Fundraisings of the Week
Digital Asset Infrastructure Provider Taurus Raises $65M From Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank
GrainChain raises $29M to expand agricultural blockchain
Amazon Leads $20M Investment Into Synthetic Celebrity Studio Superplastic
Monad Labs raises $19M to grow its smart contract platform and improve the Ethereum space
Yield Guild Games raises $13.8 million in token sale led by DWF Labs, a16z crypto
Web3 Communication Stack Sending Labs Raises $12.5M
Crypto index platform Alongside raises $11M led by a16z
Caldera raises $9M from two rounds led by Sequoia and Dragonfly Capital
Blockchain Security Firm Ironblocks Raises $7M From Collider Ventures, Disruptive AI and Others
Stelo Labs raises $6M in a16z-led round to help crypto wallet users protect themselves
DeFi
[Weekly TVL] Gross: ⬆️$50.83B
Top 3 Apps: Lido ⬆️($8.96B), MakerDAO ⬆️($7.49B), Curve ⬆️($5.05B)
Top 3 Chains: ETH ⬆️($29.71B), TRON ⬆️($5.4B), BSC ⬆️($5.05B)
Top 7D Change 📈: Arbitrum One decentralized exchange — SolidLizard (+538%, $81.46m)
DeFi News
[Kava 12 Live] Cosmos-based L1 Kava launches version 12. The upgrade enables any Cosmos chain DAO to have more control and flexibility over their emissions.
[zkSync Era Mainnet] ZK rollup protocol zkSync renames its 2.0 to Era and now allows registered projects to deploy on the zkEVM mainnet.
[Blur Token Live] NFT marketplace Blur launched its native token BLUR and airdropped 360m of tokens to the participants of the season 1 campaign. Season 2 also began and traders can earn points for future rewards by bidding/listing NFTs on the marketplace.
NFT
Top 10 Collections by Weekly Volume
NFT News
Feb. 17, OpenSea introduces changes to fees, creator earnings, and operator filters. “1) OpenSea fee → 0% for a limited time; 2) Moving to optional creator earnings (0.5% min) for all collections without on-chain enforcement (old & new); 3) Marketplaces with the same policies will not be blocked by the operator filter.” [Source: OpenSea Twitter]
Feb. 16, Hong Kong-based digital art platform Minte Art sends NFT art to the moon on SpaceX rocket. “Mexican artists Guille Blancarte and Carlos Segovia Alanis, represented by Minte Art, are among 222 artists selected to join the Lunaprise Moon Museum. The platform’s Latin American founders see Hong Kong as Asia’s leading art centre, with greater potential from recent changes to virtual asset regulations.” [Source: South China Morning Post]
Feb. 16, GQ magazine introduces NFT collection with real world rewards. “Titled “GQ3 Issue 001: Change Is Good,” the collection is made up of 1,661 NFTs linked to one-of-a-kind art pieces created by artists Chuck Anderson, REO, Kelsey Niziolek and Serwah Attafuah. Each token allows holders to claim additional rewards such as a GQ magazine subscription, a curated GQ box of products, exclusive merchandise and a ticket to the inaugural GQ3 party in April.” [Source: CoinDesk]
Feb. 16, Puma to launch NFT collection SuperPUMA. “We are proud to celebrate our 75 year anniversary. Part of that celebration includes the revival of #SuperPUMA and release of our avatar NFT collection.” [Source: Puma Twitter]
Feb. 15, Amazon’s Alexa Fund invests in NFT studio Superplastic. “As part of the arrangement, Amazon Studios will get a “first-look deal” with Superplastic, which is Hollywood speak for first dibs on any television series or film pitches that feature Superplastic’s characters. “The Janky & Guggimon Show,” starring two Superplastic virtual celebrities, is now in development at Amazon Studios, which has produced other edgy, quirky comedies like “The Boys” and “Fleabag.”” [Source: Decrypt]
Feb. 15, Final Fantasy maker Square Enix to launch Web3 game Symbiogenesis on Polygon. “Japan’s Square Enix has teamed up with Polygon to launch a dynamic Web3 experience dubbed Symbiogenesis. Symbiogenesis will create an experience built around digital collectible art that is tied to a storyline, players will unfold in a virtual (turn-based) adventure. The art evolves with each strategic move a player makes.” [Source: VentureBeat]
Feb. 15, Chinese NFT marketplace Jingtan eases transfer restrictions. “Jingtan, Alibaba affiliate Ant Group’s non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace, has relaxed transfer rules that mandate users to hold on to newly purchased assets for a specified period as part of Wednesday’s platform update.” [Source: Yahoo Finance]
Feb. 14, NFT marketplace Blur airdrops governance tokens. “BLUR is now live. All traders across all marketplaces in the last 3 months, Care Package holders, and Creators are eligible for the airdrop. You have 60 days to claim your BLUR.” [Source: Blur Twitter]
Feb. 14, NFT marketplace Magic Eden partners with MoonPay for credit card payments. “Magic Eden users can purchase NFTs across chains using a credit or debit card, Apple Pay and Google Pay. The goal of the strategic partnership is to make the process of onboarding new users easier. “Our goal is to make NFTs accessible to everyone, enabling individuals to own and control their digital assets.”” [Source: CoinDesk]
GameFi & Metaverse
[Empires Not Vampires raises $1M for a new blockchain game] Finland-based indie games studio, Empires Not Vampires, has raised $1 million to develop its latest game, Paradise Tycoon. The round saw investments from various angel investors and VC funds, including Shima Capital, Zee Prime Capital, Fomocraft Ventures and FireX Capital. Paradise Tycoon’s game assets (NFTs) will be fully based on the blockchain.
