Near Protocol Raises $350M in a Funding Round Led by Tiger Global (Report)

The blockchain enterprise Near Protocol has reportedly secured a $350 million fundraiser. The initiative was led by Tiger Global Management – an American investment firm with over $90 billion in assets under management.

• Cited by Bloomberg, Amos Zhang – a Partner at MetaWeb VC (a company focused on investments that are part of the cryptocurrency industry) – said the fundraiser led by a giant such as Tiger Global “obviously means that Near might be one of the protocols that can take over the world.”
• The $350 million investment is more than double the amount Near Protocol secured at the beginning of 2022. Back then, it raised $150 million in funding from high-profile investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Alameda Research, and Three Arrows Capital.
• As of today, Near Protocol’s market capitalization stands at over $10 billion, placing it among the top 20 cryptocurrency projects.
• The price of the native token of the Protocol – NEAR – has also gone through an impressive increase in the last several months.
• Its USD value stood at around $6 in April last year, while currently, it trades more than 150% higher – at approximately $16.
• The blockchain protocol has also played a role in the Russia-Ukraine war. Near’s Ukrainian Co-Founder – Illia Polosukhin – helped move at least 50 people out of the nation due to the conflict and raised over $3 million to pay for food, medicine, and evacuation efforts.
• The executive was part of a wave of millions of Ukrainians who left their homeland in recent weeks. Currently, Polosukhin resides in Portugal, which turned out to be a preferred destination for refugees because of its crypto-friendly policies.