NEAR Foundation Raises $150M in Funding in Order to Scale Up Its DeFi Efforts

The NEAR Foundation has announced the conclusion of a $150 million funding round as the ecosystem looks to tap into decentralized finance (DeFi). Led by Three Arrows Capital of Su Zhu, the exercise also had crypto-centric platforms such as Mechanism Capital, Dragonfly Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Jump, Alameda, Zee Prime, and Amber Group.

NEAR will reportedly use the fresh capital to fast-track its agenda to assist countless people in acclimating to blockchain and Web3. This also includes fostering the learning and usage of decentralized technologies and all its paraphernalia. Some parts of the funds will also go towards developing NEAR’s regional hubs and raising awareness for the brand. As NEAR Foundation’s chief executive officer Marieke Flament expressed in a post:

“We are looking forward to leveraging the funding to improve access to blockchain technology in an ever-growing list of countries across the world.”

The NEAR foundation already has an established presence in many regions, including Asia, Africa, and Europe. In addition, it is also looking to provide support for emerging communities in some other regions. The foundation is gearing these efforts towards Latin America, Turkey, and India.

NEAR Foundation Funding Augurs Well for the Network

According to Dragonfly General Partner Ashwin Ramachandran, the funding round took about two weeks to conclude “end to end”. Ramachandran believes that this highly reflects the level of enthusiasm and expectations towards NEAR’s projected DeFi scheme. The Dragonfly General Partner also commended the track record of the NEAR protocol ecosystem, saying:

“NEAR has done a great job from a technology standpoint, and we want to help them achieve a level of developer, user, ecosystem adoption which reflects their current level of technology innovation.”

Ramachandran stated that the funding round presented a great opportunity for crypto-minded investment firms to get in on the ecosystem. Factoring in this latest exercise, NEAR has now generated a total of about $162 million in venture capital funding to date. Furthermore, the foundation raised additional funds via token sales.

In addition to having a standalone blockchain, the NEAR protocol can also operate with some other blockchains. These include Ethereum, Polkadot, and Cosmos, to name a few. The protocol can facilitate a free flow of assets and communication between networks for a multichain future.

The NEAR network has processed more than 70 million transactions and supports more than 2.3 million accounts. It currently has around 200,000 community members and 1,700 actively monthly builders and over 100 guilds. The valuation of the NEAR token is currently unknown, besides having a one-month time-weighted average price (TWAP).

Founded in 2018, the NEAR foundation’s blockchain developed from the ground up. The blockchain caters to both developers and end-uses and provides seamless scalability for both categories of users. Back in October, NEAR announced an $800 million funding initiative to support ecosystem growth. Furthermore, it devoted about $350 million to DeFi grants and liquidity mining.

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Tolu is a cryptocurrency and blockchain enthusiast based in Lagos. He likes to demystify crypto stories to the bare basics so that anyone anywhere can understand without too much background knowledge.
When he’s not neck-deep in crypto stories, Tolu enjoys music, loves to sing and is an avid movie lover.