[The NFT Gaming Company announces pricing of $7M IPO] The NFT Gaming Company develops a digital gaming platform and community that will offer users the ability to mint unique avatars playable in all of the games on the platform in the form of “NFTs”. The company has received approval to list its common stock and on the NASDAQ capital market, subject to final approval by NASDAQ.
[Zion announces $6M in funding] Zion, the Web5 social network that empowers creators by facilitating the free and open flow of conversations and transactions, announced a major overhaul of its protocol launching v2 of it’s app and the accompanying white paper. That follows a new capital injection of $6M led by XBTO Humla Ventures, and other investors such as Kingsway Capital, Bitcoiner Ventures, UTXO Management and Tony Robbins.
[Amazon leads $20M investment round in Vermont design studio Superplastic] Amazon led a $20 million investment in entertainment firm Superplastic, which makes synthetic celebrities such as Janky and Guggimon. The companies announced a multifaceted collaboration where Amazon Studios gets a first look at licensing content created by Superplastic. The two companies have signed a first-look deal to facilitate the creation of additional series and films starring other characters in the Superplastic universe.
[Web3 games publisher Unagi lands €4.7M from Sisu Game Ventures] Unagi collected €4.7 million at a €34.7 million valuation. The round was led by games early-stage VC Sisu Game Ventures with participation from Sfermion, UOB Ventures, Signum Capital, 2B Ventures, Machame, and angel investors Sandeep Nailwal, Sebastien Borget, and Mario Götze.
[Gaming company Square Enix partners with Polygon] Square Enix, the Tokyo-based video game giant behind popular franchises such as Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, is partnering with the Polygon network to launch a gamified art collecting experience. The project, titled Symbiogenesis, was announced in November. Sales of the Symbiogensis NFT collection and free browser service are slated to launch in spring 2023.
[Metaverse gets a boost in Saudi Arabia with The Sandbox partnership] The Sandbox and Saudi Arabia have announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding, hinting at a long-term metaverse collaboration between both entities. The deal was signed at the Leap Tech Conference 2023 in Riyadh between the metaverse firm and Saudi Arabia’s Digital Government Authority.
DAO
[Filecoin announced its finalists for FEVM hackathon, in collaboration with ETHGlobal] Recently the Filecoin community launched its largest hackathon in preparation for FEVM mainnet on March 14th. 2023 will be a big year for Filecoin to explore the use case for decentralized storage space following the protocol updates such as FVM, Bacalhau and Retrieval Market.
[zkSync teamed up with buidlbox to kick off a series of Hackathon] Approaching Fair onboarding stage, zkSync is collaborating with buidlbox to launch a community-drivened Hackathon. The first one will be focused on Account Abstraction and Web3 Security.
[Avalanche launched Notify to alert all users about validator status] The product monitors all validator status and push alert emails to all subscribers if the validator becomes inactive.
[Ton foundation proposed to freeze inactive mining wallets] The proposal is to optimize TON tokenomics. If the community approves, the act will target any mining wallet that has zero transfer activity in 48 months.
[LidoDAO proposed four governance details in managing their treasury] The treasury currently holds $59.4M assets consisting of ETH, DAI and stETH. The questions were raised regarding if all assets needed to be staked or sell? If the protocol revenue could be liquidated in exchange for the operational funds. last but not least, if the treasury needs further diversification.
Regulation & Adoption
- 13/02/2023: (🇺🇸) Paxos ends partnership with Binance, and stops minting BUSD.
- 15/02/2023: (🌍) Stablecoins could put in danger the current FIAT system, warns Morgan Stanley
- 16/02/2023: (🇷🇺) Bank of Russia to launch pilot operations with digital ruble in April.
- 17/02/2023: (🇺🇸) SEC Charges Terra Founder Do Kwon with Fraud.
- 17/02/2023: (🇺🇸) Binance mulls cutting ties with US amid crypto crackdown.
Macro
- US CPI Inflation slowed to 6.4% in January.
- US PPI Record highest gain since June, jumping 0.7% MoM.
- Worst US Manufacturing data since May 2020, where the MoM manufacturing index plunged to -24.3.
- Major Oil companies earned 150Bn USD in 2022.
- India´s Russian imports soar 400%.
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