May Recap
a comprehensive overview of tokens, NFTs, news, protocols, and funding in May
as always, thanks for reading and follow me and terv to reach out!
tl;dr: LUNA and the Otherside (BAYC land sale) drain liquidity and cascade fungible and non-fungible tokens, golbintown blasts off, everyone wants a wallet, NFTs & GameFi as the current best risk/reward, DeFi & token developments, and L2 scaling begins to take shape.
Funding & News:
while this is not a comprehensive list of every announcement, the total capital deployed to the below sectors are common themes across the crypto ecosystem in May and totals ~$9.5B
General Funding:
a16z raises $4.5B for crypto fund 4; $1.5B for seed, $3B for venture investing
Standard Crypto raises new $500M fund for “equity and crypto”
Republic Capital reportedly raising $500M for crypto dedicated fund
SPiCE VC announces $250M fund dedicated to crypto ecosystem
Fasanara Capital raises $350M for new crypto & fintech based fund
Archetype announces new $150M fund for early-stage investing
Mike Dudas led 6th Man Ventures raises $145M for second crypto fund
Blockchain Coinvestors raises $200M fund for “mid-stage” investing
Ryan Watkins & Daniel Cheung launch $85M digital asset fund Pangea
Old Fashioned Research fund launched with $100M by former Binance execs
NGC Ventures raises $100M for DeFi, NFTs, and GameFi focused fund
Volt Capital raises $50M for second fund focusing on DAOs, NFTs, DeFi & infra
a16z launches $600M gaming fund
Coin News:
Layer Zero Labs ($STG creator) is seeking fresh funds @ $3B valuation
StarkWare (ZK scaling) raises $100M and quadruples valuation to $8B
Dapper Labs announces $725M ecosystem fund for FLOW blockchain
Aurora Labs, EVM layer of NEAR, announces $90M developer fund for DeFi
Nym, privacy enabled blockchain startup, launches $300M ecosystem fund
Bitcoin.com raises $33.6M in private token (VERSE) sale
LUNA/UST collapse wiping ~$50B in value; LUNA relaunches as LUNC w/o UST
Infrastructure:
Chainalysis, blockchain data/analysis provider, raises $170M @ $8.6B valuation
Babel Finance, institutional crypto lender, raises $80M @ $2B valuation
Moralis, NFT/gamefi infrastructure provider, raises $40M series A
Jump leads $150M round into exchange Kucoin, valuation @ $10B
Elwood Technologies, crypto trading infrastructure, raises $70M series A
Solidus Labs, crypto risk monitoring service, raises $45M
BVNK, crypto banking services, raises $40M from Tiger Global
Amberdata, crypto analytics for institutions, raises $30M series B
Certora, contract security, raises $36M; currently secures ~$50B in DeFi assets
Talos, crypto trading infrastructure support, raises $105M in series B
NFTs & GameFi:
Zora, NFT tooling/infra/marketplace provider, raises $50M @ $600M valuation
BUD, Singapore based Metaverse startup, raises $37M series led by Seqouia
Travis Kling led Ikigai raises $30M fund for “x to earn”, NFTs, DAOs & web3
N3TWORK Studios, blockchain gaming startup, raises $46M series A
SO-COL, Irene Zhao’s influencer NFT platform, raising @ $100M valuation
GameStop releases self-custodial wallet for $IMX integrated NFT marketplace
Meta to start testing NFT integration to Instagram this week, developing wallet
OpenSea announces SeaPort; looks to increase NFT liquidity & seller optionality
Moralis, NFT/gamefi infrastructure provider, raises $40M series A
14 NFT and Gamefi integrated projects raised between 10-25M in funding:
Commonwealth, SingularityNET, FreshCut, Azra, CyberConnect, Arianee, Co:Create, Nyan Heroes, Highlight, Branch, Untamed Planet, InfiniGods, Cometh, LootRush
General Notes & Adoption:
Stripe & OpenNode partner for instant fiat to BTC conversion for businesses
JP Morgan says crypto has replaced real estate as preferred alternative asset
NFL taps Mythical Games for play to earn game releasing in early 2023
Alan Howard details his crypto investments and thesis on the asset class
Coinbase launches in-app/browser direct web3 connections, Coinbase Pay SDK for easy on-ramps, and liquid token staking collaboration with Alluvial
Nomura, Japan’s largest investment bank, launching crypto subsidiary
Robinhood releasing web3 wallet EOY; SBF purchased 7.5% of HOOD last week
Google Cloud is creating and enhancing developer support for web3
Cloudflare announces release of public Ethereum and IPFS gateways
Thoughts & Notes:
Wallets — Data was/is the gold mine of web2 and wallets give access to potential products and marketing based on user’s preferences expressed through token holdings in web3. Everyone wants a wallet, and this month saw announcements from Coinbase, Braavos, Robinhood, Zerion, Ledger, and Meta joining Argent, Context, Cogni, Venly, Spruce, Privy and the established market leading wallets in the race to capture users’ entry point to web3. Expect continued experimentation here.
