Week of March 7, 2022
GM friends.
We started putting together weekly blockchain reports internally a few months ago to get everyone up-to-date with the latest trends in the industry. Every Monday, each Antalpha Ventures team member will contribute to a part of the report based on their expertise and preference (in very much of a DAO manner, if I’m being honest). Usually, our reports will include the latest news and information in blockchain fundraising, DeFi, NFT, GameFi, DAO, regulation/adoption globally, and more. These reports have been beneficial for us as a way of summarizing what’s been going on in the blockchain industry the previous week, and we thought we’d start to share them here, and hopefully, this will help you in some way as well.
Highest NFT Sale of the Week
Meebit #1657
Price: 303 ETH ($785.58K)
Overview of Fundraisings of the Week
Top 10 Fundraising Events
Top 3 Infrastructure Fundraisings
Top 3 CeFi Fundraisings
Top 3 Metaverse Fundraisings
Top 3 DeFi Fundraisings
Top 3 GameFi Fundraisings
Fundraising Trend
DeFi
Weekly TVL
Gross: ⬆️ $198.07B
Top 3 Apps: Curve ⬆️ ($17.74B), Maker ⬆️ ($15.09B), Lido ⬆️ ($13.91B)
Top 3 Chains: ETH ⬆️ ($111.57B), Terra ⬆️ ($25.35B), BSC ⬆️ ($11.73B)
Top 7D Change 📈: Fees incentivizing protocol-Hermes Protocol (+8963%, $264.29M)
DeFi News
[DeFi Kingdom DFK Chain] Harmony play-to-earn project DeFi Kingdom introduced DFK Chain, an Avalanche subnet that furthers DeFi Kingdom’s Crystalvale expansion.
[Wormhole Supports Fantom] Cross-chain bridge Wormhole now supports Fantom bridging.
[Mars Live on Terra] Lending protocol Mars launched on Terra, enabling LUNA/UST markets and MARS staking for users.
NFT
Key metrics
7D SALES: $392,396,950
7D CHANGE IN SALES: -8.03%
7D NUMBER OF SALES: 1,144,526
NFT News
Mar 14, South China Morning Post releases ARTIFACTs NFTs collection from its 118 years of archives.
Mar 12, TreasureDAO NFT marketplace returns after a critical exploit.
Mar 11, Stripe announces fiat payment support for cryptocurrencies and NFTs.
Mar 10, The Sandbox partners with World of Women to drive female education and mentorship.
Mar 9, Moss Earth enables everyone to own a piece of the Amazon Forest by holding an NFT that represents it.
GameFi
[Immutable finished a $200M raise] The Sidney-based NFT development company is valued at $2.5B for its recent round, led by Temasek. The company has developed Gods Unchained, Guilds of Guardians, and Ethereum based scaling layer 2 NFT platform ImmutableX, the raised for this round will push Immutable to double its team size.
[Warner Bros is minting redeemable NFTs with physical DC comics Trading Cards] The cards will be featuring 155 different superheroes and a potential limited edition of “The Batman” cards starring Robert Pattinson. The NFT will be minted on Immuntable X.
[Chevron filed for NFT & Metaverse trademarks] Energy Giant Chevron filed for NFT and Metaverse Trademarks with USPTO, specifically trademarks including branded NFT, virtual goods of renewable energy products, and convenience store products.
[Redbull filed for NFT & Metaverse trademarks] and revealed plans of offering NFTs, clothing, drinks, and sports gear as well as financial exchanges services in the metaverse.
[Defi Kingdoms launches its subnet on Avalanche, DFK Chain] DFK, the DeFi + Metaverse Project, DeFi Kingdom, is receiving tremendous support from the Avalanche ecosystem, including a $15M incentive funding. As a result, DeFi Kingdom now is the dominating dapp on Harmony with $320M TVL.
[FTX Europe x. Tomorrowland] FTX Europe is partnering with EDM music festival Tomorrowland to explore a web 3.0 experience of utilizing NFTs for art, music, ticketing, and immersive experiences in the metaverse. Their first experimental event, The Quest by FTX, will be held at the upcoming Tomorrowland Winter Festival. Attendees will have the chance to claim 1500 NFTS, which each entitles mysterious exclusive concerts over three nights.
