Overview of Fundraisings of the Week
Tier 1 Investment Giant Republic Becomes the First Investor in Astra Protocol’s $100M Series A Round
SoftBank co-led $66 million round for blockchain-focused InfStones
Berlin-based B2B BNPL platform Mondu raises $43M Series A led by Valar in the US
UK neobank Kroo raises £26 million in Series B funding
Data-sharing platform Vendia raises $30M Series B
Esports Powerhouse Galaxy Racer Invests US$25M to Partner With $QUINT
Utopia Labs Announces $23M Series A Financing led by Paradigm
Fintech startup First Digital scores $20m funding
https://www.asiatechdaily.com/fintech-startup-first-digital-scores-20m-funding/
Japanese blockchain firm Gaudiy partners with Sony Music, raises Series A
Amazon, Qualcomm & More Invest $11.2M in TRIPP to Build the “mindful metaverse”
Fundraising Trend Since the Beginning of the Year
DeFi
Weekly TVL
Gross: ⬇️ $109.96B
Top 3 Apps: MakerDAO ⬆️ ($9.79B), Curve ⬆️($8.95B), AAVE ⬇️ ($8.59B)
Top 3 Chains: ETH ⬆️($71.2B), BSC ⬇️($8.53B), TRON ⬆️($6.22B)
Top 7D Change 📈: Non-custodial protocol on Ethereum-Euler (+156%, $222.49m)
DeFi News
[Velodrome Live] Velodrome AMM, a Solidly fork launched by veDAO, is now live on Optimism with airdrop claimable for eligible users.
[Lido on Polkadot Live] Lido is now live on Polkadot, enabling users to stake DOT in the form of xcDOT (cross-chain DOT), for which they receive stDOT (staked DOT) tokens.
[Ethereum Ropsten Merge] Tim Beiko announced the upcoming Merge of the Ropsten testnet. The Merge is expected around June 8th and will turn Ropsten from PoW to PoS.
NFT
Key Metrics
7D SALES: $288,665,864
7D CHANGE IN SALES: 5.74%
7D NUMBER OF SALES: 1,284,152
NFT News
Jun 5, Yuga Labs suffered a hack in its Discord, and 200 ETH worth of NFTs were stolen.
Jun 3, Warner Bros and Nifty’s are launching a “Looney Tunes” story-driven NFT collection.
Jun 2, Former OpenSea executive was charged with NFT insider trading.
Jun 2, GameStop reported $76.9M in proceeds from sales of IMX in the first quarter of 2022.
Jun 2, Kanye West files trademarks for YEEZUS NFT brand.
Jun 1, Gary Vaynerchuk files trademark for ‘Vayner3’ NFT firm.
Gamefi & Metaverse
[Sky Mavis turns to user-generated content for Axie Infinity] Sky Mavis, creator of the popular fantasy monster-battle nonfungible token (NFT) game Axie Infinity, announced that it had accepted the first user-created projects in its Axie Infinity Builders Program. Among the many perks, chosen teams will receive a minimum $10,000 grant — denominated in Axie Infinity’s governance token, Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) — to fund project development. They will also receive permission to monetize their game using the Axie Infinity brand with a revenue-share model.
[Aquanee, Upcoming GameFi Project Announces Its ISO on Gate.io] Aquanee, a metaverse gaming project built on the Binance Smart chain, has announced ISO on one of the leading exchanges, Gate.io, as it moves closer to launching its project.
[Ethereum GameFi Activity Collapses By 96%] According to Arcane Research, the first two quarters of the year have shown to be a reality check that followed a booming Q4 2021 for blockchain-based games. Active users in the top Ethereum-based blockchain games, including Axie Infinity, The Sandbox, Decentraland, and more, have declined by roughly 96% from November 2021 peaks.
[HyperNation to launch GameFi in Europe] Europe is set to become a future hotspot for the Metaverse as HyperNation prepares to launch its latest and highly advanced GameFi there. The GameFi shall run parallel with the virtual nation; its system is perfectly compatible. Furthermore, rewards and NFTs won by playing the GameFi are directly applicable in HyperNation.
