Overview of Fundraisings of the Week
FTX helps out BlockFi with US$250m loan; SEC’s Hester Peirce opposes crypto bailouts
UK Financial Ltd Secures a Multi-Million Dollar Line of Credit with Trustfinco Banking Institution
FalconX Raises $150M at $8B Valuation
Magic Eden raises $130M, hitting unicorn status at $1.6B valuation
Blockchain carbon certificate-generator EcoWatt secures $110M from GEM Digital Limited
Crypto custodian Prime Trust raises $100 million to add IRAs, staking to services suite
Style3D Secures Nearly $100M in Pre-Round B+ of Financing
Digital Toy Platform Cryptoys Raises $23M From a16z, Dapper Labs, Mattel
Brave group Raises Additional US$10 Million to Accelerate Metaverse Business, Finalizing Total Series C at US$18 Million
Vibe Bio Raises $12M in Funding
Fundraising Trend Since the Beginning of the Year
DeFi
Weekly TVL
Gross: ⬆️$76.82B
Top 3 Apps: MakerDAO ⬆️($7.98B), AAVE ⬆️($6.5B), Lido ⬆️($5.26B)
Top 3 Chains: ETH ⬆️($49.06B), BSC ⬆️($6.02B), TRON ⬆️($4.16B)
Top 7D Change 📈: The easiest way to stake Solana -Marinade Finance (MNDE) (+49.98%, $303.25m)
DeFi News
[Harmony Horizon Hacked] Harmony’s official bridge Horizon has been exploited for $100 million in altcoins which are being swapped for ETH.
[Solana Mobile Stack]Solana Labs is launching a mobile stack that provides a new set of libraries for wallets and apps, allowing developers to create mobile apps on Solana. As part of the effort, Solana devs are building a crypto-native phone that will be shipped in Q1 2023.
[dYdX Chain]Derivative trading protocol dYdX announced that for the upcoming V4 upgrade dYdX will develop as a cosmos-based, standalone chain. By building its own chain rather than staying on existing L1/L2, dYdX will have high throughput for the orderbook while remaining decentralized.
NFT
7D SALES: $133,366,604
7D CHANGE IN SALES: -28.55%
7D NUMBER OF SALES: 1,073,102
NFT News
Jun. 24, Cristiano Ronaldo signs NFT partnership deal with Binance.
Jun. 23, Ledger launches an NFT marketplace and services platform for enterprises.
Jun. 23, Gucci and SuperRare are collaborating on Digital Art Vault.
Jun. 22, eBay has acquired NFT marketplace KnownOrigin.
Jun. 22, Uniswap acquires NFT marketplace aggregator Genie.
Jun. 21, MoonPay is partnering with Universal Pictures and Fox Corporation to launch a new NFT platform called HyperMint.
Gamefi & Metaverse
[Coin98 Labs Acquires Yunero Studios to Accelerate Web3 Mass Adoption via GameFi] First established in 2021, Yunero is a new game studio based in Vietnam, on a journey to build its dream. The team consists of professionals from the traditional gaming industry, who have worked at leading companies including VNG Corporation, Eway JSC, Vega Corporation. The acquisition gives Coin98 a gaming arm, fulfilling its ecosystem to push for Web3 mass adoption.
[Cocone Connect Announces A Revolutionary Dress-to-Earn GameFi Vampire Game ‘ClawKiss’] Cocone Connect, a subsidiary of the Cocone Group, announced the official launch of the website and social media accounts of its soon-to-be-released project, ClawKiss, a dress-to-earn GameFi vampire game, which utilizes blockchain technology and Selfy — the popular avatar generator loved in over 170 countries around the world.
[Outer Ring MMO Set to Launch +20M Randomized NFTs] Outer Ring MMO is launching its NFT Lootboxes next June 29th. With this drop, more than 350.000 ERC-721 tokens will be minted, validating in-game assets such as weapons, armors, or vehicles. The game is free to play and allows non-crypto gamers to enjoy its MMORPG gameplay without interacting with the Blockchain. Assets can be traded inside the game using EXO, (its soft in-game currency), or minted, to export them to external marketplaces and the Galactic Dex.
