Rarible, a digital art-focused NFT platform, has raised an undisclosed amount in a pre-seed round that was closed by leading New York-based blockchain investment firm CoinFund. The investment will help Rarible develop a community-governed, blockchain-based NFT marketplace that enables a direct relationship between digital content creators and buyers.

Launched earlier this year, Rarible marketplace offers users to trade liquid intellectual properties and any digital content with licensing via NFT tokens. Since the tokens are based on blockchain technology, all copyrights and ownership details get automatically recorded and securely maintained.

In the nascent NFT industry, whose market capitalization is expected to grow by as much as 50% this year and reach $315 million, this injection is a pioneering move that could pave the way for other investment firms and projects.

“At CoinFund, we’re excited to support the Rarible team’s highly cryptonative approach as the asset class of NFTs continues to develop. Over time, we think the core value propositions of crypto networks implemented by Rarible will make it highly competitive with other digital marketplaces and Rarible will be a premiere venue for NFT liquidity.”Jake Brukhman, Founder & Managing Partner at CoinFund 

“We are thrilled to have CoinFund become a strategic investor in Rarible” Alexei Falin, Co-founder of Rarible

“As we share common goals and values, we believe our joint efforts and expertise will facilitate Rarible’s way towards wider adoption and decentralisation, and will make an impact to the development of the NFT space” Alex Salnikov, Co-founder of Rarible

Currently, Rarible team is in the process of implementing full community governance. The recently released $RARI governance token, which is awarded to active marketplace users, allowing them to vote on the project’s core features, economics, and smart contracts updates. Eventually, the market will be fully controlled by the Rarible community.

About CoinFund

CoinFund is a blockchain-focused investment firm investing in crypto networks and their key enabling infrastructure. Founded in 2015, CoinFund is partnered with the team at Venrock. CoinFund has formulated a strategy of network lifecycle investing, focusing on funding early-stage companies, engaging in active network participation strategies, and managing digital asset exposure as networks mature. CoinFund team has a five-year track record in the blockchain space, investing across two digital asset focused funds. Its partnership draws on 30+ years of experience in finance, law, engineering, and technology. CoinFund’s mission is to be value-added investors and technical partners to blockchain’s most promising teams.

About Rarible

Founded by Alex Salnikov and Alexei Falin, creator-centric NFT marketplace Rarible stands out among the top-10 NFT projects as the first non-DeFi company to start moving toward a fully autonomous community governance model. While Rarible has organically gained most adoption from the digital art community, the assets available on the platform currently include in-game assets, metaverses lands, DeFi insurances, with more categories to be supported.

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