Overview of Fundraisings of the Week
Blockchain Security Firm Halborn Raises $90M Series A Led by Summit Partners
Crypto-Reward Ecosystem Travel Coin (TCOIN) Secures $35 Million Commitment from GEM Digital Limited
Final Fantasy Maker Square Enix Backs Bitcoin Gaming Startup Zebedee in $35M Round
Decentralized Crypto Exchange Hashflow Raises $25M at $400M Valuation
Meow Raises $22M in Series A Funding Round
Dragonfly Capital Leads $13M Round for DeFi Infrastructure Startup XLD Finance
AI-Based Startup Optic Raises $11M to Put the ‘NF’ in NFTs
KuCoin Receives $10M from SIG; Jointly Supports Crypto Startup Incubation
This startup catches people who lie on their CV through automated background checks. Check out the 17-slide pitch deck Veremark used to raise $8.5 million.
S.Korean metaverse firm Anipen raises US$8 mln in Series C
Fundraising Trend Since the Beginning of the Year
DeFi
Weekly TVL
Gross: ⬇️$84.9B
Top 3 Apps: MakerDAO ⬆️(8.29B), Lido ⬇️($6.7B), AAVE ⬇️($6.23B)
Top 3 Chains: ETH ⬇️($54.24B), BSC ⬇️($6.46B), TRON ⬆️($5.72B)
Top 7D Change 📈: Concentrated & active liquidity management protocol-Arrakis Finance (+19.35%, $1.73B)
DeFi News
[Zapper V2 Live] Asset analytics platform Zapper launches V2, bringing a revamped dashboard with NFTs/DAOs integration. V2 allows users to follow wallet activities, look at individual NFT collections, and check DAO treasuries and analytics.
[Polygon publishes zkEVM Code] Polygon releases the code of Polygon zkEVM, an EVM-compatible ZK rollup L2, and will launch a public testnet later this year.
[Scroll Pre-Alpha Testnet] zkEVM-based zkRollup Scroll is doing a closed Alpha testing.
[Lido stETH Coming to L2s] Lido will support ETH staking on L2s, starting out with Arbitrum and Optimism. Users will be able to stake with lower fees and access to more dApps to amplify yields.
NFT
7D SALES: $157,544,986
7D CHANGE IN SALES: -8.94%
7D NUMBER OF SALES: 1,191,906
NFT News
Jul. 25, FC Barcelona announces NFT for an auction in Sotheby’s.
Jul. 22, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman creates NFTs with DALL-E AI art.
Jul. 21, Microsoft’s Minecraft to ban derivative NFTs projects on game servers.
Jul. 20, GameStop’s NFT marketplace opening week sales Exceed $7.2M.
Jul. 19, OpenSea introduces Solana Launchpad.
GameFi & Metaverse
[CBS launches Metaverse/Web3 game for hit series “Ghosts”] CBS has taken its inaugural step into the metaverse with the launch of an immersive experience for fans of the comedy series “Ghosts” in the popular metaverse game Decentraland, a leading next-generation Web3 gaming platform. The effort is designed to promote the return of “Ghosts” for its sophomore season in the fall. Ghosts was TV’s #1 new series in the 2021–22 season and the #1 comedy on Paramount+.
[Ultra and SwissBorg introduce Agora to bring GameFi to ultraverse] Ultra and SwissBorg announced their joint venture — Agora — to fill Ultraverse with new GameFi features. The joint venture will enable all the players to seamlessly integrate the functionalities within the app or game to trade fungible tokens within the ecosystem. The goal is to become an all-in-one platform by making blockchain-powered gaming systems a part of everyone’s life.
[GameFi project Land of Conquest (SLG) is launching on MEXC] The sixth phase of MEXC Launchpad project Land of Conquest (SLG) will be launched on the secondary market. Land of Conquest is a multiplayer online GameFi game with the theme of doomsday. The story takes place in a fictional cosmic Galaxy called “Triangulum Galaxy”. The “Land of Conquest” on the galaxy is the only continent that can live on the earth after the global war.
