If you’ve visited a crypto company’s website recently, you’ve probably visited a URL ending in “.xyz” instead of its cheugier counterpart, .com. From fintech Block, formerly known as Square, to venture firm Paradigm, to blockchain startups like Mirror, .xyz has become the go-to URL ending for many web3 companies. But what does it mean, and […]
Katie Haun is splitting off from a16z to launch her own crypto fund
Katie Haun, who co-led Andreessen Horowitz’s $2.2 billion crypto fund, is splitting off from the firm and taking a number of colleagues with her — including operating partner Rachael Horwitz — to start a new crypto-centric fund, Axios reports. Haun joined the firm in 2018 after a career as a federal prosecutor for the Justice […]
NFT music rights startup Royal banks $55M investment led by a16z Crypto
Less than three months after announcing a $16 million seed round led by Founders Fund and Paradigm, NFT music rights startup Royal has raised another major bout of funding, banking a $55 million Series A from Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto investment arm. The startup partners with musicians and allows users to buy NFTs which represent collective […]
Sequoia backs blockchain scaling startup StarkWare at $2 billion valuation
As the crypto world continues to heat up, developers are clinging to the Ethereum network despite its general struggle to meet the stresses of a global network’s transaction load. To speed and cheapen transactions on Ethereum, developers are looking toward so-called Layer-2 (L2) blockchains, which build on the Ethereum network, offloading the computational stresses while […]
Crypto VC firm Paradigm debuts monster $2.5 billion fund
As the crypto market continues to push toward new heights, investors are finding heightened LP appetite for exposure to the space, leading to new venture funds that are huge — even by 2021 standards. Paradigm, a crypto VC firm founded in 2018 by Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam and former Sequoia Capital partner Matt Huang, has […]
Founders Fund backs Royal, a music marketplace planning to sell song rights as NFTs
Founders Fund and Paradigm are leading an investment in a platform that’s aiming to wed music rights with NFTs, allowing user to buy shares of songs through the company’s marketplace, earning royalties as the music they’ve invested in gains popularity. The venture, called Royal, is led by Justin Blau, an EDM artist who performs under […]