Crypto Tech Startups Weather Bear Market Well

Though major cryptocurrencies have traded sideways — and have become increasingly correlated to related venture valuations — a handful of technology-focused digital asset startups have of late taken in a substantial sum of capital from venture capitalists. 

Venture studio MPCH Labs last week raised $40 million in its Series A round led by Liberty City Ventures. 

MPCH Labs, meanwhile, is developing multiparty computation (MPC) technology, a cryptographic tool that allows multiple people to evaluate a computation — without revealing personal information. 

The fundraise will be used to launch Fraction, a wallet service provider that securely manages digital assets cryptographically, and on a zero-knowledge basis, CEO Miles Parry previously told Blockworks. 

“With Fraction, we bring MPC6 into the crypto space, enabling both traditional and crypto-native institutions to operate securely and in compliance with regulation and risk management,” Parry said.

Interest in backing emerging open-source Web3 projects appears to be holding steady. 

In the latest indicator, the startup Smart Token Labs drummed up a $6 million round led by Liang Xinjun, co-founder of Fosun International. The fresh funding has been earmarked for the development and expansion of what the firm calls TokenScript, a programmable smart token interface that aims to bridge Web2 and Web3 technologies via open-source programming.

“[In] the past 12 months, we’ve gained a lot of momentum in the market with our advanced token gating solution BrandConnector,” CEO Victor Zhang said in a statement. “We’ll soon be announcing major partnerships with household names in Brand, Loyalty and CRM.”

In DeFi, the parent company of the largest decentralized crypto exchange, Uniswap, has been rumored to be in negotiations with a Singaporean sovereign fund and Polychain to raise a massive venture round of $100 million to $200 million.

Uniswap Labs has previously received venture capital money from Andreessen Horowitz, Paradigm Venture Capital, Union Square Ventures and similar players. If the negotiations are successful, the fundraise could bring Uniswap Labs’ valuation up to $1 billion.

DeFi reinsurance protocol has also secured $14 million. The protocol, built on the Avalanche blockchain, offers accredited investors on-chain insurance policies.

“What we tried to do was mimic a marketplace that has evolved over the course of the last 350 years to something that we think is a stable configuration for current insurance market participants,” CEO Karn Saroya previously told Blockworks. 

Other notable funding rounds in the past week include:

• NFT marketplace Minteo raised a $4.3 million seed round from OpenSea Ventures.
• Aikon, a B2B partner building solutions on the Open Rights Exchange (ORE) Network, raised a $10 million Series A led by Morgan Creek Digital.
• An investment firm backed by hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen poured $10 million into Web3 game marketplace AQUA.
• Blockchain infrastructure project Eclipse secured $15 million led by Tribe Capital, Tabiya and Polychain Capital.

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