Metaplex Foundation Raises $46 Million in Strategic Funding Round to Scale NFT Adoption
We've garnered massive support
The Metaplex Foundation would like to announce the strategic funding round that has brought $46 million in new capital into the ecosystem. It is a huge step towards realizing the vision of further developing the Metaplex Protocol and providing tools for building a people-first metaverse.
The funding round was co-led by investment firm Multicoin Capital and Jump Crypto, with participation from Solana Ventures, Alameda Research, Animoca Brands, and more than 90 individual supporters. These included legendary basketball player Michael Jordan who last year announced the launch of the HEIR platform on Solana, William Wesley, Allen Iverson, Shari Glazer, RÜFÜS DU SOL, and Cozomo de’ Medici.
The Metaplex Protocol’s supporters include musicians, athletes, designers, influencers, actors, models, and chefs, among others wanting an NFT platform that directly engages their audiences without any middlemen. Each of them has a different perspective and experiences, and all of them will offer highly valuable feedback and support towards creating a people-friendly platform.
Since its launch last June, the Metaplex community has created tools to make minting and selling NFTs much easier. Metaplex Storefront and Candy Machine v2™, for example, make launching new NFTs and trading experiences as easy and smooth as possible on the Solana blockchain.
“The community is excited to build tools that make it easy for developers, game studios, and creators to get started in Web3,” said Sergey Vasylchuk, Director of the Metaplex Foundation. “We believe the metaverse will be open, censorship-resistant, and globally accessible. In this metaverse, Metaplex will serve as a common protocol and NFT standard to empower the next wave of decentralized commerce, social and gaming experiences.”
NFTs are a huge market. According to DappRadar, trading in NFTs grew from $100 million in 2020 to an astounding $22 billion in 2021, and it shows no signs of slowing down. Big brands like Adidas, Nike, and Gucci have jumped on the NFT bandwagon. Coca-Cola raised over $575,000 in its partnership with Decentraland. The NFT is at once gaining exclusivity while entering the mainstream.
According to Multicoin Capital’s Managing Partner Kyle Samani, “Metaplex accelerated that trend by radically reducing minting and trading costs,” making the tokens “more accessible” than ever before. With nearly non-existent costs, NFTs’ true potential is going to be limitless.
Since June 2021, 5.7 million NFTs have been minted for 85,000 projects using Metaplex Protocol; it’s got 600,000 active collectors, and the community is only getting started. While it first focused on the arts and entertainment industry, the new funding will allow the Metaplex Foundation to prioritize support for gaming applications, its NFT marketplace partners, and anyone wishing to build people-first metaverse experiences.
“The rapid growth of Metaplex is further proof that demand for collectibles and NFT powered games has never been stronger,” said Saurabh Sharma, Partner at Jump Crypto, Venture. “Already making their mark on the industry, Metaplex has helped kickstart dozens of online social communities and game economies, such as Aurory, Star Atlas, and Nyan Heroes.”
With this new funding from the amazing Metaplex community, the Metaplex Protocol will continue its journey to creating an open metaverse accessible to everyone.
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