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Investors are pouring big money into the infrastructure behind NFTs

30 March 2021
Dan Ackermann

The "non-fungible token" hype sweeping the country has invigorated an appetite for the backbone of the phenomenon.

Driving the news: Investors are pouring big money into the phenomenon's infrastructure — betting it's here to stay.

Catch up quick: The eye-popping amounts spent to own a digital version of art — or newspaper covers, trading cards, memes, you name it — verified via blockchain, have been called a side effect of the broader market frenzy.

What they're saying: The infrastructure behind NFTs "has improved tremendously in recent years. ... Protocols, applications and creators can scale fast to meet demand," says Matt Beck, director of investment at venture capital firm Digital Currency Group.

  • "The interest in NFTs is likely to persist, even if prices were to cool off amid a wider financial downturn."

The company behind virtual trading card site NBA Top Shot said Tuesday it raised $305 million — the biggest ever funding round for an NFT-focused company. (Valuation: $2.6 billion).

  • NFT marketplace SuperRare said today it raised $9 million.
  • OpenSea, another platform to sell and buy NFTs, said last week it raised $23 million.

By the numbers: NFT-related startups raised $35 million last year, according to Pitchbook.

  • The funding rounds listed above (by no means exhaustive) are already more than 9 times that amount — and it's only March.

The bottom line: So long as NFTs are hot, its ecosystem will be too.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.