Active efforts to attract investment in related industries amid rising virtual assets

[Digital Today Reporter Chi-gyu Hwang] Amid rising prices, interest in virtual assets (cryptocurrency) is growing again, and related industries are actively trying to attract investment.

According to the cryptocurrency media The Block, Dapper Labs, known as CryptoKitty, and Block Pie, a cryptocurrency financial company, are conducting a large investment round.

Dapper Labs, which provides collectible digital content based on non-fungible tokens (NFT) such as NBA Top Shots and CryptoKitty, is in a $250 million investment round for a $2 billion enterprise value.

The Block reported on related contents, citing sources familiar with the internal situation. The investment round is led by the US hedge fund Koachu Management, which is led by billionaire Philippe Lafontaine. Lafont has invested in famous companies such as AirTable, InstaCart, Spotify, and Bitmain.

The Block reports that the NBA Top-Shot project launched by Dapper Labs in October 2020 has become the most popular NFT by scale. Dapper Labs is said to have generated close to $100 million in sales from NFT sales.

Cryptocurrency-based financial service companies have also set out to secure $150 million in funding through a series investment round. Block Pie is holding the value of the company at $2.85 billion and is conducting this investment round, The Block reported, citing sources.

Block Pie aims to launch a new credit card this year and list the company. Established in 2018, BlockFi has provided a service that borrows fiat currency with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum as collateral. Since last year, it has expanded its scope to various financial services in addition to cryptocurrency finance.