NEW YORK, Dec.10 (Reuters) – Some of Asia’s biggest venture capitalists and crypto hedge funds will invest $ 100 million to develop more applications on a new blockchain called Assembly as part of the IOTA network, said to Reuters co-founder Dominik Schiener in an interview.

IOTA is a distributed ledger network similar to blockchain.

The assembly will focus on decentralized finance (DeFI), non-fungible tokens (NFT) and cryptocurrency games, Schiener said.

DeFi projects, facilitating crypto-denominated loans outside of traditional banking, and NFTs, which are unique, non-interchangeable certified digital assets, are two of the fastest growing crypto sectors. Many blockchain companies across the world have turned to this space to meet the growing demand.

Assembly, a smart contract network similar to the Ethereum blockchain launched by Berlin-based research and engineering group IOTA Foundation last month, will serve as an anchor for DeFi, NFT, and gaming applications. Smart contracts are self-executing transactions whose results depend on pre-programmed inputs.

Asian investment firms led by LD Capital, Signum Capital, Huobi Ventures, UOB Venture Management, HyperChain Capital and Du Capital have committed $ 100 million to fund Assembly network developments, Schiener said. Crypto market maker GSR will also contribute to the $ 100 million investment, he added.

All investors have confirmed their investment in emails and statements to Reuters.

These companies also participated in a seed funding earlier this year that raised $ 18 million for Assembly.

“Assembly is now its own network based on IOTA and allowing anyone to create their own blockchain network. And this blockchain network is considered secure and connected through IOTA, ”said Schiener.

“You can think of Assembly as a network of networks, where many blockchains are now secured and connected through the same architecture,” he added.

The beta or test version of Assembly is already live, Schiener said, and will officially launch next year with its own token. Assembly developers, creators and early contributors will be rewarded with nearly 70% of the entire token supply.

Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Alden Bentley and Chizu Nomiyama

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