Overview of Fundraisings of the Week
Crypto Startup Mysten Labs Raises $300 Million in FTX-Led Round
Teenage Founder Raises $30 Million for Crypto Startup
MetaWeb Ventures Raises $30 Million For Builder Focused Blockchain Fund
21.co Raises $25 Million, Becoming Switzerland’s Largest Crypto Unicorn
Spice AI raises USD 13.5M to speed up blockchain application development
Gameplay Galaxy raises $12.8M for Web3 competitive gaming platform
Web3 UX Startup Slide Raises $12.3M Seed Round Co-Led by Polychain Capital & Framework Ventures
DeFi Platform Credix Raises $11.25M to Connect Institutional Lenders With Emerging Market Fintechs
Self-custodied Crypto Wallet Omni Raises $11M to Integrate More Web3 Technologies
Singapore’s VerifyVASP raises $5M led by FTX Ventures at $100M valuation
Blockchain Primary Market Fund Raised Trend
DeFi
Weekly TVL
Gross: ⬆️$59.25B
Top 3 Apps: MakerDAO ⬆️($8.46B), Lido ⬆️($7.59B), AAVE ⬆️($6.55B)
Top 3 Chains: ETH ⬆️($34.44B), TRON ⬆️($5.87B), BSC ⬆️($5.48B)
Top 7D Change 📈: Multi-chain liquid staking platform — Stader (+42.49%, $116.82m)
DeFi News
[zkBNB Introduced] BnB chain launches zkBnB testnet, its own zk-proof based L2 that is better suited for GameFi and Social dApps. The zkBnB mainnet is set to launch by the end of the year.
[Ethereum Bellatrix Live] The Ethereum Merge has begun and the first upgrade called Bellatrix successfully went live. Check our thread on all upgrades Ethereum is going through to complete the Merge.
[Cardano Vasil Upgrade Soon] Cardano sets the Vasil upgrade on Sept. 22th. The upgrade is expected to increase network capacity and lower the cost of transactions.
NFT
7D SALES: $126,424,862
7D CHANGE IN SALES: 20.58%
7D NUMBER OF SALES: 1,791,904
NFT News
Sep. 10, ENS sues GoDaddy and Manifold Finance for the sale of eth.link.
Sep. 8, Ford files 19 trademark applications for its NFTs and Metaverse.
Sep. 8, Sorare partners with the NBA to launch basketball card game.
Sep. 7, PUMA reveals its metaverse experience with exclusive NFTs at New York Fashion Week.
Sep. 7, Sony Music applies for trademark application for its NFTs.
GameFi & Metaverse
[Mason Games acquired for $1M, sets eyes on GameFi and Vietnam expansion] Mason Games announced its acquisition by Iglobsys Technology for US$1 million. The acquisition takes place one year after the establishment of Mason Games in July 2021, and is set to bolster the studio’s growth in various areas, including the embarkment of their maiden blockchain game project.
[Animoca Brands among backers in $13M raise for Revolving Games] Revolving Games announced that it raised over $13.2 million from Pantera Capital, Animoca Brands, Polygon and Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser. Previous backers including Dapper Labs, Permanens Capital Partners, Kenetic, Sarmayacar and DWeb3 Capital invested $12 million. The funding will be used to help scale existing recognized franchises, develop original IP and AAA quality games.
[Ultron and Devla to level up the Metaverse gaming experience] Devla has announced a partnership with Ultron Foundation, known for its ever Layer-1 blockchain with its own native applications, to create an immersive football game. As they put it, the objective is to take the first step toward bringing Ultron’s robust crypto ecosystem functionality to the metaverse, resulting in the creation of a space where its users may both have fun and earn money.
[Cupid is about to be presold in PinkSale] Cupid will issue tokens on BNB, MATIC, AVAX networks that will serve as exchange currency in Cupid’s Glory game. The platform is built on the casual games of the past few years and always seeks to enhance the playability, content refinement, decentralization, and mechanization of classic financial games while protecting users’ privacy information and data.
