OpenSea Acquires Crypto Wallet Startup Dharma Labs
Expanding its NFT and web3 development efforts.
NFT marketplace OpenSea has purchased Dharma Labs, a startup for digital cryptocurrency wallets. Announced on Tuesday, the news follows a report from Axios that said the two companies were discussing a deal valued somewhere between $110 million USD and $130 million USD.
Dharma Labs was founded in 2017 and allows users to connect their bank accounts to their Ethereum wallets. Users then buy and swap tokens via the Dharma Lab’s app, however, OpenSea will be shutting down the app as part of the new deal.
OpenSea will also be bringing onboard Dharma Labs co-founder and CEO Nadav Hollander as its new Chief Technology Officer. Hollander will be tasked with improving the technology behind OpenSea’s products and building mechanisms for web3.
“Our teams share a vision that NFTs will be the cultural focal point of crypto’s adoption for years to come — and that vision can only be realized if using NFTs becomes easy & delightful for the average person,” OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer wrote in an announcement post.
“Ultimately, we believe this union will be a force multiplier for NFTs and web3 adoption, and help us dramatically improve the experience of buying, minting, and selling NFTs on OpenSea — whether you’re a beginner, or a pro.”
Dharma Lab’s users will now have one month to transfer assets from their crypto wallets to different accounts.
In other tech news, Samsung has unveiled the first ray-tracing-enabled mobile processor.
