Smart Token Labs' TokenScript quadruples valuation as it raises $6 million

Quick Take

  • Open-source software company Smart Token Labs has raised $6 million in a round led by billionaire Fosun International co-founder Liang Xinjun for its TokenScript project. 
  • It also featured participation from investors such as HashGlobal, Bodl and Fenbushi Capital. 

Billionaire Fosun International co-founder Liang Xinjun led a $6 million funding round for open-source software company Smart Token Labs's Tokenscript project. 

The company has now quadrupled the valuation of TokenScript from $50 million to $200 million. In July last year, it raised an initial $6 million from investors such as Mark Cuban, Crypto.com, Framework Ventures and Mechanism Capital, it said. 

This latest deal, which closed earlier this month, also involved investors such as HashGlobal, Bodl and Fenbushi Capital, according to an announcement. 

Smart Token Labs raised the money via a simple agreement for future tokens or a SAFT, it said over email. SAFTs are investment contracts offered to investors by startups that agree to the eventual transfer of their native tokens. It will use these funds to further develop TokenScript, a framework that aims to improve upon the functionality of tokens. 

"TokenScript has enormous potential as a programmable smart token interface, an open source middleware that can connect Web2 and Web3,” said Xinjun in the statement. “We are very encouraged by the traction the team is gaining via projects with global brands and integrations with major platforms."

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The TokenScript product BrandConnectors enables websites to respond based on the tokens in a user's wallet and is currently being integrated with platforms such as Shopify and Galaxy with other platform partnerships in sports and loyalty in the works, it said. 

Smart Token Labs also said the framework is interoperable across blockchains, with successful implementations on Solana, Flow and Ethereum virtual machine networks such as Optimism, Polygon, Avalanche, and Ethereum. 

The SAFT raise comes at a time venture capitalists have started to shun tokens as viable investment vehicles. According to The Block reporting, 2022 has seen a growing number of crypto startups offer up both equity and tokens to potential backers. This comes amid a 22% decline in blockchain venture funding in the second quarter of this year according to The Block Research. 

Blockchain/crypto venture funding by quarter from The Block Research


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About Author

Tom is a deals reporter at The Block covering venture capital, fundraises, fintech and M&A. Before joining, he was an editorial intern at the FT-backed platform Sifted where he reported on neobanks, payment firms and blockchain startups. You can reach him by email at [email protected] or Telegram @tommatsuda.