As previously rumoured, Canadian blockchain outfit Dapper Labs has closed a new funding round.
The only surprise is it wasn’t for $250 million but ended up at $305 million.
The reasons are clear.
As rumoured, the lead investor was US outfit Coatue (Snap, Lyft, SpaceX), which has previously been most active in fintech and enterprise software.
What’s more interesting has been the pile-on from rich sportsmen.
These include NBA legend Michael Jordan and various current NBA players ranging from Kevin Durrant to Spencer Dinwiddie. A bunch of NFL and MLB players also got a piece of the action.
And not to forget the likes of Ashton Kutcher, Will Smith and Shawn Mendes, plus existing investors such as a16z, Venrock and USV.
Basically, Dapper Labs’ round appears to have been viewed as a money printing machine.
And why not?
This is company that created CryptoKitties in 2017, realised Ethereum couldn’t scale in 2019, built its own Flow blockchain, and now with NBA Top Shot has hosted $500 million of NFT trading between over 300,000 individuals over the past three months.
The cherry on the cake is CEO Roham Gharegozlou tweeting that of all the money raised, the company has only spent 1/6 i.e. it’s raising money not because it needs to raise money but because investors are throwing money at it.
Small wonder that - fully diluted - the Flow cryptocurrency is currently valued at more than $40 billion. (Dapper Labs itself is valued at around $3 billion but you have to be an accredited investor to get a slice of that action.)
So what can we learn from this situation?
A bet on Dapper Labs is a general bet on blockchain, combined with a more focused bet on a company that has already built two successful blockchain products, is operating its own successful blockchain, and has several hundred developers building their own dapps on its platform.
In other words, many people see Dapper Labs as the opportunity to buy Bitcoin for dollars.
Personally, I think the opportunity is more significant.
Bitcoin is value for cryptoheads.
Flow is shaping up to be blockchain for people who don’t know or care about blockchain but understand the ownership of digital assets.
That is Bitcoin is digital gold for weirdos while Flow is computer stonk money for everyone.
Which do you think is more valuable?
(Disclosure: I own Flow tokens, CryptoKitties NFTs and NBA Top Shot moments so I would say that, wouldn’t I?)