Japanese Group HashPort Raises $8.5M for Web 3.0 and Metaverse Development

HashPort Raises $8.5 Million for Blockchain Expansion

Japanese blockchain developer HashPort has closed a Series C funding round, raising 1.2 billion Japanese yen ($8.5 million). The round was led by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, The University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners and entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa, bringing the total funding to 2 billion yen ($14.2 million).

The funds will be used to consolidate business, secure a compliance management system and related personnel to navigate the global regulatory environment for expansion. HashPort’s ecosystem includes its namesake blockchain-related consulting and system solution in Japan and HashPalette, a public chain specializing in nonfungible tokens (NFTs). The company is also launching a metaverse game called The Land Elf Crossing in the fourth quarter.

In July 2021, HashPort’s Palette Chain partnered with cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck to launch Japan’s first initial exchange offering (IEO). The IEO raised a total of 22.45 billion yen ($160 million) in Palette (PLT) token commitments. The company claims that since then, PLT Place, the official NFT marketplace of Palette Chain, has accumulated over 370,000 users.

HashPort Group president Seihaku Yoshida said the company plans to cooperate with Expo 2025, an upcoming expo in Osaka, Japan, to build digital wallets and digital passports linked to soulbound tokens (SBTs). “Expo 2025 is expected to attract more than 28 million visitors. We believe this will be a historic event for introducing web 3.0 jobs, character AI, Voyager crypto exchange and other metaverse and web 3.0 experiences,” Yoshida wrote.

In December 2022, Cointelegraph reported that Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, now an investor in the company, partnered with HashPort to issue SBTs. The companies plan to research SBTs to explore practical uses for communities, jobs, knowledge-sharing services and decentralized autonomous organizations. These uses include web 3.0 jobs, character AI, NFT web 3.0 metaverse, blockchain vs web 3.0 and Voyager crypto exchange.

SBTs were previously proposed by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin as proof of the characteristics or reputation of a person, entity or “soul.” The name derives from soulbound items linked to a character in the MMORPG World of Warcraft, which are associated with the concept of metaverse web 3.0 vs web 3.0 and metaverse and web 3.0.