March Recap
March Recap
covering all the fungible and non-fungible news throughout March
as always, thanks for reading and you can follow me and terv to reach out!
tl;dr: March was a good month for our beloved tokens as renowned appreciation for BTC’s store of value combined with growing excitement of ETH’s merge pulled the market upward. $APE, Stargate, bridges and the multichain future exploded into the zeitgeist, with L2 scaling solutions rounding out the core themes across the token landscape. Similarly in the NFT space, Azuki and BAYC’s launch of $APE trickled throughout the NFT ecosystem raising floors, volume, and giving life to what had been a few down weeks in the NFT world.
news & funding highlights:
while this is not an exhaustive list of every raise, the total funding of the below sectors are common themes across the crypto ecosystem in March & totals $7.2B
General Funding
Electric Capital raises $1B to invest in crypto startups and tokens
Bain Capital Ventures launches $560M crypto fund — Frank fills us in on the details of how they plan to deploy that capital here.
Spartan Group closes $200M fund to invest in the metaverse, primarily focusing on protocols/games enabling in-game digital ownership
Venture Firm Bessemer forms BessemerDAO and commits $250M to Web3 initiatives in “consumer DeFi, infrastructure, and other enabling technologies”
StarkWare, ETH ZK scaling solution, reportedly raising $100M @ $6B valuation
ConsenSys raises $450M @ $7B valuation, to convert funding to ETH and release redesign of MetaMask sometime later in 2022; MetaMask 30M+ users
Former Facebook stablecoin Diem devs form Aptos, raise $200M @ $1B+ valuation to build new L1 with live devnet and hopes to launch mainnet in Q3
Optimism, L2 ETH scaling, raises $150M @ $1.65B valuation
VC firm Foresight Ventures plans to invest $100-$200M in Web3 startups
Spartan Group launches Spartan Labs, a $100M Web3 venture-building studio
Guantlet, DeFi risk management, raises $24M @ $1B valuation
Yuga Labs, BAYC creator, raises $450M @ $4B valuation
Katie Haun launches Haun Ventures with $1.5B in capital to invest in growth of web3 — $500M early stage fund & $1B acceleration fund
Nexo Ventures launches $150M Web3 investment fund
Tekin Salimi launches dao5, $125M early-stage crypto fund that will eventually progress to full DAO ownership and decision making
DCG spins off Luno Expeditions to invest in crypto/fintech with ~$250M
Lunar, Nordic neobank, raises $77M @ $2B valuation and launches their crypto trading platform with access to BTC, ETH, DOGE, ADA, & DOT
Coin News
Avalanche Foundation ($AVAX) launches $290M (4M $AVAX tokens) incentive program to boost development for their subnets — DeFi Kingdoms ($JEWEL) to receive the first subnet incentive with rewards in $JEWEL, $CRYSTAL, $AVAX
Immutable X ($IMX), ETH ZK scaling solution, raises $200M @ $2.5B valuation
a16z invests $70M in Lido ($LDO) liquid staking solutions, Lido also announces liquid staking for $MATIC is now available on Polygon
Mina, ZK enabled L1, raises $92M to boost growth of developers in ecosystem
LFG, Luna Foundation Guard, to burn $365M worth of $LUNA to mint 372M $UST to purchase more “exogenous collateral” for $UST backing
Acala, DeFi network on DOT, announces $250M “aUSD Ecosystem Fund” to support teams building use cases for aUSD (Acala dollar)
Okcoin & Stacks partner launching $165M commitment to push BTC adoption
Worldcoin, eyeball scanning for tokens, raises $100M @ $3B valuation
Avalanche announces $100M creator fund with Grimes
Phi Labs raises $21M in seed funding to continue onboarding and rewarding dapp developers within the Cosmos ecosystem
Layer Zero, cross chain asset swap protocol, raises $135M and launches Stargate (STG) on 3/17
NFT Fever Continues
Yuga Labs — BAYC creators purchase the IP rights of Crypto Punks and Meebits, launch $APE (~$11), and announce plans to sell land and create game
