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0x Labs, the company behind 0x, an open-source decentralized exchange (DEX) protocol, revealed this morning that it’s raised $70 million in a Series B funding round.
The news comes on the heels of last week’s announcement that America’s largest crypto exchange, Coinbase, had chosen 0x to power its just-debuted social NFT marketplace. Coinbase participated in 0x’s Series B, which was led by Greylock. Other participants included Pantera Capital, OpenSea, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and actor Jared Leto.
0x allows for the peer-to-peer exchange of tokenized assets, including NFTs, which prove ownership of a unique digital item. Per last week’s announcement, 0x secured the Coinbase partnership by offering greater gas efficiency than similar protocols, and thus lower transaction costs for users.
Upon news of the Coinbase partnership last week, 0x’s token, ZRX, skyrocketed by 53% to $1.12. The token’s price has since then settled back down to $0.74. It received a slight bump this morning following the funding announcement.
Meanwhile, Coinbase’s stock hit an all-time low last week after beta-launching its 0x-powered NFT marketplace. Since then, the cryptocurrency exchange’s stock has continued to slide, hitting a new record low of $128.10 today. Coinbase’s marketplace launched months later than originally planned, and joined a crowded ecosystem of similar marketplaces including OpenSea, Rarible, Foundation, SuperRare, LooksRare, and Nifty Gateway, among others.
As the ecosystem of NFT and token marketplaces becomes more and more crowded, 0x seeks to become the default backer of peer-to-peer token transactions for these platforms.
0x’s new round of funding has been allocated for multiple projects, including growing Matcha, its search engine for tokens, and expanding service to additional blockchains. It currently supports seven: Ethereum, Polygon, Fantom, Avalanche, Optimism, BNB Chain, and Celo.