Odaily News Ephemera, the developer of the decentralized messaging protocol XMTP, has completed a $20 million Series B financing round led by Union Square Ventures, a16z crypto and Lightspeed Faction, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Offline Ventures, Sound Ventures and Distributed Global. After this round of financing, Ephemera's equity valuation is $300 million, while the broader network covering the XMTP protocol that will issue tokens is valued at $750 million.
The XMTP protocol has now been integrated into Coinbase's newly launched Base application, upgrading from an optional feature to core infrastructure. The protocol provides end-to-end encrypted communication services and supports secure interactions between wallet addresses. The test network was launched in February this year. Ephemera said it will expand the team size to promote the launch of the protocol mainnet and ecological construction. USV partner Fred Wilson will join its board of directors. (The Block)