Web3 Weekly Wonderland | Edition #10 – Oct 2022
Howdy, Web3 Wanderers!
Taking the weekend up a notch, the Web3 Newsletter returns for another rockin' shindig! Take a spin on the Web3 rollercoaster 🎢 right now for a 360-degree view of the decentralised world exploring five themes. So, whatcha waitin’ for? Get ready for one wild ride >>
The race is on to become a participant in the metaverse ecosystem. Different brands from diverse fields are dipping their toes into this industry 一
Find out how the Metaverse Madness is raging with Nice to “Meta” You: Brands Become Versed with Metaverse.
Moving on, here's an interesting tweet about the hottest crypto headline of the moment, where Kim Kardashian has landed herself in hot water as the SEC fined her for promoting crypto on her Instagram account:
Read the whole thread here.
Here's the TL;DR:
As the Web3 rollercoaster travels around the world, it has reached Asia – where Anchorage Digital announced its expansion into Asia by partnering with multiple companies. Moving on to the next destination, we have Europe, where the European Union (EU) adopted a landmark regulation, referred to as the Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA).
Several players seem to be focused on bridging the gaps in the Web3 realm. While Block’s TBD partnered with Circle to create global Fiat-Crypto bridges and improve people's access to dollar-linked stablecoins, AXA partnered with The Sandbox to provide an innovative interactive space for its customers.
The Web3 tour is impossible without getting our passports in check, which is why passport network Quadrata integrated its passport identity technology with Polygon. At the same time, Blockchain Founders Fund (BFF) received a strategic investment from Polygon to empower Web3 entrepreneurs.
Hitting the shores of musical lands, OpenSea partnered with Warner Music Group to create more Web3 opportunities for artists. And further diving into the Web3 sea, NYDIG raised nearly $720M for its Institutional Bitcoin Fund.
Adding some more shimmer and glimmer to the events, Web3 data startup Golden raised a staggering $40M in a Series B round, while luxury brand Gucci set sparks flying by appointing Robert Triefus as the new CEO of ‘Vault,’ the company's metaverse ventures.
Let's dig deep into the decentralised dimension –
Decentralised Assets 一 To get things rolling, we've got a lot of stuff from the decentralised assets' community, including Crypto, DeFi, and Tokenised Assets.
A whole bunch of deals and launches made the most of the Decentralised Assets segment:
Creditcoin announced new integrations with Polygon for several of its platforms – including Creditcoin 2.0, Gateway DAO and the Gluwa Wallet – delivering on its vision for a scalable, multi-chain, lending and bridging ecosystem.
Meanwhile, Circle Internet Financial partnered with Robinhood to enable customers on Robinhood Crypto and the new Robinhood Wallet to buy, sell, and receive USDC.
Further, TBD partnered with Circle to help expand on and off ramps between the worlds of crypto and fiat. Circle also signed an acquisition deal with Elements for undisclosed terms to accelerate crypto payments. Quiet the circle of events, isn't it?
Launches exploded in the Web3 universe as MRHB.Network launched tokenised commodity exchange TijarX, where gold and silver-backed tokens are the first to be listed. Further, investing app Stash announced its new cryptocurrency access through a separate crypto account, the investments of which will be powered by Apex Crypto.
Keeping up the launch energy 一 Fidelity rolled out its new Ethereum Index Fund, which will be available to accredited investors and will track the performance of the Fidelity Ethereum Index PR benchmark through passive, direct ownership of Ether.
Moving ahead, Coinbase announced the expansion of its services to retail customers in Australia and introduced PayID as a way for Australians to deposit funds using direct transfers from their bank accounts.
Expansion was on the agenda for Anchorage Digital as well, with the company announcing its expansion into Asia by partnering with Bitkub, Dream Trade, FBG Capital and more, all of which will be utilising Anchorage for custody and bespoke offerings to participate in digital assets safely.
Not just that, but in a bid to revolutionise the ecosystem, Revolut announced that it can now offer crypto asset services in the UK after meeting FCA AML standards.
Investment management firm NYDIG also hit the bulletins after it announced it had raised nearly $720M for its Institutional Bitcoin Fund.
What’s more – European Union (EU) agreed upon the full legal text of its landmark legislation known as the Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA), alongside a further law to reveal the identity of those making crypto payments.
Decentralised Tech – This party focuses on Blockchain, Smart Contracts, and Oracles – not to be missed if you're into Web3 tech!
DLT witnessed a number of players joining forces – starting from Polygon, who made a strategic investment into Blockchain Founders Fund (BFF) to diversify the company’s holdings and advance the mainstream adoption of blockchain technology.