[SG GameFi firm partners with Canada startup to boost metaverse efforts] Ethlas, a Singapore-based GameFi firm, has partnered with Canada-based LayerZero Labs to enable the former’s metaverse to be accessed by users across other blockchains. This is one of the first efforts by a startup to implement such a system. This project will make Ethlas available on popular blockchains such as Ethereum and enable users to move tokens between ecosystems, allowing money to be transferred from one chain to another.\
[Galaxy Blitz launches open beta contest and Binance NFT sale] Emerging AAA-quality GameFi title Galaxy Blitz has launched an open beta event. The beta will be an opportunity for community members to try out the latest version of the game and connect with like-minded individuals. Galaxy Blitz official NFTs will be available on Kucoin Windvane from July 24th, and Binance NFT from July 25th.
[Battle Infinity raises over 3,000 BNB in IBAT sale, hits soft cap in less than one week] Battle Infinity has already raised over 3,000 Binance Coins (BNB) in its IBAT token sale. The soft cap of Battle Infinity’s hotly anticipated token sale is already launched; over $800,000 is in the project’s treasury. IBAT is integrated into Battle Infinity’s gameplay; this native utility token underpins the game’s tokenomics design.
[Mojang Studios bans NFTs from its flagship game Minecraft] Mojang Studios, the makers of Minecraft, has clarified that they are not in support of integrating non-fungible tokens (NFT) in the all-time best-selling game. The Microsoft-owned game maker stated that NFTs and blockchain technology do not align with its goal of making Minecraft a safe and all-inclusive experience.
[Animoca Brands launches DAO to develop Metaverse standards] An alliance of Web3 companies has come together to build an open and borderless metaverse called OMA3, or the Open Metaverse Alliance for Web3. The group says it aims to solve key challenges of the nascent metaverse, including preserving the freedom of information owned by users. Projects joining the alliance with Animoca Brands include Alien Worlds, Dapper Labs, Decentraland, Star Atlas, and The Sandbox.
DAO
[Optimism initiate proposal to allocate 1M $OP for LPs on Curve] The proposal has identified Curve as the backbone of Defi industry and its mechanism has attracted numerous institutional players to participate as LPs, thus the proposal suggested allocating 50,000 $OP per week to distribute to the LPs on Curve for sUSD, sETH, sBTC to $OP pairs.
[Audius Community treasury exploited] The Audius team announced that there is an unauthorized transfer from the community treasury, which amounted to 18.5M $Audio. Their treasury smart contract on Ethereum was shortly halted to prevent further exploitation.
[LidoDAO proposed to sell 1% of token to Dragonfly capital] LidoDAO is seeking to sell 20M $LDO in preparation for the bear market at 7days TWAP price plus a 50% premium. This token round will be led by Dragonfly Capital and other strategic investors, the community now is voting for consensus on this matter.
[Aave is voting to add 1inch as a collateral asset] Llama is proposing to list 1inch on AAVE V2 with LTV of 40%, currently, 98.05% of members voted yes.
[ENS DAO enables small grants] ENS DAO is opening public good round 1 to fund 1 to 5 ETH to the projects build on ENS ecosystem.
Regulation & Adoption
July 18: (🇮🇳) India’s Central Bank seeks to ban crypto, says Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman.
July 18: (🇳🇱) Dutch Central Bank fined Binance over $3.3 Mill for continuing to offer services to Dutch citizens without required registration.
July 19: (🇮🇪) Gemini exchange has been granted virtual asset service provider registration in Ireland.
July 20: (🇮🇹) Crypto.com receives regulatory approval in Italy.
July 20: (🇺🇸) Tesla sold 75% of its Bitcoin holdings in Q2.
July 21: (🇰🇷) South Korea postpones 20% tax on crypto gains to 2025.
Macro
- ECB hikes interest rates by +0.5% vs +0.25 forecasted, ending an era of record low rates.
- Eurozone June CPI gained 0.8% YoY hitting an ATH of 8.6% YoY.
- German activity contracted, PMI falls to 48, a 25-month record low.
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