Block.one and Galaxy Digital LP, a “full service, digital assets merchant bank” founded by former Fortress macro hedge fund manager Mike Novogratz, on Tuesday announced a joint venture to develop the EOS ecosystem and invest in projects built atop the forthcoming EOS blockchain software.
Block.one is the company behind EOS.IO (/EOS). Part of the venture is a USD 325 million fund dubbed the EOS.IO Ecosystem Fund.
Block.one’s EOS project could be among the largest fundraises in an initial coin offering (ICO) market that, according to Token Report data, has just surpassed USD 7 billion in aggregate funds raised. According to The Wall Street Journal, the year-long ICO (which is still running), had raised USD 700 million as of December. That fundraising rate would put it up near the 1.2 billion Telegram plans to raise. (EOS’ fundraise is not included in Token Report’s tally.)
The EOS Ecosystem Fund is the second EOS.IO fund. Last week, Block.One announced a similar partnership with Tomorrow Blockchain Opportunities, a fund managed by Derek Rundell of Eric Schmidt’s TomorrowVentures. Both are part of Block.one’s EOS venture partnership program, to which the company says it has committed USD 1 billion to fund such joint ventures.
EOS is developing blockchain infrastructure designed to support smart contracts and address scalability issues with existing blockchains. The project’s developers say it “has the potential to scale to millions of transactions per second,” according to Tuesday’s press release.
Sam Englebardt, head of strategic partnerships at Galaxy Digital, said in a statement, “With so many new blockchain projects, it can be difficult to ascertain which ones will emerge as market leaders. However, we believe EOS.IO is one of them. The Block.one team and the EOS.IO community are introducing the first scalable infrastructure to enable mainstream blockchain adoption and we are excited to be at the forefront of such a transformative initiative which we anticipate will drive positive change in the digital assets space.”
Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital, said in a statement: “EOS.IO is designed to enable new community-driven business models capable of disrupting the world’s largest technology incumbents. This milestone represents Galaxy Digital and Block.one’s joint commitment to investing in that future.”
Brendan Blumer, CEO of Block.one, commented: “Mike Novogratz and the team at Galaxy Digital are leading advocates for blockchain adoption and share our belief that this software fundamentally expands the capabilities of blockchain technology. We are excited to add Galaxy to the list of industry leaders driving EOS.IO innovation and expect this partnership to serve as an enormous catalyst for ecosystem growth.”
For more information, visit https://eos.io
