FTX and Avalanche lead $5 million round for Joepeg’s NFT marketplace • TechCrunch
Even though FTX collapsed last week, increases their venture team contributed to are still being announced.
Joepegs, an NFT marketplace on the Avalanche blockchain, raised $5 million in a seed round led by now-defunct FTX Ventures and the Avalanche Foundation, its co-founders who go by the pseudonyms Cryptofish and 0xMurloc, told TechCrunch exclusively.
“The funding from FTX Ventures was completed in June and has since been transferred from FTX prior to recent bankruptcy events,” the team said in a statement.
Launched in May, the marketplace has quickly grown into the largest NFT marketplace on Avalanche with over $3.4 million in secondary NFT sales and 12,000 users. It also has its own production unit, Joe Studios, as well as an NFT Launchpad, which has brought over 50 projects into the Avalanche ecosystem, the company said.
The co-founders founded and are still involved in the operation of Trader Joe’s, a decentralized exchange on Avalanche (not to be confused with the American supermarket chain), which launched in early July 2021 and has a combined trading volume of over $88 billion.
“When we started building this, we realized very quickly that to deliver a platform that really helps users discover great NFTs, we need to invest in a lot more platform features, so that’s what the fundraising will go towards,” said 0xMurloc . “On top of that, we also create a lot of content on our site. We did this at the start to meet a need. Marketplaces are only as good as the content of the ecosystem.”
Joepegs is also investing in the operational side, outside of Avalanche, to collaborate with different merchants, projects and artists “across the ecosystem,” 0xMurloc said. “It’s something we do fiercely.”
Earlier this year, Avalanche delved further into the NFT space after partnering with the largest NFT marketplace, OpenSea, which now operates on the blockchain alongside other platforms such as Joepegs and Kalao. With around $408.2 million in total sales, Avalanche is the seventh largest blockchain by NFT sales volume, CryptoSlam data shows.
“People are focused on what’s going on with the larger market,” 0xMurloc said. “Yes, there are fewer people playing with crypto and the NFT market as a whole right now, but we see that interest from creators, brands and projects to dive deeper into web3 and NFTs – that appetite is not softening.”
There are many companies, creators and artists who are “eager to explore this form of commerce and community building,” 0xMurloc added.
“We are very positive about the future of NFTs and what it can bring,” Cryptofish said. “The idea that you can have apparel backed by NFTs is very bullish. You see that with Azuki with their skateboards and Nike sneakers, and we want to be at the forefront of NFT innovation with digital things and apparel.”
As more alternative NFT products come out, the NFT markets will have to adapt to accommodate it, Cryptofish added. “Our vision of NFT marketplaces will have to be like Amazon over time. Originally it was a bookstore, and now they’ve branched out to sell everything. That’s how I see things going.”
In the short term, the team plans to continue running internal content and has new collections coming up in the near future, 0xMurloc said.
“Longer term, we want to branch out into different varieties of NFTs and explore what Fish mentioned, whether it’s fashion, physical goods or games. We’re excited for what’s to come.”
