Cardinal, a Solana-based infrastructure platform that seeks to increase the usefulness of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), has raised $4.4 million in a seed fundraising round. Cardinal broke the news on Friday, stating that Solana Ventures and the recently established cryptocurrency venture capital firm Protagonist jointly led the seed round. Additionally participating were Alameda Research, Delphi Digital, and CMS Holdings. According to Cardinal co-founder and CEO Spencer Rust, “Founded eight months ago, Cardinal offers a Solana protocol with use cases such as rentals, staking, and ticketing to help improve the utility of NFTs. Rentals, for example, allow rented NFTs to “physically sit in renters’ wallets” while maintaining the impossibility of default.” 1/30 We are thrilled to finally announce our $4.4M seed raise led by @ProtagonistXYZ and @SolanaVentures, with headline participation from @Delphi_Digital, @animocabrands, and @AlamedaResearch! pic.twitter.com/fGdzd1H7vz — Cardinal (@cardinal_labs) July 22, 2022 Cardinal Released First Iteration Earlier this Year According to Rust, “many thousand rentals” have already been completed using the site since Cardinal released the first iteration of its rental marketplace earlier this year. The second version, which will have a revised user interface and experience, is anticipated to be released soon. Rust said, the business also provides “escrow-less” NFT staking, enabling stakeholders...