Softbank-Backed Brazilian Crypto Firm Launches New Venture Capital Unit

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NEW YORK, Dec.10 (Reuters) – Softbank-backed Brazilian firm 2TM, which operates Latin America’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has launched a venture capital unit focused on blockchain companies around the world , said the CEO of the company in an interview.

2TM, valued at around $ 2.2 billion after the last fundraising of $ 50 million, is the holding company of Mercado Bitcoin, with 3.2 million customers in October 2021. In the first 10 months of it year, the volume of trade at the crypto exchange grew to $ 6.4 billion, surpassing its total of the first seven years.

The Brazilian company raised $ 200 million from Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T) for Mercado Bitcoin in a fundraising round over the summer. Read more

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2TM Ventures, the company’s new unit, has so far invested $ 32 million in a portfolio of 10 crypto companies, 2TM chief executive Roberto Dagnoni told Reuters.

“We want to be the infrastructure provider for the token economy,” Dagnoni said.

2TM Ventures seeks to become a catalyst for the new economy by supporting innovative and disruptive companies that create new applications and new financial concepts, added Dagnoni.

Investments will be made using both traditional financial instruments such as stocks and convertible notes, as well as new instruments, including the direct purchase of tokens.

Some of 2TM’s investments include a stake in $ PRINTS tokens in Fingerprints DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization), a non-fungible token custody and collection group.

NFTS are unique digital assets that cannot be replaced with anything else. Many NFTS are part of the Ethereum blockchain.

2TM also led the round at Tropix, a marketplace for digital art NFTs, and at SL Tools, a financial market infrastructure provider that uses blockchain.

As a proponent of “tokenizing everything”, Dagnoni believes that SL Tools can become a market for traditional and digital assets.

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Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Alden Bentley and Karishma Singh

Our Standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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