[TRON’s Metaverse Game WIN NFT HERO About to Make a Bang] Recently, TRON released another metaverse game, WIN NFT HERO, in a bid to expand its GameFi territory. Like its predecessor WIN NFT HORSE of the WIN NFT series, this game has been born out of the concerted effort of TRON, APENFT, and WINKLink.
[Rh!noX changing the dynamics of the Metaverse, gaming, and NFTs]Rh!noX, a project based on digital Rhinos, offers a collection of 10,000 unique NFTs with an eye toward design and numerous utilities. With a unique algorithm and a dose of originality, Rh!noX transcends similar NFT projects without significant utility. Instead, it is challenging the paradigms of NFTs, the metaverse, and the former’s integration with the gaming industry.
[Blockchain Gaming Platform ‘MetaOne’ Has Got $2M Financing] MetaOne, the largest SAAS to onboard massive games and guilds onto blockchain gaming, has recently announced the close of its first private round for the development of their platform’s guild analytical tools and transformative smart contract for NFT management.
[Tencent Forms ‘Extended Reality’ Unit to Further Metaverse Development] Tencent has formed an “extended reality” (XR) unit to explore software and hardware products that will bring its metaverse push to life. The Chinese tech company is looking to grow the headcount of this unit to over 300 persons. The unit will be headed by Tencent Games Global’s Chief Technology Officer Li Shen and will be part of the conglomerate’s Interactive Entertainment business group.
[A $100M Metaverse R&D Hub is Being Built in Melbourne] Thailand-based metaverse startup Translucia Global Innovation has partnered with the Australian software development firm Two Bulls and set aside an initial budget of $100 million to build a Metaverse Research and Development Center (MRDC) in Melbourne. Translucia is a subsidiary of art and entertainment company T&B Media Global, which in October 2021, launched its Translucia Metaverse project, with the first-stage investment of $283 million for the virtual world.
DAO
[Lido is voting to determine if the protocol should self-limit its staking on ETH] Lido is no doubt the single biggest staker in ETH2 now with over 30% in total staked ETH. Many have expressed concern towards the protocol itself as it has gained too much-controlling power in a subsystem of staking and imposed systematic risk on Ethereum. The voting poll is going to close on July 1st and currently, 99% voted against self-limit.
[Bit-chain is coming] CEO of Bybit, Ben Zhou initiated a soft proposal in BitDAO, proposed a L1 EVM compatible blockchain utilizing $BIT as a native token. BitDAO now has $1.2B in its treasury and has worked extensively in gaming, zkp, and NFTs. By having its own blockchain combined with the current ecosystem, BitDAO no double will be capturing more value.
[Optimism initiated voting to grant projects developing on OP] Phrase 2 of the Governance Fund now opening for a vote, Paraswap、Optimistic Railway, dForce, GYSR, Mean Finance, Raptor, Balancer, Beethoevn X，Summa, WardenSwap and Pickle Finance are approved for grants.
Regulation & Adoption
June 20: (🇸🇬) Bybit to reduce up to 30% of workforce amid crypto crash.
June 21: Crypto exchange BlockFi secures $250M credit from FTX.
June 21: (🇺🇸) META starts testing NFTs in Instagram stories
June 23: (🇵🇹) Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, signs an exclusive multi-year NFT partnership with Binance.
June 24: (🇺🇸) Goldman Sachs is likely to buy Celsius assets for $2bnUSD.
Macro
- German producer price inflation surges to 33.6% in May, the highest since 1949.
- USD/RUB drops below 55, the first time since June 2015. The Russian Ruble is the strongest currency YTD, the weakest, is the Turkish Lira.
- USD/JPY climbed above 136, hitting its lowest point since late 1998, marking a free fall for the JPY.
- Cryptocurrency market cap finalized the week by going back to 1 trillion.
- US PMI disappoints. Growth in US private sector activity slowed significantly in June to 51.2, a five-month low, after 53.6 in May. This is the second weakest increase in activity since July 2020
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