Paradigm Leads $7.1 Million Seed Round for Attention Market Noise Ahead of Base Mainnet Launch

Paradigm has led a $7.1 million seed funding round for Noise, a New York-based startup building an attention market platform. The funding includes previous investments from Figment Capital, Anagram, and a range of notable angel investors.

Noise allows users to wager on the future relevance of social media topics. The platform aims to combine elements of prediction markets with trend analytics to measure the cultural significance of brands, narratives, and other trends over time.

The platform is scheduled to launch on Base, an Ethereum Layer 2 solution developed by Coinbase, in the coming months. This move is expected to increase the platform's accessibility and attract public users, allowing for more robust data analysis and economic testing of the attention market model.

Why Did This Happen?

The seed round was led by Paradigm, a major venture capital firm in the cryptocurrency space, alongside existing supporters like GSR and JPEG Trading. The funding follows a beta testnet phase in which Noise attracted over 1,300 users who placed bets on 14 attention markets.

Noise's platform was designed to address the limitations of existing prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi. Unlike those platforms, which offer binary outcomes for specific events, Noise's markets track how trends evolve over time, providing a continuous measure of relevance.

The startup's testnet phase revealed interesting correlations between attention data and cryptocurrency market movements. For instance, the platform identified a lead-lag relationship between attention given to the Pump.fun project and the price movements of PUMP tokens on Hyperliquid.

What Are Analysts Watching Next?

Noise is backed by a mix of influential figures in the crypto and tech spaces, including Jordi Hays, Jackson Dahl, and musician Justin Blau. Investors like Gaby Goldberg and Kain Warwick are also part of the funding round.

David Phelps, co-founder of Jokerace, noted that platforms like Noise and Jokerace share a similar goal: to incentivize users to focus on what they find meaningful. He emphasized that competition is not the focus but rather the value these platforms bring to users.

The seed funding will also help Noise expand beyond the cryptocurrency space. The company plans to use the capital to enhance its data infrastructure and apply the attention market model to other industries.

As Noise prepares for its mainnet launch, analysts are watching whether the platform can sustain user interest and provide meaningful insights into cultural trends. The success of attention markets may depend on how well the platform can integrate social media data and incentivize accurate predictions.

The attention economy, already a growing space, could benefit from platforms like Noise that provide objective metrics for measuring the value of attention. If successful, Noise could become a benchmark for how cultural relevance is assessed in a digital economy.