“The investment round was led by Dragonfly Capital and included participation from Paradigm, Moderne Ventures, Coinbase Ventures and SBI Investment.”, — write: www.coindesk.com
The round was led by Dragonfly Capital and included participation from Paradigm, Moderne Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, SBI Investment and Liberty City Ventures, Mesh said on Tuesday.
The fundraise, coupled with the ceremonial significance of Mesh acquiring unicorn status, demonstrates that even during a relatively depressed spot market, investors are plowing capital into infrastructure that can help fulfill crypto’s promise as a tool for improving how global finance operates.
Mesh said its aim is to connect the fragmented world of crypto payments while bypassing the slow settlements and higher fees found in traditional finance (TradFi). It does this by being asset agnostic, allowing consumers to make payments using any asset they hold and merchants to receive instant settlement in their preferred stablecoin.
“Fragmentation creates real friction in the customer payment experience,” Bam Azizi, Mesh’s co-founder and CEO, said in the statement. “We are focused on building the necessary infrastructure now to connect wallets, chains, and assets, allowing them to function as a unified network.”
Mesh said part of the funding was settled using stablecoins to demonstrate that its infrastructure is “ready for high stakes, real-world use.”
Pudgy Penguins is building a multi-vertical consumer IP platform — combining phygital products, games, NFTs and PENGU to monetize culture at scale.
The ecosystem now spans phygital products (> $13M retail sales and >1M units sold), games and experiences (Pudgy Party surpassed 500k downloads in two weeks), and a widely distributed token (airdropped to 6M+ wallets). While the market is currently pricing Pudgy at a premium relative to traditional IP peers, sustained success depends on execution across retail expansion, gaming adoption and deeper token utility.
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While Circle’s USDC has operated without a “credible domestic competitor,” Tether’s USAT has the potential to shake up the landscape, analysts said.
- Analysts said USAT, the US-focused stablecoin by Tether, could become the first credible domestic competitor to Circle’s USDC token.
- USAT is “a threat to USDC” and could gain an edge through institutional partners and global USDT connectivity, Crypto is Macro Now’s Noelle Acheson said.
- ClearStreet’s Owen Lau called USAT “a manageable risk” for Circle, and noted potential “cannibalization” risk between Tether’s two tokens.
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