Led by Thrive Capital and Greenoaks, the raise comes less than two months after Stripe unveiled its layer-1 blockchain for stablecoin and real-world payments. Stripe’s blockchain project, Tempo, raised $500 million in a Series A round led by Greenoaks and Thrive Capital, valuing the payments-focused network at $5 billion, according to Fortune. Sequoia Capital, Ribbit Capital and Ron Conway’s SV Angel also joined the round, while Stripe and Paradigm did not contribute additional capital, a person familiar with the deal said. The news comes less than two months after Stripe, a global payments and fintech giant, unveiled plans for its new layer-1 blockchain in partnership with Paradigm, a venture capital firm that invests in crypto and Web3 startups. Read more
The founder of the Chinese cryptocurrency exchange plans to announce the trust within a few weeks, with the backing of Ether supporters. Li Lin, the founder of cryptocurrency exchange Huobi and chair of investment company Avenir Capital, has reportedly raised about $1 billion as part of a strategy to invest in Ether. According to a Bloomberg report on Friday, Li has partnered with Fenbushi Capital co-founder Shen Bo, HashKey Group CEO Xiao Feng, and Meitu founder Cai Wensheng to launch an Ether accumulation strategy through a Nasdaq-listed shell company. The project raised $1 billion, which included $500 million from HongShan Capital Group and $200 million from Avenir. With the support of the Ether (ETH) backers, the group plans to announce the launch of the trust in two to three weeks. Read more