Crypto weekly Roundup-5th week of October
View this newsletter as your personal diary of important crypto events/news that happened during this week and refer to the document as aggregation work.
đ Weekly Trending News
Bulls are back in the driver's seat for now. Bitcoin is holding above $20k and ETH above $1500. Macro still looks the same. Next week on Nov 2nd we have another FOMC with a likely 75 bps rate hike.
Shorterâs got REKT during this short squeeze. Single largest liquidation event on FTX in its history - so many shorts blown out. FTX is also listing JPY perp futures - looks like theyâre stepping more onto the forex stage after recently listing DXY perp futures.
Finally Elon acquires Twitter for a whopping $44billion
After Aptos did a decent airdrop last week Crypto twitter is flooded with Airdrop guides all over and most of the faucets and testnet are broken owing to rush to farm airdrop by degens
Rishi Sunak's coronation as the UK's next prime minister could mean that plans to make the country friendlier to crypto could be possible
AAVE and XTZ got listed in Rohinhood this week. Robinhood is one exchange to look out for in coming bull season.
Smartphone manufacturer Vertu revealed its latest device, Metavertu - a Web3 phone that can run its own blockchain node and turn photos and videos into NFTs with a single click
Cathie Woodâs Ark Invest made its first purchase of Coinbase stock since June this year, along with more Block and Robinhood shares. When Cathie sold coinbase stock back in June, it invited flake for selling at losses but in hindsight Ark has got more $COIN token for the same cost now. sell at ~$220 and buy back at $60. Good dealđ
A16z's largest crypto fund loses 40% value in first half of 2022
Facebook's market cap is down 75% from is peak last September, lowest level since Jan 2016. From $1.08 trillion to $269 billion
FTX CEO Sam Bankman Fried says the exchange is developing its own stablecoin. Sam taking CZ route. current BUSD market cap is 21 Billion. Binance exchange daily trade volume counts to 7 billion on average and FTX clocks 900 million daily volume
Crypto predictions site Polymarket predicts an overall 64% chance of Republicans winning both Senate and House and taking control of Congress.
Bitcoin miners are in big trouble and looking for raising funds to sustain their business.
đŽââď¸âď¸ Adoption ,Policy & Regulation
Troubled crypto lender Vauld has applied for another four months of protection against creditors.
The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), Israel's sole public trading platform for equity and debt, is looking to set up a blockchain-based digital asset trading platform
Hong Kong unveils completed retail CBDC project that has a CBDC-backed stablecoin
Japan Credit Bureau (JCB), a Japanese analog to international payments systems like Visa or Mastercard, announced the start of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) infrastructure testing
UAE's central bank pilots Cbank digital currencies transactions
Turkey to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC) next year. The responsible institution is Turkeyâs central bank, with the cooperation of the local Ministry of Finance and Scientific and Technological Research Institution
Portugal, a former tax haven, recently announced a 28% short-term tax on Cryptocurrency gains.
Mastercard signed a partnership with BitOasis to offer cryptocurrency-linked cards for customers in the MENA region
South Korean prosecutors are asking the court to sentence Lee Jung-hoon, the owner of South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb, to eight years in prison on charges of fraud worth about $70M
Western Union may be preparing to offer crypto-related services, based on trademark applications recently filed hinting at an asset and commodities exchange, insurance, and token
Two million users in Nigeria and Kenya are set to be onboarded to a new cryptocurrency wallet called Mara, backed by Coinbase Ventures and Alameda Research
The National Bank of Kazakhstan has agreed to test Binance's blockchain network BNB Chain for potential integration into the country's central bank digital currency (CBDC)
đ Macros
U.S. GDP growth in the third quarter was 2.6%, the highest since the Q4 of 2021, after two quarters of negative growth. This could indicate that the Fed will use this positive news that the economy is in good shape to not slow down future rate hikes.
