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Biconomy Raises $9M to Make Building Dapps Easier for Developers

Coinbase Ventures and Huobi Innovation Labs were among the investors.

Updated May 9, 2023, 3:22 a.m. Published Jul 28, 2021, 1:10 p.m.
Biconomy staffers pose for a photo.
Biconomy staffers pose for a photo.

Web 3.0 can be complicated for newcomers to the crypto sector; blockchain transaction platform Biconomy is trying to change that.

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Biconomy announced Wednesday that it has raised $9 million in a funding round led by Mechanism Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Huobi Innovation Labs, CoinFund and other crypto investment firms.

The platform’s blockchain-agnostic network, which includes software development kits (SDKs) and application programming interfaces (APIs), is designed to help developers build decentralized apps (dapps) that are simpler and more user friendly.

According to Biconomy CEO Ahmed Al-Balaghi, the steps required to interact with dapps – creating a crypto wallet, purchasing and transferring tokens, and managing gas fees – is enough to put off many first-timers.

Read more: Biconomy Raises $1.5M in Seed Funding for Bid to Simplify Blockchain Transactions

Biconomy’s goal, Al-Balaghi says, is to make dapps more user friendly by removing the “friction points” that end users find frustrating, which in turn increases user retention and helps bring new users into the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.

Since its launch in 2019, Biconomy has processed more than 3.6 million transactions and currently has more than 200 dapp integrations in the pipeline. Al-Balaghi said Biconomy has seen three major categories arise in its dapp portfolio, including decentralized finance (DeFi), gaming and non-fungible token (NFT) applications.

Biconomy will use some of the funds to decentralize its relayer network, including preparing for the launch of its native token, BICO.

Al-Balaghi told CoinDesk that the BICO token will be both a staking and governance token. A public sale is planned for the fourth quarter.

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Pudgy Penguins: A New Blueprint for Tokenized Culture

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Pudgy Penguins is building a multi-vertical consumer IP platform — combining phygital products, games, NFTs and PENGU to monetize culture at scale.

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Pudgy Penguins is emerging as one of the strongest NFT-native brands of this cycle, shifting from speculative “digital luxury goods” into a multi-vertical consumer IP platform. Its strategy is to acquire users through mainstream channels first; toys, retail partnerships and viral media, then onboard them into Web3 through games, NFTs and the PENGU token.

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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Stablecoins seen as ‘the default’ for payments as OKX brings crypto card to Europe

With EU banks exploring stablecoin issuance and regulators laying ground rules, OKX says its card marks a turning point in crypto’s integration into everyday finance.

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  • OKX has launched a new Mastercard-linked crypto debit card in Europe that lets users spend stablecoins directly from self-custody wallets at more than 150 million locations.
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  • OKX and Mastercard executives say the rollout reflects how stablecoins, now regulated in the European Union under the MiCA framework, are moving into the financial mainstream for everyday payments and settlements.