Round Tripping

Jun 11, 2022

as always, thanks for reading and follow me here

tl;dr: all eyes on ETH/stETH, stablecoins & NFTs as onboarding mechanisms, data & content monetization, merge delay, and the pain continues

BTC dominance 45% | ETH dominance 16% | DeFi TVL $104B |

Total Crypto Market Cap $1.2T | Stablecoin Supply $160B |

funding:

Ledger Cathay Capital launched, a $110M crypto fund for early-stage
Solana Ventures launches $100M fund for South Korean web3 startups
Arrington capital and Moonbeam Foundation launch $100M growth fund for the EVM compatible Polkadot parachain Moonbeam
Crypto.com backed Cronos blockchain creates $100M accelerator program
Delphia, algo backed stock advisor, raises $60M to expand and launch Delphia Data rewards token distributed for user’s shopping/social media data
Indonesian crypto exchange Pintu raises $113M
Orderly Network, DEX built on NEAR, raises $20M in strategic funding
Entropy, decentralized crypto custodian, raises $25M seed round
Calaxy, social token and media platform, raises $26M
Skolem, institutional DeFi execution platform, raises $20M
Euler, DeFi lending and borrowing on ETH, raises $32M
PartyDAO, collaborative NFT bidding platform, raises $16.4M
Valkyrie, crypto asset manager, raises $11M in strategic funding
Other Small Deals: Tatsumeeko (web3 MMORPG lite game — $7.5M), TYB (blockchain loyalty and rewards platform — $9.8M), Mash (content monetization on Lightning — $6M), Navigate (MATIC based data rewards platform — $7.6M), Samudai (DAO tooling — $2.5M), MachineFi Lab (IoT web3 data collection — $10M), & Superteam (blockchain sports game — $10M)

news:

PayPal to enable external transfers of crypto to third-party wallets & exchanges
American Express announces launch of their first crypto rewards credit card
Gala Games developed GRIT is first p2e game launched on Epic Games Store
Checkout.com, $40B payments giant, to partner with Fireblocks to allow 24/7 merchant settlements through stablecoin USDC
Nexon announces Maplestory Universe including p2e and crypto integration
Jay-Z and Jack Dorsey partner to launch ‘Bitcoin Academy’ in Brooklyn
Salesforce piloting NFT Cloud, platform for minting, selling, & managing NFTs
Citadel Securities & Virtu Financial partner to build crypto trading platform
English Premier League (EPL) files for NFT and crypto trademarks
Wintermute, crypto market making giant, to launch Bebop DEX aggregator
Jack Dorsey’s TBD announces decentralized web platform Web5 built on BTC
Bitwise and Multicoin Capital partner to launch metaverse index and fund
Mastercard widening access to NFT commerce through partnerships with $IMX, Candy Digital, Sandbox (SAND), Mintable, Nifty Gateway, and Moonpay
Regulatory Framework — Senators Cynthia Lummis and Kristen Gillibrand released their proposed framework for crypto which they summarized here

thoughts & notes:

Content & Data Monetization

Calaxy, TYB, Mash, Navigate, and MachineFi, all announced raises and are building protocols that enable users and creators to better monetize themselves through various approaches. While these companies’ business models are differentiated across blockchains and specific strategies, the common denominator is crypto’s ability to empower users through direct relationships increasing their ability to monetize their data, status, and consumer preferences.
Tokens allow experimentation and incentive models not previously available and the design space of incentivizing and rewarding users for actions, resources, or data will continue expanding. This sector combined with DID (decentralized identity), NFTs, and eventually ZKPs protecting users will likely be a lucrative vertical as the proper user protection, rewards, and token mechanics are solved over time.

Legacy Integration

While token prices and CT activity continues to decline, there was a slew of announcements from legacy corporations looking to expand their crypto offerings. Mastercard, Salesforce, Checkout.com, English Premier League, Amex, Paypal, Epic Games, Alan Howard, and BNY Mellon all advanced their crypto strategy this week through investments or new products in the space.
Checkout.com’s embrace of stablecoins for 24/7, global merchant settlement was the most notable as they follow Stripe’s previous announcement of embracing and incorporating crypto into their tens to hundreds of billions of dollars payment networks. As outlined many times in Round Tripping, stablecoins and NFTs are increasingly the first onboarding mechanism and common denominator between users and companies alike.

tokens:

Merit Circle (MC) announces Sphere, a gaming & NFT asset marketplace
Illuvium (ILV) completes NFT land sale raising $72M during the process
Chainlink (LINK) announces their plans and roadmap to implement staking
Hop Protocol’s HOP token officially live and claimable
LDO+stETH dual governance system proposed and co-authored by Hasu
Frax (FXS) proposes $20M FXS buyback program — can also read boccaccio’s extensive notes covering FXS founder Sam’s appearance on Market Capping
BTRFLY extends their hidden hand to Ribbon Finance (RBN)
LOOKS covers features to be shipped soon & teases protocol V2
NEAR partners with Multichain to expand cross-chain abilities
AURA Finance launches Liquidity Bootstrapping Pool initiating token
ETH merge on Ropsten testnet goes live with some hiccups, summary here