https://ift.tt/3IkIO1J News: Latest from Coinbase, OpenSea and Autograph

The NFT (Non-Fungible Token) industry seems to be already the focus of the storm for 2022 as well, with new partnerships, acquisitions and funding rounds that have just been revealed. 

So, Coinbase decides to simplify the user experience by partnering with Mastercard, OpenSea acquires Dharma to be a force multiplier for the adoption of NFTs and web3 and Tom Brady’s marketplace Autograph announced that it closed a $170 million funding round.

Coinbase partners with Mastercard to make NFTs mainstream

Well-known San Francisco-based crypto-exchange Coinbase has announced that it is partnering with Mastercard, the payment services giant, with the aim of expanding the number of consumers to buy NFTs.

“Game changer! We’re excited to announce our new partnership with Mastercard. Stay tuned as we work to unlock a new way to purchase NFTs using Mastercard cards”.

The idea is to “unlock” a new way to pay for Non-Fungible Tokens as well, using Mastercard cards and classify NFTs as “digital assets.” 

By including Mastercard in its NFT strategy, Coinbase says it wants to do as it has done in the past with Bitcoin, and that is to make it easier to access Non-Fungible tokens by helping millions of people. 

Last October 2021, Coinbase had introduced Coinbase NFT, its new dedicated decentralized marketplace, allowing interested users to join the waiting list. According to the exchange, its peer-to-peer marketplace will make minting, buying, presenting and discovering NFTs easier.

OpenSea acquires Dharma Labs and welcomes new CTO

Even the most popular marketplace in 2021, OpenSea announces news of its own: the acquisition of Dharma Labs and OpenSea’s new Chief Technology Officer or CTO, Nadav Hollander (CEO and co-founder of Dharma Labs). 

OpenSea co-founder Alex Atallah leaves his own comment about it on Twitter:

“Thrilled to welcome NadavAHollander and the Dharma_HQ team to OpenSea as we enter our next phase of growth. NFTs are the entry point for mainstream consumer adoption of web3 and crypto, and ultimately our union will help expedite adoption”.

Nadav is an experienced leader of the early Ethereum community, having built, launched and evangelized some of the most influential protocols and products in the DeFi space. 

OpenSea reveals that its initial mandate will be two key priorities: improving the technical reliability and uptime of OpenSea products, and building web3-native mechanisms to engage and reward the marketplace community.

Tom Brady’s NFT marketplace Autograph closes $170 million funding round 

Autograph, the NFT buying and selling platform of famed American footballer and 7-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady, has announced that it has closed a Series B funding round totaling $170 million co-led by a16z and Kleiner Perkins.

According to reports, the Series B round also includes investments from Lightspeed partner Nicole Quinn and Katie Haun’s firm, and a follow-on infusion from 01A.

With this latest round of capital, following the Series A round last July 2021, Autograph will continue to scale its NFT technology with the world’s most iconic sports and entertainment partners, bringing the power and possibilities created by Web3 to the mainstream.

Not only that, Tom Brady also announces new people on the Autograph team: 

“Big news on the Autograph front. We are pumped to add some really knowledgeable people in the Web3 space to our team. This thread from Chris Dixon includes some great context on our business. #ToTheMoon”.

Specifically, these are Haun, Arianna Simpson, general partner at a16z, and Ilya Fushman, partner at Kleiner Perkins, who will join Autograph’s board of directors, while Chris Dixon, general partner at a16z, will join the firm’s advisory board.