On July 17, according to The Block, Ephemera, the core development team of the decentralized messaging protocol XMTP, completed a $20.00 million Series B funding round, with the company valued at $300.00 million and the XMTP network valued at $750.00 million. This round of funding was co-led by Union Square Ventures, a16z crypto, and Lightspeed Faction, with participation from Coinbase Ventures and others. Union Square Ventures Managing Partner Fred Wilson has joined the Ephemera board of directors. The XMTP protocol provides end-to-end encrypted messaging services and is currently being relaunched in Coinbase's Base application, transitioning from an optional tool to core infrastructure. The XMTP public testnet was launched in February of this year, and the mainnet is scheduled to launch later this year. Ephemera plans to use the new funds to expand its team and strengthen protocol development, decentralized infrastructure, and product design. [TechFlow]