Share this article
CoinFund, Franklin Templeton Back Metaversal in $50M Funding Round
The venture studio is using the money to add to its NFT portfolio and invest in metaverse companies.
By Eli Tan
Updated May 11, 2023, 4:06 p.m. Published Jan 4, 2022, 3:25 p.m.
Make us preferred on Google
NFT venture studio Metaversal raised $50 million in a Series A funding round that was led by CoinFund and Foxhaven Asset Management and that included Franklin Templeton, the company announced Tuesday.
- The non-fungible token firm says it will use the funding to increase its portfolio and support companies working toward building an open metaverse.
- Interest in NFTs is rising again with projects like Bored Ape Yacht Club eclipsing $1 billion in all-time sales on Tuesday.
- For context, Metaversal was the first institutional investor in ConstitutionDAO and has collected more than 750 NFTs to date.
- Collab+Currency, Dapper Labs, Digital Currency Group (DCG) and Rarible were also participants in the funding round, according to a press release. (DCG is the parent company of an editorially independent CoinDesk.)
- The venture studio plans to collaborate with Dapper Labs, creator of the popular NFT platform NBA Top Shot, and Rarible, an NFT marketplace, the press release said.
- “We are thrilled to welcome some of the foremost blockchain and technology investors into our mission to invest in the infinite stories of our culture,” Yossi Hasson, CEO of Metaversal, said in the statement.
Read more: LinksDAO NFT Sale Books First $10M Toward Buying an Actual Golf Course
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
More For You
Specialized AI detects 92% of real-world DeFi exploits
New research claims specialized AI dramatically outperforms general-purpose models at detecting exploited DeFi vulnerabilities.
What to know:
- A purpose-built AI security agent detected vulnerabilities in 92% of 90 exploited DeFi contracts ($96.8 million in exploit value), compared with 34% and $7.5 million for a baseline GPT-5.1-based coding agent running on the same underlying model.
- The gap came from domain-specific security methodology layered on top of the model, not differences in core AI capability, according to the report.
- The findings come as prior research from Anthropic and OpenAI shows AI agents can execute end-to-end smart contract exploits at low cost, accelerating concerns that offensive AI capabilities are scaling faster than defensive adoption.
Top Stories
