LD Capital sees Polkadot and its environment as ripe for expansion. With this, Polkadot adds yet another piece of good news to its flow this week.
China’s LD Capital tweeted the announcement on the start of Polkadot Ecosystem Fund on Jan. 21. The fund will engage in capital support, community building, development advisory, and marketing to early stage projects focused on Polkadot. LD Capital set the fund at $10 million.
LD Capital
LD Capital is one of China’s oldest venture capital firms focused on blockchain technology. The company previously invested into Qtum, Vechain and Eos. Crunchbase lists it as being founded in 2017.
PAID Network
On Jan. 22, PAID Network CEO Kyle Chassé tweeted his regards over Plasm Network connecting on Rococo v1, the Polkadot testnet. For Plasm, a sidechain on Polkadot is important to projects such as PAID, considering Polkadot’s ever-increasing reach. Plasm Network announced the local connection as Polkadot’s first parachain on Rococo v1 on Jan. 15.
To the Moon(stake)
As BeInCrypto reported on Jan. 20, staking company Moonstake and digital assets platform RockX also announced a partnership focused on Polkadot. RockX is already engaged in the Polkadot ecosystem through technical support and a $20 million investment program.
Polkadot a Strong Fourth
Polkadot’s DOT token replaced Ripple Lab’s XRP in January as the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. This is due to Polkadot’s expanding popularity as well as Ripple’s regulatory woes.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission slapped Ripple, its current CEO and former CEO with lawsuits on Dec. 23, 2020. One such suit claims that Ripple Labs sold $1.2 billion of unregistered securities in the for of XRP. Another suit asserts that former CEO Christian Larsen and current CEO Brad Garlinghouse sold a further $600 million in unregistered securities on their own.
Garlinghouse defends Ripple, saying that the eight years that the company has been on the market and its previous government rulings prove that it is not a security. Furthermore, he questioned the timing of the suits as the US government changes hands. However, without mentioning the Ripple case directly, SEC Commissioner Hester Pierce, commonly known as ‘Crypto Mom’, mentioned in an interview that such cases are usually settled out of court.
Polkadot, meanwhile, continues to go from strength to strength. Remarkably, the company, led by co-founders including Ethereum co-founder Gaviin Wood, only went live in May 2020. By November, it claimed sixth place by market cap. Since December, the price of the DOT token more than tripled.