NFT Marketplace Joepegs Declares a $5 Million Funding Round Led by FTX
Joepegs, an NFT marketplace on the Avalanche network, announced it had raised $5 million in seed financing funded by the now-defunct FTX Ventures and the Avalanche Foundation earlier this year.
FTX Funded Joepegs Before its Downfall
FTX is still making headlines despite plummeting to bankruptcy a few days ago. The venture recently funded Joepegs, an NFT marketplace on the Avalanche network, with $5 million in seeding financing. Last week, FTX and its affiliated firms (FTX US and Alameda Research) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after Binance backed out of a buyout due to a gap in the insolvent crypto exchange’s accounting books.
Despite being the ‘crypto villain,’ FTX founder and former CEO, Sam Bankman Fried, will continue to be remembered for his investments in the crypto and web3 space. The co-founders of Joepegs, who go by the pseudonyms Cryptofish and 0xMurloc, have continuously preached about the growth of web3.
The duo acknowledged their relationship with insolvent FTX, stating that the venture invested in Joepegs in June 2022. According to the team, Joepegs received the funds before the exchange filed for insolvency:
“The funding from FTX Ventures was completed in June and has since been transferred out of FTX prior to recent bankruptcy events,”
0xMurloc stated that his team concluded that the key to success in web3 projects was to allocate adequate funds to sustain the development:
“As we started building this, we realized very quickly that in order to deliver a platform that really helps users discover great NFTs, we have to invest in a lot more platform capabilities, so that’s what the fundraise will go toward,” 0xMurloc said. “On top of that, we also create a lot of content on our end. We did this at the start to fill a need. Marketplaces are only as good as the content in the ecosystem.”
Joepegs marketplace debuted in May. Since then, it has developed to become Avalanche’s largest NFT marketplace. The marketplace has over $3.4 million in additional Non-Fungible Token sales and over 12,000 users at the time of this publication. Joepegs has reported having an in-house production unit and a launchpad. Cumulatively, the founders have launched over 50 projects into the Avalanche ecosystem.
Bankrupt FTX Yacht Club
Still, under FTX’s chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, an NFT collection clowning the fall of the one-time internet darling Sam Bankman Fried surged to all-time highs recently. In the preceding week, NFTs for the bankrupt FTX Yacht Club transacted a record high of 13,769 times. These significantly higher sales figures stand in stark contrast to what is happening with the firm, its venture, and its subsidiaries.
One Bankrupt FTX Yacht Club NFT, the most expensive SBF NFT, was sold four days ago for $1,261. Bankrupt FTX Yacht Club has 2,129 owners and collectors in total, with a total of 6,969 NFTs available for purchase on OpenSea. It is, however, essential to note that the hype of FTX’s downfall drives FTX YC’s prices. Once the dust settles, the collection’s supply and demand curve may behave differently.
