White Star Capital Digital Asset Fund - newsletter #66
Crypto industry M&A activity surged 131% in 2021
Crypto industry M&A activity surged 131% in 2021
After a whirlwind 2021, we will be taking a short break from the White Star Capital Digital Asset Fund newsletter until January. Happy holidays and have a great new year!
Cryptocurrency deal-making clocked in record volumes after a frenzied year for merger and acquisitions, with approximately $6.1bn in M&A volume driven by crypto-native, finance, and technology companies.
As noted by The Block Research's 2022 Digital Asset Outlook report, M&A transactions hit a record high for the sector with more than 197 acquisitions so far this year. That growth represents a nearly 130% increase compared to last year, which clocked in 85 transactions.
The surge in dealmaking has been fueled by both crypto companies acquiring rivals that offer services that expand their bread and butter offerings. For instance, Coinbase — which is best known for its brokerage and exchange businesses — snapped up Bison Trails for an undisclosed amount at the beginning of the year to expand into blockchain infrastructure services. Plus, Galaxy announced it would acquire financial services provider BitGo in a $1bn+ transaction. That deal is expected to close next quarter.
It's not just crypto companies either. Credit card company Mastercard announced its acquisition of crypto sleuthing company CipherTrace, while popular equities broker Robinhood announced its first crypto acquisition in December.
🔦 White Star & Portfolio Spotlight
Ledn raises $70m, announces new bitcoin-backed mortgage product
Dan Tapiero's 10T Holdings led the round. Other new investors in the round included Golden Tree Asset Management, Raptor Group, and FJ Labs. All existing investors, including White Star Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Alan Howard, ParaFi Capital, and Susquehanna Private Equity Investments also participated in the round.
Rob Collier joins Rally as the new General Counsel
🏦 Enterprises & Institutions
Sotheby’s netted $100m from NFT sales in 2021
More than three-quarters (78%) of the NFT bidders were new to Sotheby's and over half were under 40, Sotheby's notes.
ConsenSys collaborates with Mastercard on new ethereum scaling system
The software firm said projects built using “Consensys Rollups” can reach a throughput of up to 10,000 transactions per second (TPS) on a private chain.
JPMorgan's Onyx blockchain unit is working with German industrial giant Siemens on payments
JPMorgan's dedicated blockchain-centric payments unit is reportedly working with Siemens, the German industrial conglomerate, on a new approach to streamlining how it handles payments internally.
⚖️ Government & Regulation
Kazakhstan Piloting a CBDC on R3′s Corda Platform
The country’s central bank is expanding the pilot of a digital tenge and will decide if it wants to launch the token by the end of 2022.
US federal regulator says credit unions can partner with crypto providers
The new guidance will allow them to support the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies.
Terraform Labs argues SEC lacks jurisdiction to compel cooperation in its investigation
A new response from crypto startup Terraform Labs hit the court docket last weekend as part of an ongoing legal spat with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Binance to help Dubai World Trade Centre establish a crypto regulatory framework
Binance said it will share its experience in collaborating with global regulators with the authority to aid the development of "progressive" crypto regulations.
💰 Funding & Exits
Crypto connectivity startup GIANT raises $5m from CoinFund
CoinFund, Gumi and others are backing GIANT’s plans to tokenize cellular bandwidth.
Web3 platform HEIR raises $10m in seed funding
A new Web3 platform from a company co-founded by Michael Jordan's son Jeffrey Jordan raised $10m in seed funding. The platform known as HEIR, will be "a personalized community Web 3.0 platform for athletes to connect with their most passionate and loyal supporters."
Gear Technologies raises $12m to boost smart-contract development on Polkadot
Polkadot founder Gavin Wood and Three Arrows Capital were among those investing.
Ethereum privacy startup Aztec raises $17m in Paradigm-led Series A
In addition to developer grants, Aztec said it will use the funds to push for legal clarity on private crypto transactions.
Metaverse infrastructure startup Render Network raises $30m in token round
Investors in the round included Multicoin, Alameda Research, the Solana Foundation, Sfermion, and angel investors Vinny Lingham and Bill Lee.
Crypto payments startup Ramp closes $52.7m raise
The startup has seen monthly transaction volumes grow 30 times over the last 12 months.
Binance Labs leads $60m investment in Multichain
Sequoia China, IDG Capital, Three Arrows Capital, DeFiance Capital, Circle Ventures, Tron Foundation, Hypersphere Ventures, Primitive Ventures, Magic Ventures and HashKey all participated in the round alongside Binance Labs.
Data startup Nansen secures fresh funding at $750m valuation
Venture capital firm Accel led the fundraise, with participation from a16z and Tiger Global.
Thoma Bravo leads $110m funding for Figment at $1.4bn valuation
Other participants include Morgan Stanley’s Counterpoint Global, ParaFi Capital, Avon Ventures and crypto exchanges Binance, Bitstamp, and Binance.US.
Crypto bank Anchorage raises $350m in new funding from KKR, Goldman Sachs, and others
The firm is now valued at over $3bn.
Kraken Ventures raises $65m for early-stage crypto fund
The fund will invest in financial infrastructure, Web 3, DeFi, artificial intelligence and machine learning startups.
Reddit co-founder creates $200m initiative with Polygon for Web 3, social media
Polygon will provide the infrastructure for the projects that the initiative backs.
Crypto exchange Kraken acquires staking startup Staked
Kraken said that the acquisition was "one of the largest crypto industry acquisitions to date" and would help the exchange company "develop innovative new staking products for all our clients and expand the number of proof-of-stake networks supported on our platform."
🚀 Project Launches & Updates
Switzerland's SEBA Bank wants to use Aave's institutional DeFi platform
A digital asset-focused bank in Switzerland is seeking to become whitelisted on Arc, the institutional platform developed by the team behind DeFi lending protocol Aave.
🔥 Other Bits We're Excited About
For sale: a CryptoPunk with an NFT data business attached
DeGenData.eth, a data provider for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), is being put up for sale -- and its operators are breaking new ground by tying the purchase to a particular CryptoPunk NFT.