Fundraisings of the Week
Italian crypto exchange Young Platform cements French trading license
AirCarbon Exchange Receives $15M Investment
MSafe Raises $5 Million Seed for Developing Multi-Signature Wallet Solutions
Ondefy Raises $1M to Foster DeFi Adoption
Leading Digital Collectible Platform Candy Digital Announces Series A1 Fundraise
DeFi
Weekly TVL
Gross: ā¬ļø$40.91B
Top 3 Apps: Lido ā¬ļø($6.47B), MakerDAO ā¬ļø($6.4B), AAVE ā¬ļø($3.99B)
Top 3 Chains: ETH ā¬ļø($24.49B), BSC ā¬ļø($4.39B), TRON ā¬ļø($4.1B)
Top 7D Change š: The easiest way to stake Solana ā liquid staking ā Marinade Finance (+63.25%, $106.58M)
DeFi News
[Trader Joe Coming to BnB Chain] Avalanche-based trading platform Trader Joe will deploy its DEX and NFT marketplace to the BnB chain by the end of March.
[StarkWare Cairo 1.0] StarkNet releases the first public version of Cairo 1.0. Cairo is a programming language for building STARK-provable programs and L2 applications.
[Bebop Live on Arbitrum] Batch-swapping DEX Bebop expands from Ethereum and Polygon to Arbitrum.
NFT
Top 10 Collections by Weekly Volume
NFT News of the Week
Jan. 7, OpenSea enables support for Arbitrum Nova. āWeāre excited to now support Arbitrum Nova! Arbitrumās chain is dedicated to social and gaming! Weāre also strengthening Novaās ecosystem by joining the Data Availability Committee (DAC) to provide access to on-chain data and help ensure data accuracy.ā [Source: OpenSea Twitter]
Jan. 7, Polygon pays NFT collection y00ts $3 million to migrate from Solana. āAccording to a statement published on Discord by founder Frank, aka Rohun Vora, DeLabs will put the funds toward hiring efforts and launch a crypto incubator to support its NFT ecosystem.ā [Source: Decrypt]
Jan. 7, NFT marketplace SuperRare lays off 30% of employees. āCEO John Crain said the company overhired during the market upswing and could not sustain its growth in recent months.ā [Source: CoinDesk]
Jan. 6, Mastercard partners with Polygon for the web3 artist accelerator program. āMastercard is launching a spotlight program for emerging musical artists built on the Polygon blockchain to help up-and-coming creators tap into the power of Web3 and blockchain technologies.ā [Source: Polygon Website]
Jan. 6, Shopify enables users to use Avalanche NFTs through Venly. āAvalanche NFTs are now available to millions of Shopify ($SHOP) merchants through Venly Shopify NFT, a merchant app. Merchants can easily design, mint, and sell NFTs in just a few clicks, diversifying their store's offerings to customers.ā [Source: Avalanche Medium]
Jan. 5, Fanatics sells stake in NFT startup Candy Digital. āFanatics has sold its 60% share in Candy Digital to a group of investors led by Galaxy Digital, CEO Michael Rubin told staff.ā [Source: Decrypt]
Jan. 5, Web3 project builders suffer loss of high-value NFTs from hacks. āCloneX COO Nikhil Gopalani and prominent NFT collector CryptoNovo lost NFTs estimated to have been worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to scammers.ā [Source: CoinDesk]
Jan. 5, DoJ charges NFT developer with an international fraud scheme. āA criminal complaint was unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn charging Aurelien Michel, a French national residing in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with defrauding purchasers of āMutant Ape Planetā NFTs, a type of digital asset, of more than $2.9 million in cryptocurrency.ā [Source: Department of Justice]
GameFi & Metaverse
[Microsoft says metaverse is must-have] Microsoft is holding on tightly to its future in the metaverse. The tech giant is looking to transform the customer experience and believes the future will be based on a hybrid model. Henry Bzeih, automotive and transportation at Microsoft, said that as the world moves toward a more digital landscape, a hybrid model is likely to be the future of consumer and company relationships.
[Hyper-realistic e-commerce metaverses] Lotte Data Communications announced its plans to launch a hyper-realistic metaverse that links the online and offline worlds. The metaverse will use realistic content to support clothing, cosmetic, and household product businesses and immerse consumers. Lotte will use its innovative technology patents to ensure users can interact with virtual and real-life content realistically.
