NFT marketplace OpenSea buys crypto wallet Dharma Labs, changes CTO

The TV camera stands in front of the non-fungible token (NFT) “Autoglyph # 177” and “CryptoPunk # 7523”, a series of 10,000 unique pixel art characters created by Larva Labs in 2017. You can see it in the silhouette. Media preview of the “Natively Digital: A Curated NFT Sale” auction held in Sotheby’s, New York City, USA on June 4, 2021. REUTERS / Shannon Stapleton

January 18 (Reuters)-Tuesday NFT Marketplace OpenSea said it bought Dharma Labs, a digital wallet for cryptocurrencies, for a private amount, with Dharma’s chief technology officer as OpenSea’s chief technology officer. Said that it would be.

Founded in 2017 and valued at $ 13.3 billion in a recent venture funding round, the deal “dramatically improves the NFT buying, casting and selling experience” in the market. increase.

NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are a type of digital asset that exists in the blockchain of records management technology. Last year, more and more people were buying sports game artwork and video highlights as NFTs, and their popularity soared.

According to data from market tracker Dapp Radar, NFT sales reached approximately $ 25 billion in 2021, but there were signs of slowing growth towards the end of the year. read more

OpenSea refused to share the financial terms of the transaction. Axios, who reported the talks, said Dharma Labs had raised about $ 15 million. According to data from research firm Crunchbase, it has raised $ 7.1 million.

OpenSea said current CTO Alex Atallah will step into a new external role to oversee the development of the company’s web3 and NFT ecosystem as Dharma Labs CEO Nadav Hollander takes over Atallah’s position. I did.

“Web3” is a broad term used to describe the next phase of decentralized Internet running on the blockchain, where users own the platform. read more

“In 2021, NFTs exploded into mainstream consciousness in a way almost unimaginable, and OpenSea grew virtually 1000 times overnight,” Hollander said in a statement. “Now we have a historic opportunity to build truly cross-generational products. We’re expanding OpenSea’s technology to meet the reliability, performance, and uptime benchmarks that users expect and deserve. I’m excited to be able to concentrate. “

OpenSea said the Dharma Labs app will shut down.

Report by Elizabeth Califord; Edited by Jonathan Oatis

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