its investment fund series to include non-Ethereum smart contract tokens. The Grayscale Smart Contract Platform Ex-Ethereum Fund (GSCPxE) allows investors to choose to invest in some of the largest smart contract networks and Ethereum sidechains.
The fund includes Cardano (ADA), Solana (SOL), Avalanche (AVAX), Polkadot (DOT), Polygon (MATIC), Algorand (ALGO), and Stellar (XLM). Cardano and Solana each account for over 24% of the fund, while Avalanche and Polkadot each account for over 16%. About 10% of the funds are allocated to Polygon, with Algorand and Stellar each accounting for over 4%. (Source link)

8、On-chain structured product Ribbon Finance completes $8.75 million Series B financing, led by Paradigm

According to Coindesk, on-chain structured product Ribbon Finance has completed $8.75 million in Series B financing, led by Paradigm. The project will focus on developing new risk products and multi-chain deployment over the next six months.

Ribbon is a structured product that helps retail investors benefit more easily from the complex world of crypto derivatives, allowing investors to deposit WBTC or ETH into a treasury that automatically executes a "call" option strategy, with a strike price above the current asset price. Ribbon executes bullish options weekly and collects premiums. (Source link)

9、MEXC Global and others help Fetch.ai launch a $150 million ecosystem development fund
According to CoinDesk, the blockchain-based machine learning platform Fetch.ai has launched a $150 million development fund to encourage more developers and projects to develop and operate within the Fetch.ai ecosystem. The fund is led by MEXC Global, with Huobi and Bybit also participating in the investment. In March 2021, Fetch.ai raised $5 million from Toronto-based digital asset firm GDA Group. (Source link)