Flow Launches $725 Million Blockchain Development Fund With A16z, Digital Currency Group And Other Investors

NBA Top Shot’s host blockchain, Flow, is getting a $725 million boost through a new ecosystem fund backed by its parent’s company’s investment arm, Dapper Ventures, and a high-profile group of investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue and Digital Currency Group, among others.

The joint venture will provide the blockchain’s 7,500+ developers with wide-ranging support including accelerators and incubators, investments and FLOW token grants in a bid to accelerate Flow’s growth in various areas such as gaming and decentralized finance.

Flow’s fund is only the latest in a series of nine and ten-figure incentive programs aimed at further adoption. Some of the largest such efforts include Binance’s $1 billion fund for its Binance Smart Chain and NEAR’s DeFi-focused $800 million fund. But instead of having one team distribute the funds, Flow’s new vehicle will accommodate participating investors’ individual allocation decisions.

“I think that’s really important because it allows for a diversity of thought and I think will lead to a much more diverse ecosystem,” says Dapper Labs’ chief business officer Mik Naayem. “[The fund] is creating a way for us to support any type of entrepreneur in a way that is kind of tailored to them.”

For instance, Greenfield One will provide office space for developers based in Berlin. Liberty City Ventures will be offering two scholarships for college students to work in Flow-related projects. Miranda Ventures will be bringing in strategic collaboration opportunities for Flow projects with cryptocurrency exchange Bybit and BitDAO, one of the largest decentralized investment funds backed by Bybit and Peter Thiel, according to the announcement.

Naayem says the initiative has been a few months in development, but the fund’s launch comes at a time when rising interest rates and geopolitical tensions are pushing cryptocurrencies, along with stocks and commodities, to new multi-month lows. Flow’s native token FLOW has shed over 25% over the past week, topping losses of leading cryptocurrencies, bitcoin and ether, which have dropped nearly 20% over the period.

Despite the volatility, activity of Flow is thriving. Flow saw daily transactions triple since September 2021 to over 700,000, and the number of active accounts on the network has shot up to a new all-time high of more than half a million this week, according to blockchain analytics platform Flowscan. Some of Flow’s most popular projects include sports collectibles such as NBA Top Shot and NFL ALL DAY.

On Sunday, CoinDesk reported that Instagram is planning to test NFT integrations with a few blockchains including Flow. Naayem was not able to provide additional details but essentially confirmed the pilot saying “We are grateful to have been included in that initial list. It should be a big moment for the industry.”