[Oorbit partners with LG to bring an interoperable metaverse platform] Oorbit has partnered with LG Electronics to bring interoperable virtual worlds to LG TVs. Through this partnership, Oorbit and LG will bring immersive games and experiences together and make it easy for consumers to interact in the metaverse. Oorbit is building the worldās premiere technology platform that makes metaverse experiences available in one place.
[Baidu to launch XiRang MetaStack] Baidu is set to unveil a metaverse solution called XiRang MetaStack at the annual conference. The solution enables the creation of an independent metaverse based on a series of metaverse infrastructure and one-stop development platforms. XiRang completed over 120 metaverse activities and spaces, covering over 20 core fields such as cultural tourism, art, automobile, and consumption.
[NPIXEL to launch its first Web3 game āGran Saga: Unlimitedā on Aptos] After announcing its partnership with Aptos, South Korean Triple-A gaming studio, NPIXEL, will be launching its first-ever MMORPG Web3 game. NPIXELās Web3 gaming ecosystem, METAPIXEL, is set to launch a brand new Web3 MMORPG titled Gran Saga: Unlimited, the first game built on the Aptos network.
[Maruti Suzuki introduces ArenaVerse, its second metaverse platform] Maruti Suzuki has successfully launched its second metaverse platform, by the name of ArenaVerse. This platform was developed to expand its customer base and reach a much larger audience. This platform will provide the opportunity to all of its users to actively engage in an all-inclusive virtual world exposure with all of their individual Maruti Suzuki cars.
[Animoca Brands seeks to raise $1 billion for metaverse fund] Animoca Brands will aim to raise $1 billion for its metaverse investing fund. The initiative comes in spite of the market decline and the FTX crash, which have vaporized much of the interest in cryptocurrencies. Animoca Brands had also recently closed a funding round for one of its portfolio companies, but would not say which one.
DAO
[Logan Paul Apologizes] YouTuber Logan Paul has deleted a video in which he threatened to sue internet detective Stephen āCoffeezillaā Findeisen over a three-part series that painted Paulās CryptoZoo project as a āscam.ā
[Binance Money-Laundering Probe] Federal prosecutors are investigating the relationship between Binance and U.S.-based hedge funds as part of a broader investigation into the cryptocurrency exchangeās possible skirting of money-laundering guardrails, according to a report by the Washington Post.
[Coinbase Fine] Coinbase will pay a $50m fine to the New York State Department of Financial Services to settle charges that it let users open accounts without conducting sufficient background checks. The regulators found that the crypto exchangeās policies were in violation of anti-money-laundering laws. The settlement will also require Coinbase to invest $50m over the next two years to bolster its compliance program.
[Polygon Paid Y00ts and DeGods $3M to Migrate Chains] DeLabs, the Los Angeles-based startup behind popular NFT projects DeGods and Y00ts, received a $3 million grant from Polygon to migrate blockchains.
[2.8M ENS Registrations in 2022] Data from Dune Analytics shows that more than 630,000 unique wallets created 2.82 million domain names, with 459,000 of those classified as āprimary names.ā Primary names are ENS addresses that resolve to a userās crypto wallet and can be used as a proxy to search for information on blockchain explorers, such as Etherscan. The 2.82 million figure represents over 80% of all registrations since the service started in 2017.
Regulation & Adoption
- Jan 4 (šŗšø) Sam Bankman-Fried pleads not guilty to fraud charges.
- Jan 4 (šŗšø) 100M USD settlement agreed by Coinbase with NY Regulators.
- Jan 5 (šøšØ) Huobi to cut staff by around 30% āgiven market conditionsā
- Jan 5 (šŗšø) Genesis Crypto Lender lays off 30% of its staff. The situation remains unclear with bankruptcy on the table.
- Jan 6 (š®š©) Indonesia to launch a national crypto exchange this year.
Macro
- Recession to hit a third of the world in 2023, based on IMF forecasts. Same IMF Forecast suggests China is likely to be at or below global growth for the first time in 40-years.
- European Gas Prices dipped below 750 USD for the first time since February 2018.
- US Hiring slows but remains solid.
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