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NFT marketplace OpenSea has raised $23 million in a Series A round led by venture capital firm a16z, the platform announced Thursday. 

The funding round included participation from a wide range of VC firms, investors and creators including Naval Ravikant, Mark Cuban, and 3LAU.

The announcement comes a week after The Block reported a16z is leading two fundraises in the crypto space for OpenSea as well as trading tech firm Talos. A16z has invested in a way array of crypto firms in its portfolio, dating back to an early stake in crypto exchange unicorn Coinbase.

“The world is waking up to the power of this technology, and it’s happening quite suddenly,” co-founder and CEO Devin Finzer wrote in a blog post. “Over the coming years, billions of people will be introduced to digital ownership, and we’ve built OpenSea as a trusted entrypoint into that world.”

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Reuters reported Thursday that the government in the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is planning to build two cryptocurrency mines as part of a pilot program.

The pilot mines will draw their power from hydroelectric energy sources, according to the report. According to Reuters, the ultimate cost of the initiative is not yet known.

“People have already been approaching us for investment, and we want them to come to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, earn some money and have the province earn from that as well,” Zia Ullah Bangash, who advises the provincial government, told Reuters.

The advisor later said: “We are hoping to bring this to a government level so things can be controlled and online fraud or other scams can be prevented.”

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Vega Protocol, which is building a decentralized network for trading derivatives, has raised $5 million in a new funding round.

The round was led by Arrington Capital and Cumberland DRW, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, ParaFi Capital, CMS Holdings, and many others.

Vega has raised the money via a token sale as a strategic investment round, founder Barney Mannerings told The Block. With fresh capital at hand, Vega looks to continue developing the protocol and hopefully launch its mainnet by this summer, said Mannerings.

Vega claims to be building a capital-efficient decentralized derivatives trading protocol that would allow anyone to create and launch a derivatives market.

Mannerings said capital-efficient means a trader’s capital is used efficiently and that the protocol does not need any more funds to be locked up for margins than is necessary. “This is incredibly important for traders as the cost of capital to fund a position can make the difference between whether it’s worth trading or not,” he said.

There are currently around 25 people contributing to Vega, and the project is looking to expand its engineering and community teams further, said Mannerings.

The round brings Vega’s total funding to date to “a bit under $12 million,” Mannerings told The Block. The project had previously raised a $5 million seed round in October 2019.

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Kentucky’s legislature has cleared a pair of proposed laws that collectively aim to attract cryptocurrency mining companies to the U.S. state.

As The Block reported last week, one measure — focused on clean-energy incentives — passed both chambers of the Kentucky General Assembly. Another, aimed at providing tax incentives to mining firms, was at the time awaiting final approval in the State Senate after getting the thumbs up in the House of Representatives. The Senate passed the tax incentives bill in a 29-7 vote on March 15.

Both measures were introduced and approved in a manner of months, public records show.

Public records indicate that the energy and tax bills were then sent to the desk of Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear on Monday and Tuesday, respectively. It’s not clear at this time when the bills might be signed or if Beshear will move to veto them. Beshear signed a bill into law last year that approved a blockchain tech working group.

As reported by the Kentucky publication Lexington Herald-Leader, the bills join a raft of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of tax breaks approved this week by state lawmakers. Such a move has drawn critics in the state, the publication notes, and came just as the General Assembly approached the state of a two-week legislative break. 

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Crypto security startup Fireblocks announced the completion of a Series C funding round on Thursday, raising a total of $133 million.

A trio of firms led the Series C, according to Fireblocks: investment manager Coatue, the fintech-focused venture capital firm Ribbit and growth equity firm Stripes. In a reflection of Fireblocks’ bid to cater to the banking industry’s growing interest and involvement with digital assets, BNY Mellon and Silicon Valley Bank participated as strategic investors in the round.

The latest tranche of funding comes months after Fireblocks closed a $30 million Series B round led by crypto VC firm Paradigm. Fireblocks has raised a cumulative $179 million in funding to date, the firm said Thursday. Existing investors of Fireblocks, including Paradigm, Galaxy Digital and Swisscom Ventures, also took part in the Series C round.

“We are humbled to have the top VCs in Fintech, and the most important strategic partners support our mission to replatform the financial ecosystem into digital assets,” Fireblocks CEO Michael Shaulov said in a statement. “Their financial backing guarantees the long term stability, technology superiority and service delivery to our exponentially growing customer base.”

Fireblocks offers a suite of digital assets services, including custody and transfer, and is among a growing number of industry firms seeking to cater to the institutional customer base. CoinDesk reported last month that BNY Mellon had tapped Fireblocks as part of a plan to hold digital assets on behalf of its customers. 

“Our partnership with Fireblocks is consistent with our belief that a new financial ecosystem is emerging and that companies like Fireblocks are essential,” Kris Fredrickson, managing partner for Coatue, said in a statement.

Interest from banks and other financial institutions has raised the profiles of companies offering digital asset custody. In a sign of the times, PayPal formally announced that it plans to acquire Curv this year. Such developments are taking place against the backdrop of a wider effort in the industry to develop to become so-called prime brokers that can offer a variety of services, including custody, to institutional clients. 

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Quick Take

• A summary of the flurry of structured crypto products being brought to market from traditional sell-side financial institutions

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The United States General Services Administration (GSA) auctioned off 0.7501 Bitcoin at just over $9,000 above market price on Wednesday. 

There were 31 total bidders, and the highest bid was for $53,104 — about $9,000 above the current market price of roughly $44,000 that 0.7501 BTC is currently priced. The GSA auction took place in Atlanta, Georgia, having begun on March 15 and concluding on March 17 at 5 p.m. EST. The auction received 31 bids, per the GSA site.

As The Block previously reported, the successful bidder must pay for the BTC by March 19.

They must also submit documentation providing personal information in addition to a “Forfeited Property Sales Certification Form,” stating that they were not the one who originally relinquished the bitcoin. 

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Quick Take

• China has convicted nearly 100 people since November 2020 for knowingly using USDT to launder over $30 million through OTC desks.
• The convictions are part of a broader crackdown on illegal internet-based money-making schemes — one that has had a chilling effect on China’s crypto OTC market. 

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Quick Take

• This research report is part of a new series produced by The Block Research to provide insights and due diligence on some of the leading companies in the digital asset ecosystem. 
• Founded in 2012, Paxos is building a crypto infrastructure company targeted at institutional finance and tech companies
• All data presented in this report has been updated as of March 11, 2021
   

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members of The Block Genesis.
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this Genesis research on The Block.

Crypto asset management company Grayscale has added five new investment trusts to its product suite.

The new products are Basic Attention Token ($BAT), Chainlink ($LINK), Decentraland ($MANA), Filecoin ($FIL) and Livepeer ($LPT), according to a tweet by Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein.

The additions come nearly two months after the company incorporated six more trusts, including those connected to the Chainlink (LINK) and Tezos (XTZ) tokens. 

“Grayscale is always looking for opportunities to offer products that meet investor demands. Occasionally, we will make reservation filings, though a filing does not mean we will bring a product to market. Grayscale has and will continue to announce when new products are made available to investors,” Sonnenshein told The Block at the time.

Grayscale is the largest crypto asset manager in the world and manages over $25 billion worth of assets. 

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.