đ° Fund raises
Precog Finance, a new decentralized ecosystem that automates arbitrage trading between cryptocurrency pairs and futures, received a $3.5M strategic investment from DWF Labs
Layer2 protocol Milkomeda closed a $3.1M funding round led by Archetype, with participation from Coinbase Ventures
ATTA, a Web3 OGC & PUGC content protocol, raised $2M
Web3 publishing platform Paragraph has raised $1.7M from investors such as Lemniscap, FTX Ventures and Binance Labs
Raze Finance, the first NFT minting platform for security NFTs, successfully completed their pre-seed round of $175k
High-end blockchain trading platform BitGoldEX won the A round of strategic investment to incubate leading web3.0 projects
The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) $5M Enterprise Fund investment in Wave, an African mobile money app which endeavours to make Africa the first cashless continent
Crypto-centred fund UpsideDAO $5M fundraising to invest in web3 projects approved by its community members
Synota, a startup that wants to bring energy payments to Bitcoinâs Lightning Network, has raised $3M in a seed round led by Ego Death Capital
Binance Labs led the pre-seed funding round for Ancilia, Inc. in its latest step toward fortifying the security of the Web3 ecosystem
Sealance Seed Funding Round - the world's first blockchain-based Trust Platform for cryptocurrencies and based on advanced mathematics, cryptography, and zero-knowledge proofs
Yoom raised $15M from star-studded investor list - YOOMâs volumetric technology allows the creation of photorealistic digital content and experiences for the Metaverse and Web3
Arf, the VQF-regulated global settlement banking platform using Web3 technologies, raised $13M in seed funding. Coinbase, Solana, FTX, Kabbage, Circle Ventures, Stellar Development Foundation participated
Origami raised $6.2M led by Bloomberg Beta to ease that transition with technological framework and guidance for DAOs, The project has row
DeFi company Thala Labs raised $6M to build on Layer 1 Aptos co-led by ParaFi Capital, White Star Capital and Shima Capital
Exclusible raised âŹ5M to take Metaverse experiences to a new level
Gamified digital asset platform Klink Finance raised $500,000 in a pre-seed funding round to drive its product launch by the end of 2022
Hong Kong fintech startup Reap raised $40M for payments between Web3 projects and traditional businesses
Zoop, a digital celebrity collectibles trading platform, raised $15M in grants and investments, and will partner with cross-game avatar company Ready Player Me
The Decentralized Engineering Corporation (DEC), which developed ride-sharing app Teleport, raised $9M in seed funding to build a decentralized Uber and Lyft competitor on Solana
Fun, a blockchain software development company, raised $3.9M in a pre-seed round led by Tinder co-founder Justin Mateenâs Jam Fund
Notebook Labs, a new startup that aims to verify the identities of crypto users without compromising privacy, has raised $3.3M in a seed funding round led by Bain Capital
Martian, a crypto wallet for the recently launched Aptos blockchain, has closed a $3M pre-seed round led by Race Capital with participation from FTX, Jump capital
Bitcoin derivatives exchange Kollider closed a $2.35M seed funding round led by Lemniscap, with participation from Castle Island Ventures, Polychain Capital, Alameda Ventures and others
ForeVR-Gaming platform announced a [$10 million Series A funding round]
Spice finance-A yield optimiser and liquidity routing protocol that helps DeFi users safely deploy capital across NFT finance, raised $1.70M in seed round from Shima capital
Jia, which provides blockchain-based financing to businesses in emerging markets, raised $4.3 million in pre-seed funding.
Arf- Cross border settlement Banking platform $13m in investment
đŞ˛đHacks,Rug pulls
FTX API keys connected to 3Commas confirmed to have been exploited. FTX will provide $6M in compensation to victims this one time but not setting a precedent if victims continue falling for phishing scams
QuickswapDEXÂ Interest Bearing Market was attacked for ~ 200k on Polygon and plans to close lending markets
Layer2DAOÂ multisig on Optimism exploited and drained of 49,950,000 L2DAO tokens
Team Finance, a crypto token launchpad, suffered a $14.5M exploit in relation to a smart contract bug in its migration feature
Multi-chain crypto wallet UvToken hacked for 5,011 BNB tokens ($1.45M) and moved to Tornado Cash
đĽ L1 Ecosystem Updates
Solana: Now you can preorder saga phone and claim your Saga Pass NFT -Details
Solana:State of Solana Q3 2022 with key statistics
Solana: Now you can access Orbis protocol, web3 social media platform with Phantom wallet as ceramic integrates with Solana
Near: NEAR Protocolâs stablecoin, USN, is being shut down after it began to exhibit risky characteristics similar to those observed with TerraUSD. The Near Foundation opened up a $40M fund to protect investors and help them cash out of USN with equal amounts of wrapped Tether (USDT.e)
Cosmos: Registration is open for Game of Chains - a public incentivized testnet for Interchain Security- Pay attention if you are a cosmos validator
Fantom: Fantom has deployed an automated smart contract monitoring system called Watchdog, to strengthen the security of decentralized apps on its blockchain
Avalanche: Japanese Media Giant GREE to Build Web3 Games and Run Nodes on Avalanche. GREE has been a pioneer in gaming for decades, with 30M MAU across their titles.