[Accenture India spearheads Metaverse expansion plans] Accenture has disclosed its intention to make significant incursions in the metaverse. The technology company stated that the Indian arm of its operation is key in achieving its lofty aspirations. Accenture sees India playing the metaverse engine for the world with the talent, innovation, and capability required to help clients maximize this unprecedented opportunity.
[Yeeha Games integrates with Cabital to enable fiat on-and-off ramp for upcoming game releases] Cabital has announced the addition of flexible and easy fiat on-and-off ramps for Yeeha Games, providing players a fast and secure way to purchase in-game NFTs with fiat deposits. The infrastructure provider will be responsible for facilitating fiat-to-crypto payments within the Yeeha Games ecosystem.
[Roblox jumps into online advertising as revenue growth slows] Roblox has built a user base of over 52 million people by providing a gaming and entertainment platform that’s mostly been targeted at kids. Now the company wants advertisers to join the party. As part of its annual developer conference, Roblox is announcing plans to debut ads next year, marking the company’s first significant effort to diversify its business beyond virtual goods in games.
[PUMA reveals the Metaverse experience with NFTs at New York Fashion Week] Sports company PUMA has unveiled its first-ever metaverse website experience, called Black Station, which features exclusive NFTs with limited edition redeemable physical sneakers, as part of its ‘FUTROGRADE’ show during New York Fashion Week. PUMA Black Station has been imagined as an immersive and interactive place to experience the future of the brand.
DAO
[Ethereum The Merge Upgrade countdown] 11,874 blocks to go and less than 2 days countdown, The Merge is going to happen this week. According to ethnodes.org, 84.7% of executive clients are ready to sync with Ethereum Proof-of-Stake.
[Secret Network halted due to malicious behavior] The blockchain halted for over 6 hrs due to a validator simultaneously running two versions of the network and double signing, the core team has effectively solved the problem and the malicious validator has been slashed.
[ENS proposed to seek a fund manager to run an endowment fund ] With over 2.7M ENS names created, the protocol now is expecting sustainable revenue from registration and renewals. Currently with about $43M sitting on the balance sheet, nick.eth proposed to seek a professional fund manager to manage their treasury and fund with the objective of insulating the DAO from economic fluctuations without a long-term reduction in principal.
[Algorand Protocol upgrade introduced state proofs for Trustless cross-chain communication] Designed to onboard traditional financial players, Algorand finally updated with state proofs to construct a trustless and institutional grade cross-chain method. The state proof is designed to be easily verified thru CPU, smartphone, and IoT devices and state prove transactions are finalized by Algorand validators.
[Lightning network capacity hit all-time-high] Currently the capacity is at 4759.59 BTC with 17,824 nodes.
Regulation & Adoption
- Sept 5 (🇷🇺) bank of Russia seeks to legalize only cross-border crypto transactions.
- Sept 5 (🇺🇸) US FED calls DeFi a “potential threat to financial stability”.
- Sept 6 (ETH) Ethereum Bellatrix upgrade went live on the Ethereum Beacon Chain.
- Sept 8 (🇬🇧) UK to become a crypto-hub under the new PM, as the economic secretary has said.
- Sept 9 (🇻🇬) Huobi to get BVI license.
Macro
- Russia halts gas supplies via Nord Stream until sanctions are lifted.
- Incoming British PM, Liz Truss, has drafted a plan to fix annual electricity and gas bills that have jumped 80% since October. The proposal is to print 130bn GBP in order to freeze electricity and gas bills for 18 months, for certain households. GBP fell to its lowest level against the USD since 1985. Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-serving monarch, dies.
- JPY hits a new low.
- OPEC+ members agreed to a 100,000 barrels per day production cut to bolster prices.
- For the first time in history, ECB raises interest rates by 75bps.
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