It’s clear that we’re in the third evolution of the global internet — the time for startups is now. Blockchain technology is enabling entrepreneurs and developers to create fascinating new tools that are completely decentralized and global. In recent years, this sector has attracted plenty of new talent and capital. Unsurprisingly, startups in this sector are relatively young and still in their early stages of growth.
If you’re looking for a new place to work or invest, this is the industry to watch. Here are the top three recently-launched Web 3.0 startups that are worth your attention.
Startups Lido Finance
Web 3.0’s core promise is a reimagining of our tech and financial systems. Without any intermediaries, these platforms need to incentivize users in different ways to keep the system operational. For newer crypto platforms, these incentives are usually a yield for staking or providing liquidity.
Startup Lido Finance is simplifying this process by unifying all the staking and liquidity markets onto a single platform. Through the Lido portal, users can stake their assets on the Ethereum or Solana network or provide liquidity on the AAve or Sushi Swap networks. This Web 3.0 tool lets you mint new tokens, stake your existing assets, borrow, lend or directly fund new projects in the community.
This month, venture capitalist Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) invested $70 million in Lido and placed some of its Ether holdings in their staking solution.
Battlebound
Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) also led a $4.8M funding round for play-to-earn gaming platform Battlebound. Launched in May 2021, the team is working on two game titles that could be released shortly. Both games have decentralized marketplaces and built-in crypto incentives to organically create a play-to-earn ecosystem.
Battlebound’s development team has already been very creative in its funding and development efforts. Last year, the team launched roughly 10,000 playable characters as NFTs to raise $3 million in seed funding. Those funds combined with the a16z investment put the team in a robust position to launch their gamified crypto experience soon.
Fireblocks
The growing participation of institutional investors and traditional financial firms have introduced more capital to the crypto sector. However, it’s also attracted the attention of cybercriminals and hackers. When the Lazarus Group hacked into four South Korean exchanges and stole $200M of Bitcoin, a group of cybersecurity advisors helped the exchanges navigate the incident. A year later they launched Fireblocks to support other enterprises and institutions with the same issues.
Fireblocks helps maintain custody over digital assets, manage treasury operations, access DeFi, mint and burn tokens easily. In other words, it’s providing the tools traditional corporate giants need to navigate this nascent sector with safety.
The team recently raised $550 million to quadruple its valuation to $8 billion earlier this year.
