Azuki the latest NFT project to Raise Millions from VCs?

As the crypto winter rages on, VC investors continue betting big on the top NFT projects.

For this 8Weekly piece, we will be covering the following:

1. Will Azuki developer Chiru Labs be the latest to Gain VC Funding?
2. 8DAO Members in the News
3. OpenSea now supports Arbitrum
4. ApeCoin DAO's proposal to build an NFT trading market passed the vote
5. Korean internet giant Naver and LINE NEXT partner to launch NFT platform NOW.Drops

1. Will Azuki developer Chiru Labs be the latest to Gain VC Funding?

As the crypto winter rages on, VC investors continue betting big on the top NFT projects. Some notable raises this year include 

March 2022. Bored Ape Yacht Club creator Yuga Labs raised $450 million in March in a round led by a16z, bringing its valuation to $4 billion.

August 2022, Proof Collective, the company behind Moonbirds NFTs, raised $50 million in a Series A funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) at the end of August.

September 2022. Doodles raised $54 million at a $704 million valuation, in a round led by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian’s venture capital firm 776.

Latest information from The Block suggests that Chiru Labs is closing an upcoming $30 million Series A round, which would value them between $300 million and $400 million once completed. With this news comes speculation, with Azuki NFT’s floor price spiking to 16.2 ETH on 25 September, and has subsequently traded back down to 10 ETH (~$13,227), according to data on OpenSea

Just last month, Hong Kong real estate tycoon Adrian Cheng, an early web3 advocate and pioneer of culture and the arts, was revealed to be the user 'LastKnight', spending millions to purchase 101 Azukis in a huge bullish move. (Fun fact: Adrian is also a top 8DAO token holder)

Billionaire Cheng is also founder of the venture capital firm C Capital, which plans to raise $500 million to invest in Crypto and PE, reported Bloomberg. Could C Capital be involved in Chiru Labs upcoming fundraise?

2. 8DAO Members in the News, 2H 2022

Amazing to see fellow 8DAO members in the news recently:

Adrian, Hong Kong Tycoon-Backed Firm Is Raising $500 Million to Invest in Crypto, PE:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-21/h-k-tycoon-backed-firm-is-raising-500-million-for-crypto-pe

Alan, Animoca Brands appoints Alan Lau as chief business officer:

https://www.animocabrands.com/appoints-alan-lau-chief-business-officer-minh-do-co-chief-operating-officer

Ryan, Xterio raises $40M for high-end mobile Web3 games:

https://venturebeat.com/games/xterio-raises-40m-for-high-end-mobile-web3-games/ 

3. OpenSea now supports Arbitrum

NFT marketplace OpenSea announced that it now supports Arbitrum, an L2 Ethereum solution, saying, "This is the first step in our goal of building the future of Web3, where people can get the NFTs they want on the chains they like."

OpenSea will include additional network and language support in 2023, announcing their focus on "Expansion", aiming to build a global NFT ecosystem so that players can interact with NFTs across various chains and languages.

4. ApeCoin DAO's proposal to build an NFT trading market passed the vote

“Build a Community-First ApeCoin DAO Market” proposal by Snag solutions has passed the community vote. The proposed marketplace would host all Yugaverse projects in a single marketplace UI with significantly lower fees, keeping funds in the BAYC ecosystem, and also improving the marketplace experience for both parties to the transaction.

For transactions using $APE, buyers and sellers do not need to pay additional transaction fees. For users who use ETH to place orders, a certain transaction fee will be charged, and the transaction fee income will be managed by the community multi-signature wallet. Earlier, it was reported that the proposal to build an NFT market for ApeCoin holders by Magic Eden was voted down.

5. Korean internet giant Naver and LINE NEXT partner to launch NFT platform NOW.Drops

South Korean internet giant Naver Corp. has partnered with LINE NEXT, an NFT subsidiary of Japanese communications giant LINE, to launch its NFT platform NOW.Drops on Wednesday. The platform allows K-pop fans to cut clips of music performances from exclusive content from Naver’s live streamer NOW. and mint them into NFTs. BlockBeats previously reported that on July 13, LINE Next, an NFT subsidiary of Japanese communications giant LINE, announced the completion of a $10 million strategic financing, with investors such as Softbank and Naver participating.

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