Although FTX crashed last week, they are still announcing increases to which their team of companies contributed.
jopegsan 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 use the pseudonyms Cryptofish and 0xMurloc, exclusively told TechCrunch.
“The funding for FTX Ventures was completed in June and has since been transferred out of FTX prior to the recent bankruptcy events,” the team said in a statement.
The marketplace launched in May and has rapidly grown to become Avalanche’s largest NFT marketplace with over $3.4 million in secondary NFT sales and 12,000 users. It also has an in-house production unit, Joe Studios, as well as an NFT Launchpad, which has added more than 50 projects to the Avalanche ecosystem, the company said.
The co-founders also founded and continue to be involved in the operations of Trader Joe, a decentralized exchange on Avalanche (not to be confused with the American supermarket chain), which launched in early July 2021 and has a total trading volume of over $88 billion.
“When 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 capabilities of the platform, so the fundraising will go towards that,” said 0xMurloc. “On top of that, we also create a lot of content on our own. We did this at the beginning to fill a need. The markets are only as good as the content of the ecosystem.”
Joepegs also invests on the operational side, beyond Avalanche, to partner with different merchants, projects and artists “across the ecosystem,” 0xMurloc said. “That’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 like Joepegs and Kalao. With around $408.2 million in total sales, Avalanche is the 7th largest blockchain by NFT sales volume, CryptoSlam data shows
“People are focused on what’s happening in the major market,” 0xMurloc said. “Yes, there are fewer people playing cryptocurrency and the NFT market in general at the moment, but we see that the interest from creators, brands and projects to dig deeper into web3 and NFT, that appetite is not quenching.”
There are many companies, creators and artists who are “eager to explore this form of commerce and community building,” 0xMurloc added.
“We are very optimistic about the future of NFTs and what it could bring,” Cryptofish said. “The idea that you can have NFT-endorsed clothing is very optimistic. You see that with Azuki with her skateboards and Nike shoes and we want to be at the forefront of NFT innovation with clothing and digital stuff.”
As more alternative NFT products emerge, NFT markets will have to adapt to adapt, Cryptofish added. “Our vision for NFT markets will have to be like Amazon’s over time. Initially it was a bookstore and now they have diversified to sell everything. That’s how I see things going.”
In the near term, the team plans to continue pushing internal content and has new collections in the near future, 0xMurloc said.
“Longer term, we want to branch out into different flavors of NFTs and explore what Fish mentioned, whether it be fashion, physical merchandise, or gaming. We are excited for what is to come.”
