Overview of Fundraisings of the Week
Y Combinator alumni raise $80 million for DAO to back crypto startups
Ready Player Me, a platform to build dynamic cross-game avatars for virtual worlds, raises $56M led by a16z
Inworld AI Closes $50M Series A to Populate Video Games and the Metaverse with Interactive AI-Driven Characters
Thirdweb raises $24M at a $160M valuation from Haun Ventures, Shopify and Coinbase for its web3 development kit
Spectral raises $23M to help create web3 credit scores
TVCoins Successfully Completes $10M Seed Funding Capital Raise
Will Wright’s Gallium Studios raises $6M to build memory game Proxi
Mural raised $5.6M to help brands deploy DAO treasuries
Comm Announces $5m Seed Raise To Challenge Discord
Etherscan-Backed SolanaFM Raises $4.5M In Seed Round Led by SBI Group
DeFi
Weekly TVL
Gross: ⬇️$58.21B
Top 3 Apps: MakerDAO ⬇️($7.75B), Lido ⬇️($6.37B), AAVE ⬇️($6.02B)
Top 3 Chains: ETH ⬇️($33.23B), TRON ⬇️($5.69B), BSC ⬇️($5.25B)
Top 7D Change 📈: Dex on canto blockchain — Canto DEX (+143%, $57.14m)
DeFi News
[Trader Joe Liquidity Book] Trader Joe introduces Liquidity Book, a protocol for zero or low slippage trades of any size. The LP positions are fungible, enabling LPs to create custom strategies and adjust positions easily to increase capital efficiency.
[BendDAO] NFT lending protocol BendDAO ran a vote to reduce the liquidation threshold for bad debt on the platform to mitigate the potential liquidity crisis.
[Lido on Loopring] Lido ETH staking is now available on Loopring L2. Follow the official guide to learn how to stake on Loopring.
NFT
7D SALES: $130,855,596
7D CHANGE IN SALES: -0.85%
7D NUMBER OF SALES: 1,145,837
NFT News
Aug. 26, Snoop Dogg and Eminem to bring BAYC NFT to MTV Video Music Awards 2022.
Aug. 26, Reddit to airdrop free NFT avatars to its most active users.
Aug. 24, M&M’s releases BAYC NFT chocolates.
Aug. 23, Telegram CEO proposes selling platform usernames as NFTs.
Aug. 22, Ex-OpenSea executive wants to dismiss its insider trading accusations as NFTs are not securities.
GameFi & Metaverse
[Calo Indoor: the first application combining AR and blockchain] On August 24, 2022, Calo Metaverse officially launched the second project Calo Indoor. This is the first application that combines AR technology with Blockchain. To start practicing in-game, players need to equip an NFT Sneaker suitable for each type of exercise. Calo Indoor players will receive valuable rewards that can be converted into cash such as IFIT Tokens, or other items.
[Polygon welcomes GameSwift to launch Web3 games] GameSwift is a GameFi ecosystem that offers a wide range of games and the ability for users to participate in Initial Game Offerings and Initial NFT Offerings. Developers can actively participate, bringing their projects into the decentralized space and their tools to scale and customize them. The GameSwift is reportedly backed by several Web3 investors, such as Hashed, KuCoin Labs, SkyVision Capital, and Genesis Block Ventures.
[Web3 Metaverse Innovations develops CryptoVillages] Web3 Metaverse Innovations is spearheading the development of the play-to-earn game CryptoVillages. Web3-MI is a leading GameFi firm whose newest project has the potential to change the space. CryptoVillages combines elements of click-to-earn with multiple elements of massively-multiplayer-online gaming, including Player vs Player (PvP), Player vs Monster (PvM), and Player vs Environment (PvE).
[Tamadoge P2E sensation raised $8.5 million in presale — less than 40% of tokens left] Tamadoge has reached another major milestone, completing 60% of its presale by raising $8.5 million from contributors. Tamadoge rewards its players for how diligently they look after their Tamadoge Pet. By taking the dog for walkies, feeding it, clothing it, and honing its skills for battle with other pets, players earn dogepoints. Each individual unique pet has a 3D avatar version that is being designed to be fully integratable with augmented reality metaverse worlds.
