HASHED Participates in $17M Series A Funding for Solana-based Web 3.0 company Backpack

South Korean blockchain investment firm Hashed(해시드) has participated in a Series A investment in Backpack, a Solana-based blockchain company.

The Series A investment, which totals $17 million (KRW 23 billion), values Backpack at a total valuation of $120 million (KRW 16 billion). The round was led by New York-based investment firm Placeholder VC, with participation from local blockchain investors Hashed, Robot Ventures, Amber Group, Wintermute, Selini Capital and Delphi Digital.

Backpack is contributing to the growth of the Solana ecosystem by developing xNFTs (executable NFTs) on the Solana chain, as well as solutions such as the Backpack Exchange, Backpack Wallet and the Mad Lads NFT collection. Developed by Backpack, xNFTs are a differentiated token standard built on the Solana chain that allows users to go beyond proving ownership of digital assets to owning the right to execute tokenised computer code. It is more practical and scalable than traditional NFTs.

Backpack Wallet is a non-custodial cryptocurrency wallet designed to work seamlessly with the xNFT system. It gives users full control over their private keys, helping them to protect their assets from hackers.

Backpack Exchange, which conveniently integrates with Backpack Wallet, is a global cryptocurrency exchange licensed by multiple regulatory authorities around the world. Its compliance, speed and high security make it a popular choice for many users. It surpassed $1 billion (KRW 1.34 trillion) in daily trading volume after just four days of pre-season trading.

Backpack also owns the Mad Lads NFT collection, which is one of the top NFT collections in the Solana ecosystem. At the end of last year, the collection traded over $24.5 million (KRW 32.1 billion).

“Backpack is a team that understands its community, is highly capable of building a compliant solution, and specialises in maximising the user experience,” said Baek Kyoum Kim, General Partner at Hashed, who led Backpack’s Series A investment. “We are excited to support their efforts to achieve optimal compliance as they move into the mainstream of the global financial infrastructure.”

“The history of finance has been marked by scandal, but Backpack is looking to change that,” said Armani Ferrante, CEO of Backpack. “Over the past few years, Backpack has created the environment to build a blockchain-based financial institution, and with this investment, we will open a new chapter in the blockchain industry with compliance as our guiding principle.”