Quick take:
- The strategic funding round was led by FTX Ventures and Jump Crypto.
- xNFTs are mini-programs that represent a portal to applications, games, or assets built on any chain.
- Backpack users can access all of their assets and decentralized apps natively in one place.
Coral, the makers of Solana development framework, Anchor, today announced that it has closed a $20 million strategic funding round led by FTX Ventures and Jump Crypto. Participants in the round included Multicoin Capital, Anagram, K5 Global, Frictionless, and other strategic investors.
The company plans to use the funds to expand its team and launch its first flagship product, Backpack, later this month. Backpack is a Web3 wallet that allows users to access crypto-native apps through executable NFTs (xNFTs).
An xNFT is an executable app standard that allows developers to publish their app as an xNFT on a decentralised app store. The company describes xNFTs as analogous to WeChat mini-programs that represent a portal to applications, games, or assets built on any chain.
Any user with an xNFT in their wallet can launch the application within that xNFT. With Backpack, users can access all of their assets and decentralized apps natively in one interface.
Further explaining xNFTs, Coral founder Armani Ferrante told CoinDesk that user interface (UI) layers such as apps and websites remain largely centralised, and that Backpack aims to decentralise these layers, starting with a wallet, allowing developers to have decentralised ownership of code.
Launching into private beta today, Coral will open-source Backpack’s code. Community members in the Backpack Discord will get priority access and anyone can sign up for the Beta at backpack.app.
“I’m looking forward to Backpack bringing the application layer to the forefront, by allowing engineers to build native applications that reduce the barrier to entry and the friction of discovery that we see in crypto’s user experiences today,” said Anatoly Yakovenko, Co-Founder of Solana Labs.
Coral made Backpack and the react-xNFT developer framework available to a select group of light house projects and developers this past June. Several xNFT projects are planning to launch with the private beta, including Magic Eden, Aurory, Mango Markets, DeGods, Cardinal, Wormhole, Squads, Solend, Degenerate Ape Academy, Squads, Wordcel, DefiLand, and Anchor. Each of these xNFTs will live as native applications within Backpack and be available directly from the respective projects.
“This is potentially the ‘iPhone launch moment’ for Web3 with xNFTs as apps, xNFT marketplace as the App Store, and CoralOS as the iOS. It is surprising that Backpack hasn’t been built in Web3 until now,” said Ramnik Arora, Head of Product at FTX.
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