NFT Software Company Dust Labs Raises $7M During y00ts Release

Non-fungible token (NFT) software company Dust Labs has raised a $7 million funding round, announced during the pandemonium for its Solana-based y00ts NFT minting on Monday.

Participants in the round include Foundation Capital, Solana Ventures, Metaplex, Jump, FTX Ventures and Chapter One. The investment was a 50/50 split between company equity and its DUST token, a representative told CoinDesk.

DUST is a utility token on Solana dubbed as the official currency of the DeGods ecosystem. DeGods is known for its popular eponymous PFP, which is the highest valued collection in the Solana NFT world.

At 11:30 p.m. ET, DUST was down 30% from its daily high of $3 as traders digested the news. It’s not uncommon for tokens purchased to qualify for an NFT release to lose valuing following its mint.

The company, created by the founders of the DeGods NFT collective, specializes in providing NFT tooling to projects on Solana and Ethereum. Its first product is a “scholarships” whitelisting tool that it displayed during the y00ts mint.

The DeGods team has had a whirlwind of a week, delaying the mint for its buzzy y00ts project after a “blocker bug” last minute. Dust Labs said it will be hosting an AMA (ask me anything) on Thursday to provide further information.

(Disclosure: The author was among the Monday minters of y00ts NFTs.)