Joepegs, a NFT marketplace raised $5 million in seed funding from investors including the since-shuttered FTX Ventures
- ByStartupStory | November 15, 2022
Despite FTX’s bankruptcy the previous week, its ventures team’s contributions to raises are still being disclosed. According to its co-founders, who goes by the aliases Cryptofish and 0xMurloc, Joepegs, an NFT marketplace on the Avalanche blockchain, raised $5 million in a seed round led by the Avalanche Foundation and the now-defunct FTX Ventures.
The team stated in a statement that “the funding from FTX Ventures was completed in June and have since been transferred out of FTX prior to recent bankruptcy events.” With over $3.4 million in secondary NFT sales and 12,000 users since its May start, the marketplace has expanded quickly to become the largest NFT marketplace on Avalanche. Additionally, it has an internal production division called Joe Studios and an NFT Launchpad, which the business claims have added over 50 projects to the Avalanche ecosystem.
Trader Joe, a decentralised 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, was also founded by the co-founders, and they are still actively involved in its operations.
“As we started constructing this, we immediately realised that we needed to invest in a lot more platform features in order to offer a platform that actually helps people discover amazing NFTs, so that’s what the fundraiser will go toward,” 0xMurloc added. Additionally, we produce a lot of stuff on our end. We started doing this to meet a need. Markets are only as good as the ecosystem’s content. Beyond Avalanche, Joepegs also invests in the operational side to collaborate with various traders, projects, and artists “across the ecosystem,” according to 0xMurloc. “That’s something we do with a vengeance.” After working with the biggest NFT marketplace, OpenSea, which now runs on the blockchain among other platforms like Joepegs and Kalao, Avalanche expanded its NFT portfolio earlier this year. Avalanche is the seventh-largest blockchain by NFT sales volume, according to data from CryptoSlam, with around $408.2 million in total sales.
According to 0xMurloc, “people are focused on what is happening to the larger market.” Although fewer people are currently involved in the crypto and NFT markets overall, we can still see that creator, brands, and projects still have a strong desire to learn more about web3 and NFTs. Many businesses, artists, and producers are “excited to explore this form of trade and community development,” 0xMurloc continued. According to Cryptofish, “We’re quite enthusiastic about the future of NFTs and what it could offer.” “The notion that apparel may be backed by NFTs is really positive. You can see that with Azuki’s skateboards and Nike sneakers, and we want to lead NFT innovation with our digital products and apparel. According to Cryptofish, as more alternative NFT products are released, NFT markets will need to change to accommodate them. “Over time, our goal for NFT marketplaces must be to become like Amazon. Originally a bookstore, they have since expanded to sell everything. That is how I envision things developing.”According to 0xMurloc, the team intends to keep promoting its own content for the foreseeable future and will soon release new collections. Longer term, we want to explore different NFT flavours and what Fish mentioned, including gaming, fashion, and physical goods. We are anticipating what lies ahead
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