{"id":219062,"date":"2024-04-01T12:22:04","date_gmt":"2024-04-01T12:22:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/01\/xion-a-blockchain-from-burntbanksy-announces-25-million-in-series-a-funding\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:19:33","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:19:33","slug":"xion-a-blockchain-from-burntbanksy-announces-25-million-in-series-a-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/01\/xion-a-blockchain-from-burntbanksy-announces-25-million-in-series-a-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"XION, a blockchain from \u2018BurntBanksy,\u2019 announces $25 million in Series A funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

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XION, a blockchain built for consumer-focused developers closed a $25 million Series A funding round earlier this month, with investment from Multicoin, Animoca and Arrington Capital<\/a>, among others.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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XION is built by Burnt, a self-described Web3<\/a> foundry that offers a smart contract development toolchain. It is the first platform enabling developers to \u201cbuild, launch, and scale consumer-ready Web3 products from the ground up,\u201d the company said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cBurnt started as a decentralized marketplace on Solana<\/a> and XION came to the picture where the value capture funnel for the marketplace was terrible, and onboarding new users was hard,\u201d its founder, the pseudonymous \u201cBurntBanksy,\u201d told Fortune<\/em>. \u201cLike one of those solve-for-yourselves kind of things, we built XION to effectively allow products that we wanted to build, to be able to target mainstream users.\u201d<\/p>\n

XION\u2019s approach has been to rethink the traditional experience of wallets, gas fees and denominations, instead opting for multiple abstractions at the protocol level to enable familiar user experiences, the company said.<\/p>\n

Burnt made headlines in 2021 when it burnt an original Banksy painting worth $95,000 at the time, and broadcast this live via the X account of its founder. A publicity stunt to some, to Burnt, the act was part of the process of turning a physical artwork into a non-fungible token.<\/p>\n

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.@BurntBanksy<\/a> burned an original Banksy. <\/p>\n

They’ll create an NFT linked to the piece and sell it on @opensea<\/a> (of course)<\/p>\n

Symbolism:
New wave of creators burning its idols
Digital value vs. physical value<\/p>\n

Cynicism:
Publicity stunt https:\/\/t.co\/UCqoh0dBRq<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/AVpBws7LLZ<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Camila Russo (@CamiRusso) March 4, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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The NFT commemorating the Banksy burning has since been sold for $400,000 to an unidentified wallet-holder named \u201cGalaxy,\u201d BurntBanksy said.<\/p>\n

BurntBanksy returned this month to introduce XION, this time creating the illusion of setting himself on fire to burn away the negative lessons witnessed by the ecosystem over the past two years, the company said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m kind of obsessed with the myth of Prometheus,\u201d he said. Greek god Prometheus\u00a0stole fire from the gods and gave it to humanity\u00a0in the form of technology, knowledge, and ultimately, civilization. XION wants to proverbially \u201cignite the way forward\u201d with Web3, he said. <\/p>\n

While users may not find civilization on XION, they will able to access any of the applications built on it directly from their phone, thus eradicating the need for private key management. In other words, users will be able to sign on to applications with recognizable methods from Web2, like email addresses or facial recognition.<\/p>\n

While XION will also have a native token, it\u2019s the first blockchain to integrate stablecoin USDC as its primary currency for transactions, with the aim of providing consumers with predictable pricing within the ecosystem.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a big part of the friction, whether it\u2019s actual knowledge or technical friction, is people needing to learn what a Solana is, or an Ethereum is,\u201d BurntBanksy said. \u201cBut people understand dollars and they don\u2019t want the thing they\u2019re buying to be worth 220 times more next week,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Web3 industry still faces adoption challenges, the company says, such as complex onboarding, technical jargon and transaction friction, which keeps new users away. XION wants to enable developers to build \u201cengaging consumer applications that are uniquely enabled by blockchain capabilities,\u201d it said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The company launched a test-run, which resulted in 100,000 users in 24-hours. In total, it saw over 150 projects launched and more than 12 million transactions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the projects that I\u2019m seeing early on, coming out of our hackathon and coming through our original ecosystem, happened to be either music or gaming focus, but mostly under the umbrella of consumer applications,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The new capital will allow XION to accelerate the development of the ecosystem, the company said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n