Spotify plans to add blockchain tech and NFTs; Zuck confirms Instagram NFTs
Tomorrowland partners with FTX for NFTs and web3 feature integrations
SoftBank’s internet arm, Z Holdings, plans to launch NFT marketplace this year
Sandbox and WoW NFT partner to form $25M alliance for collaborations
Curated raises $30M+ and launches NFT asset fund
FC Barcelona announces plans to develop its own token/NFTs & metaverse
Billboard and Universal Music Group partner to launch ChartStars, NFT collectibles that celebrate artist achievements
FanCraze, cricket NFT platform a la NBA Topshot, raises $100M
Line, Japanese messaging giant, to launch NFT marketplace on April 13th
GameStop announces the beta version of their NFT marketplace with L2 scaling integrations coming from Loopring and IMX
Liverpool FC to release NFTs with Sotheby’s partnership; Diplo releasing NFTs on 3LAU’s Royal platform
Upshot, NFT appraisal protocol, raises $22M
General Notes & Adoption
Ethereum successfully merges on Kiln testnet ahead of long anticipated merge from PoW to PoS — June seems to be the rough consensus for merge
Ukraine finalizes legalization of crypto; raises tens of millions globally w/ crypto
Stripe, global payments powerhouse, now supports crypto businesses including exchanges, on-ramps, wallets, and NFT marketplaces
DCG announces $250M share repurchasing program for Litecoin, Zcash, Horizen Trusts along with other Grayscale products
Coinbase adds Solana based tokens, to add dapp connections and NFTs soon
Crypto.com to be an official sponsor of 2022 FIFA World Cup, previously acquired naming rights to Staples Center for $700M
Figure Technologies announces 100% loan to value crypto backed mortgages for BTC and ETH of up to $20M
Krafton, PUBG game maker, and Solana Labs announce partnership to develop and market web3 games along with investing partnership
Ray Dialo’s Bridgewater, is dipping its toes into the crypto waters
DraftKings partners with Zero Hash to become Polygon validator
Goldman Sachs and Galaxy Digital partner to complete OTC crypto trade
NFL grants teams permission to partner with blockchain enabled companies
Exxon, world’s largest energy company, is piloting a program that diverts excess natural gas to BTC mining
El Salvador delays issue of $1B BTC bond
thoughts, notes, & tokens:
L2 szn & The Merge
One of the core themes of March was the increasing excitement surrounding the Ethereum merge (currently slated for late June) and the accompanying developments of L2s. The majority of the recent reinvigoration of L2s has come from the vast amount of funding and development progress of ZK specific L2s. I cover ZK rollups in depth in the zero knowledge landscape.
StarkWare (building StarkNet & StarkEx), zkSync, IMX, Polygon, Espresso Systems, Aztec, and Aleo were covered in the ZK landscape
Mina Protocol ($MINA, ZK L2 scaling) announced a $92M funding round the day after I published the ZK landscape, and went on to be one of the best performing assets of March. The final notable L2 announcement in March also came on the 17th when Optimism announced a $150M raise pushing their valuation to $1.65B.
Bridges & Multichain Future
while ETH and L2 scaling solutions were a core focus of the month, bridges and the multi/omni chain future accelerated their own narrative. Covered extensively in previous roundups, we’ll recap highlighting Axie’s Ronin losing ~$625M last week, Poly Network losing $600M in August of ‘21 and Wormhole losing $325M in February (which was backstopped by Jump) reignited the conversation around the security and viability of bridges moving forward. Throw in recent cross chain developments by $RUNE, the Cosmos IBC communication layer, and the launch of $STG which claims to solve the “Bridging Trilemma“ and we have a lot to sort through moving forward.