Avalanche: Through Myevidenz, students can now receive and share authenticated, easily accessible digital certificates (including diplomas) directly on-chain built on Avalanche
Avalanche:2 Million $AVAX were just burnt. Just a reminder AVAX is deflationary
Binancechain: Binance launched its native oracle service to enable smart contracts to run on real-world inputs and outputs, starting with the BNB Chain ecosystem
Binancechain: BNB Chain launches $10M gas fee incentive to support growth of web3 dapps
Tezos: This week in Tezos ecosystem
Eos: EOS Network Foundation inks Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Busan Metropolitan City
Aptos: Storage solution crust network integrates with Aptos. Now Aptos users can use Petra and Martian wallets to log in Crust Files and experience Crust storage for free!
SUI-SUI token is not live, listed, for sale, or obtainable anywhere, no plans for an official airdrop
Klaytn: what pushed klaytn price more than 100% within a weekâs span
Klaytn governance proposal submitted to the Klaytn Governance Council (GC) proposing a â reduction in block reward in order to optimize the level of $KLAY emission.
Klaytn Foundation Buyback Announcement - continued efforts to achieve an optimal and sustainable Klaytn ecosystem.
đĽÂ L2 Ecosystem Updates
Starknet: Aave is coming to StarkNet with their initial official project
Starknet: The starknet ecosystem is becoming increasingly massive, with over 100 dApps building and 31 dApps officially in testnet
Zksync: The regenesis of zkSync 2.0 testnet is now complete, and the documentation has been updated.The regenesis will reset transaction history, token balances and require developers to redeploy contracts
Zksync: Aave Proposal to deploy Aave v3 on zkSync v2.0 Testnet
Optimism: Optimism weekly recap
Optimism: Optimism Quests is still live on Galaxe
Polygon: Axelar is partnering with Polygon to deliver secure cross-chain communication to PolygonSupernets.
Polygon: BitPay, the worldâs largest provider of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency payment services, has announced support for Polygon and $MATIC.
Polygon:Weekly wrap-up onPolygon by Polygon Analytics
Mega L2 summary thread
đŚÂ DeFi News
PancakeSwap and the CAKE token will be deploying on Aptos shortly
MakerDAOÂ community approves proposal to place up to $1.6B in Coinbase's custody platform, Coinbase Prime, where it will earn a 1.5% reward
Community members of MakerDAO voted to move forward with founder Rune Christensenâs plan to overhaul how the protocol works and make it more decentralized by breaking up into smaller, allegedly more decentralized units called MetaDAOs
Aave has launched a Lido Staked Ethereum, or stETH, earn strategy through Oasis.app
Compound Finance has approved âproposal-131,â which will prevent users from being able to lend relatively illiquid assets on the protocol - 4 protocols: 0x (ZRX), Basic Attention Token (BAT), Maker (MKR), and Yearn Finance (YFI)
Ribbon Finance considering a second round of lending pools for its DeFi lending product Ribbon Lend - considering onboarding a new set of institutional borrowers. Ribbon lend currently offering 12% (7% interest + 5% RBN emissions) lending APY on USDC on its lending pools
Struggling Bitcoin miners are flocking to Maple Financeâs $300M DeFi lending pool. A pipeline of 10 mining firms will make up the first cohort of borrowers, with some 25 on the waitlist. Binance also announced 500 million mining fund and Bitmain taking advantage of the current situation and buying distressed firms
SushiSwap approves restructuring - the development of the DAO will be managed by three organisations, which would be based in Panama and the Cayman Islands
sushi has been uptrend since Golden tree has came in picture . Avi felman has shared some strategies for sushi
Silo protocol launches XAI ,over-collateralized stablecoin with a soft peg to the US Dollar. With the approval of SiloDAO, XAI will serve as the second bridge asset alongside ETH in the Silo lending protocol
Two Solana-based DeFi protocols, Tulip and UXD, have reopened after recovering tokens from Mango Markets following the $114M hack
With Synthetix(SNX) perp V2 around the corner, Kwenta(Dapp built using SNX perps) has now released the Cross Margin feature with the integration of stop loss and limit order, which are the basic tools for all traders. 25x leverage trading unleashed
Thread on structured DeFi products
where is the best place to farm $CVX (3 digits yield)-source
State of Defi options-Source
𪊠Web 3
Digital asset custody platform Fireblocks has launched its new payment engine for merchants with Checkout.com and Worldpay as pilot partners
Building A New Social Network with Web3 -Â source
Learn web3 the right way. You can share it with friends and family in coming bull seasons when they ask what should i buy now. Education first and investment next should be the message to be conveyed -Source
Filecoin Green, a Protocol Labs initiative designed to reduce the environmental impact of Filecoin and make it verifiably sustainable, has spearheaded an initiative to power Web3 technology with verifiably clean energy
Blockchain market intelligence provider Glassnode acquired crypto tax and portfolio tracking platform Accointing.com
You can register almost any domain through ENS domains, and get all the features you get with .eth domains-source
đŽÂ Gamefi
Gaming blockchain Oasys has taken the final steps towards debuting its mainnet, with 21 initial validators.
