Decrypt and Spencer Dinwiddie met to discuss Calaxy’s $26 million raise and the appointment of a new CEO, as the company prepares for its exit from beta.
Spencer Dinwiddie’s Calaxy has closed a $26 Million funding round. A social token platform built upon the Hedera Hashgraph was also hired a new CEO.
The HBAR Foundation co-led the strategic funding round. In February, Ubisoft , a console gaming giant, was welcomed to its ecosystem. Animoca Brands recently purchased three gaming studios as part of its efforts to dominate the Web3 gaming market.
Polygon also participated in this round. It has been designated as a destination by apps that leave the Terra network.
It launched last summer with seed funding of $7.5 million. The platform also offered Calaxy Creator tokens from Teyana Taylor, actress and singer, and NBA star Iman Schumpert.
The platform has now minted 1 billion Calaxy Creator tokens (CLXY) since April. According to Live coin Watch, the market cap is currently $546 million.
As the Calaxy team prepares for the beta release later in the summer, the new funding will be used as a way to expand Calaxy’s platform.
“We are further expanding the ecosystem. Dinwiddie explained that the app and protocol are both being developed. “You also know that the token has a governance component. We want other decentralized applications built on top of this protocol because it is a protocol.”
Dinwiddie’s cofounder, Calaxy COO and ex-Wall Street banker Solo Ceesay, will assume the role of chief executive.
Ceesay shared his vision with Decrypt in an email. “We envision a world that anyone can use our mobile or web applications to connect to their favorite content creators, regardless of their crypto experience,” Ceesay said. “We want to be the project that defines social tokens and Web3 fan engagement when it’s all over.”
Dinwiddie and crypto
Dinwiddie will now be the executive chair of Calaxy. This is a significant step back from Calaxy’s day-to-day operations. Dinwiddie almost missed the opportunity to pursue social tokens and even an entire protocol and platform.
After he claimed he would tokenize his $34million contract, he first attracted attention from crypto circles in 2019. He was stopped twice by them. He was unable to raise $1.35 Million when he finally started selling tokens in 2020.
He’s discovered that his connections to major names have been an asset to Calaxy as they try to get more people on the Calaxy platform.
He said that he believes our secret sauce is down to our network. “Like at end of day, I don’t mean to pat myself on my back, but it sure is a different experience when you can make one phone call and get in touch with Ezekiel Elliott, Matt James, or LeBron James for that matter.”
Dinwiddie stated that even if crypto has been embraced by the league and other skeptics out of financial interest, it is better than being mocked.
He said, “It’s much more fun not to catch bullets all of the time.” “When I first spoke about [crypto], it was either crazy and it was, you can guess, ‘Shutup.’ Or it was me being ridiculed.