While the bridge wars sort themselves out, it’s clear participants want cross chain applications and yield opportunities. While many claimed the demise of bridges this week, Synapse ($SYN, bridging protocol) highlighted exactly why that is not the case displayed in the demand/use of their bridging services as DFK transitioned to an AVAX subnet and users bridged ~$500M over night. on the back of Stargate’s launch, AVAX subnets connecting JEWEL while partnering with SYN to bridge ~$470M in assets, and RUNE deployed synthetics and boasted ThorSwap.
Continued Product Innovation
Notable tokenomics revamps along with new versions released, continued product innovation, and cross chain expansion corresponded to some of the largest token returns in March. Projects encompassing that w/ 30d returns:
LOOKS continues shipping product updates & finding PmF +75%
RUNE launched synthetics and outlined the future of ThorFi/ThorSwap +130%
ZCASH (and privacy coins) received a boost as the importance of privacy enabled transactions resurfaced +55%
GMT tapped new ponzinomics in pioneering move to earn +1000%
MINA raised funding and was one of the liquid tokens available to bet on the growth of ZKRs +85%
AAVE shipped v3 providing one of the most advanced liquidity protocols +75%
FXS continued acquiring CVX tokens/bribes and deep liquidity as they attempt to build the “Holy Trinity of DeFi” +75%
JEWEL embraced their new AVAX subnet and revamped tokenomics +76%
NFT Review:
This is by no means a comprehensive list of the ongoings in NFT land as these projects are covered in more depth throughout past Page One posts, so find more info on all of this in those posts from March.
Familiar Faces:
Azuki held their Garden Party, airdropped BEANZ to holders and went ballistic
BattleFly opens the Silo, beginning the road to PvP battles
Bored Ape Yacht Club basically owned the beginning of the month by launching their token and announcing their game, Otherside - only after buying the CryptoPunks and Meebits IP and giving rights to holders.
ESSENCE// from FVCK RENDER releases, setting the stage for LVCDIA
Gutter Cat Gang got into the Gutter Juice and turned into Gutter Clones
MAX PAIN, an XCOPY open edition, sold nearly 7,500 pieces in 10 minutes.
Metroverse topped P2E charts and released the Blackout edition collection
NFT Worlds announces Avatars, continues rolling out updates
Treasure Marketplace was exploited but recovered most assets
World of Women Galaxy added 22,222 new faces to the WoW universe.
New Entrants:
CyberBrokers fuses Josie Bellini’s style with generative avatars
CryptoShack minted and started developing a minigolf game in NFT Worlds
GNSS by MGXS delivered captivating generative figures using an inventive mint style, allowing users up to 10 irreversible choices
Kiwami began their stay in the anime social club scene with a clean refund DA
Mavia, a Clash of Clans-esque P2E, held their land sale
Muri expanded the Haus ecosystem and helped maintain the anime market
OKPC is a Pokedex for pixel art by Gremplin, Nyx and 52 more crypto-artists
The Seekers will power communication and trade in the Sylo ecosystem
Highest Floor Increase:
Pudgy Penguins — 0.72e —> 2.4e, Azuki — 9.49e —> 26.65e, PROOF 30.5e —> 92.5e, Tom Sachs: Rocket Factory Rockets — 2.2e —> 4.9e, CyberBrokers — 2.22e —> 4.4e, Doodles — 8.68e —> 16e, Cypher — 0.38e —> 1e, Dreams — 0.49e —> 1.21, Adidas Originals —> 1.06e —> 2e
Brands, Celebs, and Corpos:
(B)APETAVERSE makes BAPE the latest legacy brand to enter Web3
Coolman’s Universe appeared in a Crocs ad campaign
Cryptoon Goonz teased an NFT NYC collab with Urban Outfitters
Gucci provided grails for your favorite pfp through 10KTF
TIME released their magazine as an NFT for the first time
VeeCon Tickets were airdropped to VeeFriends S1 holders
The Walking Dead released the Walker Access Pass
World of Women partnered with Billboard to auction charity covers