[Tripp Mindfully Raises $11.2 Million, X-Platform Playkins, The Shiba Inu Metaverse] Tripp raises $11.2 M to build a mindful metaverse. The Series A round was led by BITKRAFT Ventures, with Qualcomm, Amazon Alexa Fund, HTC, Niantic and existing investor Mayfield participating. The app is priced at either $5 per month, or $35 for lifetime access.
[L’Oreal owned NYX makeup joins The Sandbox metaverse] L’Oréal’s cosmetics subsidiary NYX is partnering with The Sandbox metaverse and People of Crypto (POC). The partnership will launch an avatar collection incorporating traits such as different color shades, ethnicities, sexual orientation, and gender identification, as well as different makeup looks.
[Disney Hires Apple Vet Mark Bozon As Key Overseer Of Metaverse Push] Mark Bozon, who spent 12 years at Apple in creative and gaming executive roles, has been hired by Disney in a senior post to help oversee the company’s push into the metaverse. Bozon will build a team spanning the entire company to work on “interconnected consumer experiences across immersive new storytelling canvases.” He will collaborate with creative, technology, design, and strategy colleagues.
[STEPVR Released the interactive device] STEPVR, an innovative company focusing on VR technology research and development, released VR Gates to the metaverse called Gates01 in Beijing. This product is similar to the “Oasis” in the movie Ready Player One. The omnidirectional motion system and the technical equipment that restores five senses allow users to enter the virtual world for sports, entertainment, education, and work.
DAO
[Was Optimism’s tokenomics a huge letdown?] Optimism airdropped about 5% of the $OP now has about 70% of tokens were claimed. The market value is currently at $5.4B, and many criticisms were made by the community that Optimism has granted the minimum governance right to the token holders. In contrast, the Optimism Foundation will be entitled to rights of the development and the revenue of the protocols. The Foundation also oversees the Citizen House, a committee of governance represented by Non-transferrable tokens, which will be mainly focused on funding public goods in the OP ecosystem. Vitalik Buterin commented that he is very proud of Optimism to adopt $OP is adding non-token governance, and it will be beneficial in achieving the long-term goals of the protocol.
[MakerDAO community is voting to establish subDAOs] Rune Christensen initiated a new proposal called The Endgame Plan, which includes launching MetaDAO, a subDAO that yields higher efficiency and proficiency in specific verticals of the industry to supercharge the potential of the MakerDAO community.
[Gitcoin Grant 14 is kicking off] For the 14th round of Gitcoin Grant, the main round has $1M pool contributed from Polygon, Yearn, Chainlink, and $2M pool will be allocated to 13 ecosystem rounds.
Regulation & Adoption
May 30 (🇨🇭) “Buying BITCOIN is not a problem for us” says the Swiss central bank president.
May 31 (🇰🇷) South Korea to launch digital asset watchdog.
May 31 (🇬🇧) The UK seeks to regulate stablecoins after UST crash
June 2 (🇺🇸) Commodities Future Trading Commission (CFTC) sues Gemini over 2017 Bitcoin Futures Case
June 3 (🇺🇸) New York passes Bitcoin mining bill to ban Bitcoin mining using “carbon-based energy”.
June 3 (🇯🇵) Japan adopts stablecoin regulation to protect investors, law aims to limit financial system risks associated with stablecoins. Based on reports it will come into effect in 2023.
Macro
- China´s COVID outbreak wanes as the government says the situation is fully under control and new cases drastically drop to the fewest in almost 3 months.
- The Eurozone hit a new record high inflation, increasing by 8.1% over the years after 7.4% in April according to European Standards (HICP). Markets forecasted an average of 7.7%.
- Eurozone Producer Price Index (PPI) posts record YoY growth of 37.2%
- The US Economy added 390k jobs in May, with the unemployment rate steady at 3.6% slightly higher than the 3.5% forecast. YoY wages increased 5.2%.
- US 10-year bonds suffered a +5.7 bps to 2.97% highest in two weeks.
- Germany approves a 100 billion euro fund to fund the country’s military approved by its lower house of parliament.
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