Today, NFT minting technology provider CXIP announced a $1.7 million seed round with participation from several funds and angel investors including Courtside Ventures, Mechanism Capital, Wave Financial, Arca, GMoney NFT, and Larry Warsh.
“Because each marketplace currently mints NFTs differently, with many out of compliance, artists are being forced to mint NFTs between one impaired marketplace or another,” CXIP CEO Jeff Gluck said. “If minting is flawed, the resulting collectible is flawed. Standardized marketplace-agnostic minting software to create NFTs properly and securely has been missing from this industry. This is the only way to establish trust in digital collectibles.”
“We are bullish on the growth of the NFT space, and have been looking for investment opportunities that facilitate its continued development,” Arca CIO Jeff Dorman said. “The CXIP project fulfills this need with its universal infrastructure solution and is consistent with our thematic approach to digital asset investing. Further, the team has the skills and knowledge to execute on its plan to attract more creators to the marketplace.”
“Rather than trying to compete with established players in the NFT space, CXIP Labs creates symbiotic relationships by integrating its universal minting solution with NFT marketplaces and auction houses,” Wave Financial said in a statement. “Having a minting solution that is standardized across the industry is a crucial step in establishing legitimacy in the NFT space, and it also furthers the ethos of NFTs by giving artists sovereignty over their creations.”
Lead investors have also joined the CXIP Alliance, an enterprise coalition of artists, creators, collectors, and marketplaces committed to safeguarding and standardizing measures across the NFT space. Founding members include chief brand officer Daniel Arsham, Lucien Smith, Jen Stark, Roger Gastman, FUTURA, and ThankYouX.
The lack of standardized minting leads to a host of issues including unclear provenance, smart contract vulnerabilities, counterfeit NFTs, and broken royalties, CXIP said. CXIP is planning API integrations with all major NFT marketplaces.
Additional angel investors include Larry Cermack and Lars Hoffmann from The Block, Andy Chorlian, regarded NFT collector and founder of Fractional, Nick Chong from Parafi, Daniel Armitage from Nansen, Coral Capital, David Choi, and Anastasia Andrianova.