Blockchain Startup Movement Labs Eyes $3 Billion Valuation With $100 Million Funding

As the cryptocurrency market recovers from the crash following the collapse of FTX, and if regulatory pressures ease as anticipated, expect to hear crypto startups making some noise.

For example, Movement Labs, a blockchain startup based in San Francisco, is close to finalizing a $100 million Series B funding round that could elevate its valuation to approximately $3 billion. According to media reports, this funding round is being co-led by CoinFund and Nova Fund, part of London-based investment firm Brevan Howard’s digital assets division, and is expected to close by the end of January 2025. CoinFund and Brevan Howard declined to comment when approached by news organizations.

Founded in 2022 by Gen Z entrepreneurs Cooper Scanlon and Rushi Manche, Movement Labs’ main focus is developing a layer-2 blockchain that integrates Ethereum with Facebook’s Move programming language. The company aims to address key challenges in the blockchain space, including improving transaction throughput and enhancing smart contract security. According to reports, the platform is designed to handle over 30,000 transactions per second, which positions it as a competitive player in the evolving blockchain landscape.

Fortune reported that the Series B round follows Movement Labs’ reported earlier success in raising $38 million during its Series A funding in April 2024. That round was led by Polychain Capital and included participation from various investors such as Hack VC and Robot Ventures. The new capital will be used to enhance product offerings, expand the company’s presence in the Asia-Pacific region, and recruit additional talent, reports said.

A source told Fortune that investors in the current funding round will receive a mix of equity stakes and Movement’s native MOVE tokens, with an emphasis on the token. The MOVE token was launched alongside the beta mainnet in December 2024 and has already gained traction on major exchanges like Binance and Coinbase. Although its market cap peaked at $2.7 billion shortly after launch, it currently stands at around $2 billion, according to reports.