NFTs & GameFi — As I continually noted in Round Tripping, NFTs and GameFi are low risk bets that provide the highest potential return in the current market environment. While the sector doesn’t operate independently from BTC and ETH, there are routinely (sometimes short term) winners like we’ve seen with goblintown. Venture seems to agree as large NFT/GameFi funds and infrastructure investments along with small bets (14 between 10-25M this month) are increasingly directed to the sector.
Sentiment — May, headlined by LUNA/UST’s collapse, was a difficult month for our beloved tokens. MoM returns of BTC -22%, ETH -37%, DeFi TVL ~50%, NFT activity and virtually every other metric continue on a downward trajectory as risk assets are repriced. Fortunately, the cyclical nature of crypto has been well established, something you can read further about in my post from last week Cyclicality & What’s Next. While the pain may last in the short to mid term, there are numerous catalysts awaiting throughout Q3 potentially reigniting markets through EoY.
Token Developments:
$IMX releases cross-rollup liquidity solution across L2s & L3s and partners with GameStop to backbone their NFT marketplace
Aura Finance introduced — integrates veBAL vote escrow tokens for BAL after the success of veCRV and partners with BTRFLY’s Pirex
OP (Optimism Token) launches to shaky results while Velodrome (VELO), AMM on OP, has also launched their protocol and token
Axelar Network confirms & outlines token launch on July 14th
Aztec Network, zk shielded DeFi, to launch Aztec Connect on June 9th
Bancor (BNT) launches Bancor 3 and outlines the protocol here
Redacted Cartel (BTRFLY) — v2 tokenomics passed (outlined here), BTRFLY’s Pirex, futures marketplace for yield generating tokens, launched, and their Hidden Hand bribe marketplace expands partnerships
MATIC — releases Polygon Nightfall a zk powered L2 live on mainnet along with a tweet suggesting an upcoming “massive product release”
LOOKS releases boosted listing rewards incentivizing liquidity to their platform
Frax (FXS) — added as asset to AAVE V3 markets, Convex (CVX) announced boosted FRAX staking rewards, and synergy between FXS, CVX, & CRV builds
Bancor (BNT) 3 launches, full details here
JPEG’d (JPEG), NFTxDeFi collateral, launches the Citadel for CVX/CRV rewards
Inter Protocol (IST), over collateralized stablecoin for ATOM’s IBC, announced
Hop Protocol’s token airdrop and vision moving forward; tokenomics here
Polkadot releases parachain messaging for interoperability of assets
StarkWare releases StarkGate Alpha for ETH mainnet direct bridging
Synapse (SYN) releases cross-chain NFT integration support
NFT Review:
This is by no means a comprehensive list of the ongoings in NFT land. These projects are covered in more depth throughout past Page One posts, so find more info on all of this in those posts from April.
Familiar Faces:
Azuki had more time in the spotlight than they’d have liked:
Beanz revealed on May 5, but
Zagabond reveals he and some Azuki team members were behind CryptoPhunks and other projects, causing some serious drama
Twin Tiger Jackets were airdropped on May 20
Doodles hire former Billboard president as CEO, airdrop Dooplicators
DuskBreakers parent company Metatheory raise $24M in Series A
ENS Domains in the “10k Club” sell out and moon
Huxley releases Issue 4: The Guide
LinksDAO inks partnership with golf brand Callaway
Milady Maker plummets after discussion of its origins re-ignites
Moonbirds find some Oddities in their nests, which reveal in July
The Otherside keeps details light but releases short teaser trailer
NFT Worlds debuts their avatar collection which provides in-game benefits
Pixel Vault makes a number of announcements at VeeCon
RTFKT Space Drip Capsules were redeemed for custom Nike Air Force 1s
New Entrants:
Admit One marks the start of the next chapter in gmoney’s journey
Augminted Labs Scientists experiment with free, uncapped supply collections
Chimpers continue TBAC’s story and showcase Timber’s meticulous pixel art
CPG: Pop expands the utility-focused “Crypto Packaged” community
goblintown.wtf produces one of the greatest memes the NFT market has seen
Ivy Boys bring prep school style to the pfp market
Kith Friends see Ronnie Fieg make his blockchain debut
Okay Bears take over Solana (and Ethereum)
Phantom Network continues the anime meta, removes tributary pieces
Ragnarok kickstarts their quest to create web3 Runescape with avatar mint
rektguy from OSF flashes onto the CC0 scene, attracts the Dogg’s attention
Market News and Announcements
lit recap fireee