NEAR Token Spikes After Protocol Raises $150M Led by Three Arrows Capital
- In the past 24 hours, the NEAR cryptocurrency jumped 9.84%, or $1.72, to $19.36
- The funding will be used to accelerate its mission of helping people learn, use and adopt Web3 technologies
NEAR Protocol has closed a $150 million capital raise led by Three Arrows Capital, the team shared in a blog post on Thursday.
The funding will be used to accelerate its mission of helping people learn, use and adopt Web3 technologies. The protocol has established communities in Asia, Africa and Europe, and is aiming to expand support in emerging communities in Latin America, Turkey and India, according to the blog.
“We are looking forward to leveraging the funding to improve access to blockchain technology in an ever growing list of countries across the world,” Marieke Flament, NEAR Foundation CEO said in a statement.
In 2021, the protocol said it allocated $800 million — which is now valued at about $1.8 billion — to help fuel its mission to decentralize the community and help users reimagine finance.
Since its mainnet launch in the fourth quarter of 2020, the NEAR network has processed over 70 million transactions while supporting over 2.3 million accounts.
The latest funding adds to its $65.9 million raised so far, from backers internationally, including Digital Currency Group, Pantera Capital, Electric Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Blockchain.com and Baidu Ventures. In total, the foundation has raised about $215.9 million.
In the past 24 hours, the NEAR cryptocurrency jumped 9.84%, or $1.72, to $19.36, according to data on CoinMarketCap at the time of publication. The majority of the spike occurred after the foundation released news of the raise.
A handful of funds invested in the private token sale, including Mechanism Capital, Dragonfly Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Jump Capital, Alameda Research, Zee Prime and Amber Group.
Angel investors also participated in the round including Alan Howard, a billionaire hedge fund manager, Stani Kulechov, founder of Aave, and Santiago Santos, a member of PleasrDAO.
“We’re delighted to be backed by such a fantastic group of investors. It provides proof of what’s been built, and what’s to come,” Illia Polosukin, co-founder of NEAR Protocol, said in the blog post.
NEAR did not respond immediately to a request for comment by Blockworks.
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Jacquelyn MelinekJacquelyn Melinek is a New York-based reporter covering digital asset funds and markets. She previously reported on energy markets for S&P Global Platts and Bloomberg News and is published in over 65 news outlets. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in Media and Journalism.
