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Near Protocol Raises $350M to Accelerate Decentralization

Photo for the Article - Near Protocol Raises $350M to Accelerate Decentralization

Near Protocol, a decentralized application (dApp), announced last April 6 that it raised $350 million in a funding round to โ€œaccelerate the decentralization of the NEAR ecosystem.โ€ 

The investment round for NEAR was led by hedge fund Tiger Global and also had the participation of Crypto-native investors such as Republic Capital, FTX Ventures, Hashed and Dragonfly Capital, among others. Interestingly Tiger Global also led the funding round for PDAX, a licensed cryptocurrency exchange in the Philippines.

โ€œNEAR is poised to be a leading smart contract blockchain platform, combining first-rate technology with a fast-growing developer ecosystem. We’re excited to support NEAR as we ramp up our investments in the digital asset space,โ€ โ€“ John Curtius, a partner at Tiger Global

The new funding will help NEAR increase “the number of regional hubs in key community centers across the globe,โ€ according to a company statement.

โ€œRepublic Capital did an in-depth analysis into the NEAR ecosystem and found that the builders in the space recognize the protocol as key to their deployment roadmap,โ€ said Boris Revsin, managing director of Republic Capital

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Before the fund announcement, Near Protocolโ€™s market cap as of April 6 was more than $11 billion, according to data from the cryptocurrency tracker CoinGecko. As of writing, NEAR has been trading at $17.54, a 15.6% volume increase.

โ€œNEAR might be one of the protocols that can take over the world,โ€ โ€“ Amos Zhang, a partner at MetaWeb VC, which focuses on investments that are part of the blockchainโ€™s wider ecosystem.

In January, Near also raised $150 million in a seed round largely funded by crypto-native investors. 

What is NEAR Protocol?

NEAR Protocol was founded in 2018 as an open-source platform for decentralized applications. Since its October 2020 mainnet launch, NEAR has focused on creating a user-friendly platform for developers of decentralized applications (dapps). The speedy proof-of-stake blockchain is meant to serve as an alternative to Ethereum, which has scalability issues that can cause transaction fees to spike.

This article is published on BitPinas: Near Protocol Raises $350M to Accelerate Decentralization

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