P2E gaming DAOÂ Merit Circle has voted to burn nearly $170M worth of its native MC tokens with 99.7% voting in favor. 200M of Merit Circle's total supply of 1B tokens will be taken out of circulation
â Cross-chain
Circle partnered with Axelar focused on the use of USDC and cross-chain applications. Avalanche, Cosmos, Ethereum, Polygon, and Sui will be the first chains integrated with Axelar's General Message Passing (GMP)
Blockchain Interoperability Network Axelar will deliver cross-chain communications for Polygonâs Supernets
Ⲝ đ Bitcoin & Ethereum Updates
Bitcoin miner, Core Scientific, claims to be losing approximately $53,000 per day to cover the increased electricity tariffs that Celsius refuses to pay. Incidentally Core Scientific stock is down over 70%
Core Scientific Inc., one of the worldâs largest miners of Bitcoin, warned that it may run out of cash by the end of the year and could seek relief through bankruptcy protection
Bitcoin's mining difficulty rose roughly 3.4%, up from the 13% increase from earlier this month
Bitcoin hardware manufacturer Canaan is launching the Avalon Made A13 series with two new models with increase efficiency and computing power
CashApp adds support for Bitcoin Lightning Network with a limit of $999 every seven days for BTC transactions on the Lightning Network
Google is launching a cloud-based node engine service for Ethereum developers and projects
Stone Ridge, a multi-billion-dollar asset manager, has launched a startup accelerator focused on the Bitcoin Lightning network
63% of all transaction blocks on the Ethereum blockchain are compliant with OFAC sanctions
Why Ethereum is poised to go higher in the next bull run-
6% staking yield while Ethereum becomes mildly deflationary, and that too in a Bear Market!
ETH P/E ratio changed from 739.1x to 17.2x post-Merge- Details
đ 𪊠In the world of NFTâs and Metaverse
Otherside metaverse The Persistent World is expected to launch in 2023, and players will be able to access the beta game starting next year, similar to Web3 Roblox
Solana NFT standard maker Metaplex plans to launch a new NFT asset class that can enforce on-chain creator royalties
NFTrade integrates Immutable X: a gaming-focused ETH Layer 2
Azuki completed a $2.5M auction for eight Golden Skateboard NFTs which will be redeemable for physical golden skateboards setting record for eight most expensive skateboards ever sold
Apple updated its App Store policy to restrict apps from using NFTs to incentivize users to purchase items or features to avoid 30% App Store fees. NFTs are allowed to exist within apps on the App Store but they canât unlock additional features or content
Reddit NFTs - Polygon-based avatars trading volume hits all-time high - last week that over 3 million Polygon wallets created by users to collect the NFTs
Meta partnership with makeup brand LâOrĂŠal and French business school HEC Paris backing a new startup acceleration program for creativity in the metaverse
Web3 ticketing company YellowHeart is launching a metaverse music venue â a move it hopes will drive changes in how artists, teams and event organizers release tickets and engage with fans
SEBA bank, a crypto-friendly bank based in Switzerland, added an NFT custody solution that gives customers the ability to hold well-known NFTs without managing private keys
The breakout adult animated series, The Gimmicks, is dropping Season 2 on Avalanche. Created by Toonstar, a pioneer Web3 animation studio
0xsplits introduces Liquid Splits-Transferrable Ownership Using NFTs
Metaâs Reality Labs business, the division in charge of producing metaverse-related technology, lost $3.7B during the third quarter. Follows losses of $2.9B and $2.8B in the first and second quarter
NFT marketplace X2Y2 blocked NFT aggregator Blur for violating their Terms (by applying for 10+ keys to access their API). X2Y2 replied that when a marketplace has its own aggregator it creates a conflict of interest
Microsoft is seeking to adapt part of its software service stack to the metaverse
The Norwegian government is opening a metaverse tax office in Decentraland to educate a younger audience about taxes related to DeFi and NFTs
đ Airdrop Updates + Testnet Opportunities
Airdrop
Altlayer- Application-specific rollups for a multichain world, scaling scaling layer for all blockchains-Airdrop guide
GnosisSafe, $9m $SAFE token airdrop for 3 categories of contributors- Check out defi_airdrops suggestion what to do become eligible for safe airdrop
Meteor Wallet ( Near wallet ) live - early users may qualify for airdrops
Sandbox does airdrop to Sandbox land owners. If you hold sandbox claim your airdrop.Snapshot was taken on August 30th, 2022, 1pm UTC-Details
List of decentralised exchanges which does not have token yet. Start using them regularly for potential airdrop- Exchange list
Mega airdrop thread, thread 2
DeBank just launched a new feature: Web3 Chats!- Possible airdrop
9 checklists for speculative airdrops: Arbitrum, Layer Zero, zkSync, Quai Network, Sui, Rage Trade, and the 3 new ones.