[Wemade x. ThumbAge] Korean Game Publisher made a $4M to a Korean Moblie game developing company, ThumbAge. Dekaron M, a mobile game owned by ThumbAge, will be integrated into Wemix Ecosystem.
[Gucci x. 10KTF] Gucci is partnering with 10KTF, a virtual accessories store, releasing a Gucci NFT wearable series called Gucci Grail on Ethereum on March 23rd.
[VICE x. Decentraland] The digital media, VICE is taken residence with a permanent office in Decentraland. The virtual office is just the first step. According to the Executive creative director from VICE, the team will further explore metaverse, NFTs, DAOs, and Web 3.0.
DAO
[Juno Network proposed to reduce Whale’s stake] A layer 1 blockchain in Cosmos ecosystem, Juno Network initiated a proposal to confiscate 2.5M token from a whale’s address to the community treasury. The whale address holds about 3.1M $JUNO, and there are worrisome that the size of the token that he holds can pose liquidity risk towards the project.
[Bain Capital into the DAO space] The leading multi-asset alternative investment firm, Bain Capital, announced to launch a dedicated $560M crypto fund, Bain Capital Crypto. Stephen Cohen, the partner at Bain Capital, shared one of their focus areas will be companies that provide service to DAOs related to governance, payments, launch-time marketing, etc.
[Bessemer DAO] Bessemer Venture Partners launched a $250 dedicated fund to support building a decentralized future focusing on consumer applications, Defi, web3 infrastructure, and enabling technology. Bessemer DAO is also formed to connect resources and business development opportunities for post portfolio services.
Regulation and Adoption
March 7, 2022: (🇪🇺) EU Parliament will vote on the Markets in Crypto Assets legislation, including a proof-of-work crypto ban.
March 9, 2022: (🇺🇸) US President Joe Biden issued his first executive order on cryptocurrencies, asking different federal agencies to coordinate efforts on the sector.
March 9, 2022: (🇦🇪) Dubai, one of the seven emirates of UAE, announced its adoption of a new virtual assets law and the creation of a regulatory and licensing authority.
March 9, 2022: (🇺🇸) BitMEX co-founder Samuel Reel pleaded guilty to violating AML rules and will pay a $10 million fine. BitMEX’s other two founders also pleaded guilty earlier.
March 11, 2022: (🇺🇸🇪🇺🇷🇺) G7 will work on new measures against Russia using crypto to evade sanctions.
Macro
- This week, all major stocks moved lower due to the continued war between Russia and Ukraine. Tech heavy Nasdaq composite index dropped 20% from its recent high and moved into a bear market. Safe-heaven asset US Treasuries also went down 1.66% this week. Volatility retreated 3.85% from last week’s peak.
- US February CPI hit another 40-year high at 7.9% YOY, most driven by high food and energy prices. The economy will continue to be pressured by the record-high inflation numbers as WTI prices skyrocket to over $120.
- UofM consumer sentiment index dropped to 59.7, more than expected and a new decade low. The good news on the market this week is the job market, with both weekly jobless claims and January job opening data better than the consensus.
$4B Hedge fund Fir Tree Capital Management is making Big Short Wager on USDT
The Hedge fund issued a report to its client recently revealing the potential risk of in $24B high yield commercial paper that Tether Reserve holds. They found opportunities to short Tether in July 2021, and their rigorous research, including hiring third-party experts, led them to believe that some of the commercial paper is tied to Chinese real estate developers.
Tether Reserve is undisputably a big mystery over the years because Tether refused to name any corporations under its Commercial Paper and Certificates of Deposit. Many speculations were made around this subject. China Evergrande Group’s default caused a short-term crackdown on the whole financial market. Tether then came forward announced that the reserve does not hold any COD related to China Evergrande Group.
However, the percentage of CODs that tether holds are declining in the recent reports from Sept 2020- Dec 2021, which are 50%, 44%, and 30%
The general counsel of Tether has explained that the CODs are purchased through “recognized insurance programs,” and the majority of them are “ highly rated.” According to the latest report, most CODs are rated as A-1 and A-2, and a large portion of them are repayable within 180 days.
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