NFT
Infinity Ventures Crypto, Spartan Group and Spartan Group co-led a seed round that raised $1.65 Million for NF3, a one stop-shop for NFT trading.
Other backers include DWF Labs, Saison Capital and prominent angel investors including Bitmex founder Arthur Hayes, LeadBlock Partner’s David Chreng and Neil Gomes, EMEA head for fintech at Softbank, according to a company news release.
NF3 Poorvi Sachar and Bored Ape Yacht Members Skittlewood & 0xStarmowa founded the organization. They both prefer to keep their identities confidential.
The startup was formed out of a realization that core parts of existing NFT infrastructure weren’t catering to collectors like them, Skittlewood said in an interview with The Block. They created the exchange to solve these problems. The exchange offers derivative solutions such as swaps that allow collectors trade NFTs and options which offer a buy now-pay-later model.
They are aiming to bring the “fun” back to collecting and trading NFTs, rather than just enabling collectors to flip them for profit or sweeping floor prices, Skittlewood said.
Kelvin Koh, co-founder of Spartan Group, said in the release:“The suite of products that NF3x is providing for its users go above and beyond spot buying and selling, and we’re excited to support them as they onboard the next generation of NFT traders and funds onto their platform.”
Apecoin Staking
Skittlewood stated that the exchange will transition into closed beta within the next few weeks. It’s also recently partnered with Solidity.io to launch ApeCoinStaking.io, It is a staking platform that eliminates geo restrictions Bored Ape Yacht Club owners faced when trying their Apecoin.
“Our goal with this platform is obviously we’re launching the swaps and options, but we want to make it a one-stop-shop for web3 and its needs,” Skittlewood said.
A multi-chain exchange
While the platform is currently built on Ethereum it will eventually be multi-chain. It will roll out to all NFT communities such as Polygon, Solana and Tezos. He also stated that the platform aims to be crosschain, which will allow people to trade assets between different blockchains.
Skittlewood stated that the startup raised funds for the round one week before Terra-Luna collapsed. He added that it was completed in the summer after the collapse of Three Arrows Capital hedge fund.
Skittlewood explained that the funds will go towards hiring and smart contract auditing. She also stated that the fundraise should give about 18 months’ runway.
“I am excited to support NF3x’s vision of a tech infrastructure providing transparency, security and flexibility in a space where existing P2P trading methods are capital inefficient, and extremely susceptible to scams and hacks,“ said David Chreng, founding partner of LeadBlock, in the news release.