Testnet
Risk harbour airdrop guide
Vertex protocol-Cross-margin spot, perps & money markets. closed Testnet live. you can apply for early access here
Kana testnet live. Testnet Guide
Onomy Protocol: A multi-chain suite converging Forex and Decentralized Finance. Testnet live on Goerli Eth network. Check the testnet guide here
đInteresting reads
The India web3 startup landscape: an emerging technology leadership frontier -Â source
web3 weekly from a16z-metaverse, VR, games; DAGs; web3 bizdev & NFTs; wallet security, gas optimisation
How protocol Daos should work from a cryptolaw (-ish) perspective -Â source
How could dogecoin gain from Musk acquiring twitter- Trading alpha
Decentralized Rollup Sequencing as a Service via Interchain Security -Â source
Metaverse Report #2: Demand for Metaverse Remains Amidst Crypto Turmoil -Â source
Burning MEV through block proposer auctions -Â source
Bloomberg Releases a 40k Word Article on CRYPTO- Source
Why Hong Kong is important for Crypto and why its return could mean a bull run! Crypto Hayes article summarized by Revelo Intel
Why order books are better than AMMs-source
Hackathon/Grants
Dream Assembly Base Camp first cohort consists of eight start-ups that are focused on shaping the future of Web3 luxury commerce
Layer 2 Community Grants 2022. The Ethereum Foundation offers a pool of $750,000 in grants that will help scale the network while preserving decentralization and public goods
Sui Foundation announced the launch of a developer grant program, which will grant grants to eligible on-chain developers ranging from $10,000 to $100,000
Canto Online Hackathon winners
Gitcoin is in the process of transitioning to a decentralized grants protocol.
web3athon hackathon winners- Source
Avalanche Hacks | Summer 2022 hackathon winners
đ Project Launches
Paraswap - PSP 2.0 Renaissance - Social Escrow, Fee Redistribution, and Fairdrop
Gearbox launches v2, surpasses $88Million in TVL
Curio - Announcing: Phase 1 Completion - A game engine, whole new game design, and plans towards truly composable games
DeBank Hi, the messaging app for web3 natives, is now online
Graph protocol launches  Geo Genesis - a web3 browser and a decentralized knowledge graph app on Graph Protocol. Not live yet. will start using once it becomes live
Gnosis Safe, the most secure cross-functional multi-sig wallet, has launched on the Telos network as Telos Safe
Zklend is an L2 money-market protocol built on StarkNet, combining zk-rollup- Insights about zklend from M6 labs
Hopâs first liquidity mining program is LIVE
Fire- Chrome extension- It simulates transactions, showing you exactly what will go in and out of your wallet before you sign the contract. All under your control with your current wallet.
Harpie - the first crypto firewall - to end fear and theft on-chain. Harpie vets every pending transaction coming out of your wallet.When we see a transaction trying to steal your assets, we're able to stop it mid-execution.
Entanglefi- allows users to have USDC on any of their integrated chains and effectively one-click deposit into a variety of LP positions on any destination chain. Thread on Entanglefi. Apply for testnet whitelist here
Arbitrum:
Introducing Hegic Herge protocol upgrade: live on Arbitrum
Integral has launched Size, a TWAP based Dex on Arbitrum. Now you can start using and visit galaxe to get OAT badge for early user. Only for first 300 users . Galaxe campaign link . Current TVL of SIZE is nearing $1M
y2k finance aims to provide an insurance layer for stablecoin de-pegging events. This thread explains what is Y2K finance , its products, about the token sale and how to take part in it
Optimism:
Tarot finance-Decentralized Lending & Leveraged Yield Farming,Introducing the Jupiter Stable Core, Concentrated liquidity, Optimized yield for sAMM pairs.
Yield-while-DCA has arrived to Mean Finance . You can now earn yield as you invest long term into your favourite projects, with gas-less and MEV-protected tradesLive on polygon and Optimism
Aptos
Aries Markets mainnet is live - the first borrowing and lending protocol on Aptos
Near:
Spin: Near native perpetual trading platform is live on mainnet for public usage
General:
Token Unlocks - list of upcoming massive token unlocks you might want to watch out for before a potential dump
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