[Meta opens applications for African metaverse competition] Meta has opened applications for the AR/VR Africa Metathon in partnership with Imisi 3D and BlackRhino VR. The AR/VR Africa Metathon is a series of programs and activations under its global XR fund aimed at supporting XR talents on the continent to build innovative solutions that demonstrate various use cases of the metaverse.
[Splinterlands prepares for SPS rewards and governance] Splinterlands finally removed the Dark Energy Crystals from chest rewards as they replace them with the SPS tokens. The new update was set to release on August 23 with the usual weekly maintenance. As the new update goes live, players will no longer be finding DEC tokens in the chest. The reward chest will contain SPS tokens or the governance token that Splinterlands launched last summer.
[The Sandbox invested in Index Game to boost its metaverse experience] Index Game has signed an investment agreement with The Sandbox as a major shareholder that has committed to invest $1.7 million for the development of its metaverse, and GameFi segments along with the Web3 space to create a play-to-earn content. The Sandbox has committed to offering an exclusive arrangement to Index Game for IPs that will be created when both are in the investment agreement.
[Gallium Studios secured $6 million in funding to develop its blockchain games] The gaming firm released an announcement that it has raised $6 million from Griffin Gaming Partners to develop two new blockchain games called Proxi and VoxVerse. The experienced team wants to incorporate the latest blockchain and AI technologies and keep players at the center of the development process.
DAO
[Ethereum Foundation officially confirmed schedules for Mainnet Merge] The Ballarrux upgrade is scheduled for epoch 144896 and the Paris upgrade will trigger the Merge at TTD 58750000000000000000000, estimated to be Sept 14, 14;53 UTC. Ethereum Foundation has also opened up for $1M bugs bounty at this critical moment.
[Tether announced to hold and awaits instructions before sanction] The Washington Post revealed that after the Treasury Department sanctioned Tornado Cash, Tether has not yet blacklisted any of the sanction addresses, which may result in violation of the U.S OFAC rules. Tether later published a blog clarifying that OFAC has not indicated that they should freeze the addresses on OFAC‘s SDN list that they are working in close contact with the law enforcement and no one has made clear instructions blacklist the Tornado.cash associated account.
[Arbitrum one is all set to migrate to Arbitrum Nitro ] The migration is set for August 31st, 10:30 AM ET and it is expected to take between 2–4 hrs.
[Uniswap voted yes to establishing Uniswap Foundation] Uniswap Foundation has the mission to support the growth and sustainability of the Uniswap Protocol. The protocol will allocate $74M in total to support the associate activities including grants, R&D, and ecosystem development.
[ZkSync will go through regenesis to implement dynamic fee] Regenesis will reset transaction history, and token balances and require developers to redeploy contracts. After the dynamic fee model is introduced the L2 fee will depend on the resources consumed rather than respective L1 costs.
Regulation & Adoption
Aug. 23(🇺🇸) Nike makes $186 million selling NFTs
Aug. 24 (🇲🇾) Malaysia Kenanga Investment Bank Berhad, to launch a crypto-friendly app to its over 500k clients in 2023.
Aug. 23 (🌍) Crypto.com has been granted a SOC 2 Type II Certification.
Aug. 25 (🇺🇸) Tornado Cash developer to remain in jail for 3 more months.
Aug. 28 (🇦🇫) Crypto banned in Afghanistan, ban imposed by its central bank.
Macro
- The dollar hit a five-week high versus major peers on Monday the 22nd, as investor sentiment continued to weaken ahead of the Jackson Hole meeting and US inflation data.
- UK inflation is on the path to breaching 18% due to an energy price surge.
- Germany´s Gas storage at 80.14% capacity, the country still needs to fill its gas capacity to 85% and 95% by October and November, respectively to secure the winter supply
- President of the US, Joe Biden, to freeze student-loan payments for another four months.
- Norway won't offer long-term fixed-price gas contracts and discounts.
- California to ban the sale of gasoline cars by 2025.
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