Praxis receives $525m funding to build ‘first Network State’ with crypto-native economy

Praxis, which describes itself as an “internet native alliance,” has been promised $525 million in funding to build a new city that promises a crypto-centric economy and fewer regulations for tech leaders.

Praxis announced in an Oct. 16 blog post that it had received $525 million to build the “first Network State” from a number of tech companies and angel investors, including crypto lending platform Arch Lending, Manifold Trading, and investment firm Global Emerging Markets Digital. .

According to the Wall Street Journal’s report, GEM Digital provided the largest part of the financing. The firm has committed $500 million to Praxis’ city-building project.

To access GEM Digital’s financing, Praxis must provide GEM with crypto tokens representing future real estate ownership. Praxis will need to list its crypto tokens on a public crypto exchange.

Dryden Brown, CEO and co-founder of Praxis, shared the funding news on X. He stated that Praxis and its partners have designed a “new mitigation mechanism” for the development of new cities. The financing of $525 million will be used for the initial distribution.

“Seeing institutions like BlackRock turning to crypto, we designed a crypto mechanism to finance large-scale projects using RWAs, in partnership with Global Emerging Markets & Arch Lending, the largest new city development project in the Middle East,” Dryden said.

Although the location of the new city has not yet been shared, Brown told the Journal he is considering locations in Latin America and the Mediterranean regions for the city.

According to Praxis’ blog post, Network State aims to reduce regulatory barriers to encourage “rapid breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, crypto, biotech, energy, and advanced manufacturing.”

The Praxis team wants to locate the new city in the so-called Acceleration Zone2, a special economic zone equipped with less restrictive regulations that will allow tech companies to operate more freely. In the meantime, the city will remain committed to “traditional values ​​of Western Civilization.”

In a separate blog post, Praxis explained that Network States will be the next step for broader crypto adoption as the city integrates on-chain infrastructure into core institutions. This parallels traditional financial bodies found in nation states.

Founded in 2019, Praxis received capital from various venture firms such as Paradigm, Bedrock, Apollo Projects, Winklevoss Capital and Day One Ventures.