- An altcoin, one of the richest ecosystems in the crypto money industry and reaching great heights in the past months, has raised $ 350 million in a new funding round.
Blockchain project trying to compete with Ethereum as a blockchain for decentralized applications Near Protocol (NEAR)announced that it has raised $350 million in a funding round led by Tiger Global, with participation from Republic Capital, Hashed, FTX Ventures, Dragonfly Capital, ParaFi Capital, Blockchange Ventures and MetaWeb.vc.
The new funds raised will help Near “increase the number of regional centers in key community centers around the world,” according to the company’s statement, saying its ecosystem has seen a massive surge in venture capital investments since late 2021.
Again in a statement on the subject, John Curtius, one of the partners of Tiger Global, who led the funding round, said that they are very excited about this development:
“Near is poised to become a leading smart contract blockchain platform combining cutting-edge technology with a rapidly expanding developer ecosystem. We are excited to support Near as we accelerate our investments in the digital asset space.”
What is Near Protocol (NEAR)?
NEAR Protocol, an open source platform for decentralized applications, was founded in 2018. The project is focused on helping developers bring their projects to life by offering a range of development tools. Also aiming to be a user-friendly and scalable Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain, NEAR launched its mainnet in October 2020.
The 18th largest cryptocurrency by market cap of $10.5 billion at the time of writing at $15.72 per CoinMarketCap, Near Protocol’s eponymous coin can be used to pay transaction fees and stake on the network.
NEAR has previously raised $150 million
As previously reported by KoinFinans; The NEAR Foundation, which oversees the development of the NEAR blockchain, raised $150 million in January in a round led by Three Arrows Capital, Alameda and Jump.
The foundation’s CEO, Marieke Flament, said in an interview with The Block in January that part of NEAR’s overall mission is to make it the first go-to for building web3 apps and making the ecosystem as a whole more inclusive.
This funding round comes after a busy year.
In April 2021, NEAR launched Rainbow Bridge to allow the transfer of ERC-20 tokens between the Ethereum and NEAR blockchains. In June, the platform joined ICON’s Blockchain Transmission Protocol (BTP), which allows data to be sent to partners like Polkadot and Harmony. In November, NEAR Protocol also collaborated with Ardana to build a bridge that will allow assets to flow between Cardano and NEAR.
According to the company, more venture investment will be made in projects built on the NEAR Protocol. These investments, which will focus on NEAR and Aurora-based DeFi projects and applications, will be announced in the coming weeks. Currently, NEAR has nearly 300 apps running and created, and more than 200,000 community members worldwide.
Republic Capital’s managing director, Boris Revsin, said in a statement that Republic Capital did an in-depth analysis of the NEAR ecosystem and discovered that developers in the space have recognized the protocol as the key to their distribution roadmap.
“Community, tools, documentation and support are critical to successful implementations. And we believe NEAR is best-in-class in these key areas.”
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Disclaimer: What is written here is not investment advice. Cryptocurrency investments are high-risk investments. Every investment decision is under the individual’s own responsibility. Finally, KoinFinans and the author of this content cannot be held responsible for personal investment decisions.