Polygon was the talk of the town last week, with the Playbite team also announcing their collaboration with Polygon to bring its mobile games platform to the blockchain! Further, Binance and Denver joined the party after announcing their partnership to increase the security of transactions on the latter’s platform.
Meanwhile, Shopping.io announced that it would be adding the $MATIC crypto to its native payment processor Shopping Pay. Similarly, Lasmeta integrated with Chainlink enabling them to access highly scalable, configurable, and gas-efficient randomness on-chain.
In terms of wallets jiggling – Eclipse secured $15M for customisable Solana VM in pre-seed and seed investment to offer developers the ability to build their own mix of speed, decentralisation, and cost. Moving ahead, Blowfish raised $11.8M to upgrade its fraud detection engine and expand to new blockchains.
Further, Web3 data startup Golden raised $40M in a Series B round to build its decentralised and incentivised data protocol.
Taking initiatives to master its way into the Web3 space, Mastercard launched a new crypto monitoring product called Crypto Secure, which aims to leverage AI algorithms to help banks and crypto-centric debit card issuers identify fraudulent crypto transactions.
Virtual Assets World – The place where you can discover all the coolest stuff from the Web3 universe through NFTs, Metaverse, and eXtended Reality!
Metaverse Madness
The madness of metaverse mania is raging in Europe, as London-based metaverse startup Improbable is on track to close a $100M fundraise at a valuation of more than $3B while the company seeks profitability. And, in a très bien moment, Parisian startup METAV.RS picked up $2.96M (€3M) to boost the development of its content management platform.
Teaming up to power up the metaverse – AXA partnered with The Sandbox to offer interactive space for customers. Enhancing the partnership game, Translucia partnered with Sunovatech India, along with other global partners, to build a metaverse ecosystem worth $3B.
In a terrific move, TerraZero Technologies Inc. entered into a collaboration agreement with PwC Hong Kong to help businesses across all sectors reach, engage and reclaim new audiences through immersive 3D experiences.
Furthermore, in a project launched at Dubai's Museum of the Future, it was announced that the UAE's economic ministry is now setting up shop in the metaverse to become a pioneer in the depths of the metaverse.
Luxury brand Gucci also made the bulletin for appointing Robert Triefus as the new CEO of ‘Vault,’ an arm that serves as a portal for the brand's metaverse ventures.
Nonstop NFT
Money flowed into blockchain game developer Horizon as the company raised $40M in a Series A funding round to use the capital to build out its Sequence developer platform Niftyswap marketplace and Skyweaver game and to hire more staff.
Not just this, but Coral also finished the strategic funding round with $20M, which will go toward building a wallet for NFTs. Further, striking the target, NFT gaming startup Metastrike closed $3.3M in a private financing round from GD10 Ventures, Jump Capital, and Kucoin Labs.
Levelling up, CasperLabs announced the release of CEP-78, an enterprise-grade NFT standard for the Casper Blockchain. Tuning into the Web3 space, Warner Music Group is chartering the waters of collaboration with OpenSea to create more Web3 opportunities for artists.
Decentralised Governance – A bustling itinerary all week long covering partnerships, launches, as well as everything in between!
Flying high, the NFT project Moonbirds announced its plans to adopt community governance through a DAO set to launch in early 2023, with further plans to seed the DAO with $2.6M worth of crypto funds and NFTs.
Additionally, playNomm announced plans to build 1 million DAO to help society with new jobs, new sources of income, and new social management methods.
Wait, there’s more! Blockchain gaming studio Mythical Games—along with 22 partner companies, including Ubisoft, Krafton and a handful of advisors—announced a DAO and token.
Additionally, Tauros DAO, an exclusive community of artists and collectors, became a part of Labyrinthine Unreal, granting a chance to enter the lustrous Merca City. And if that wasn’t enough, then IDO launchpad Uplift DAO announced a strategic partnership with Blockpass to provide on-chain KYC to the DAO ecosystem.
Decentralised Identity – The buzz in the blockchain space, amid all the clamour around digital identity in the Web3 realm!
Beginning with the launch game, idexo announced the launch of free Soulbound Token, NFT and Royalty NFT creation software, enabling anyone to draft and deploy an unlimited number of smart contracts and mint an unlimited number of NFTs using a simple no-code SaaS tool.
Meanwhile, System Integration Solutions introduced CorpoSign, a decentralised identity wallet that uses blockchain and cryptographic technology to easily identify and connect people with government, businesses, data, and services.
That’s not all – Neo announced their entry into the world of decentralised digital identities with their NFT-based Neo Name Service (NeoNS) to offer a more streamlined, efficient, and functional experience within the Neo ecosystem and beyond.
Further, decentralised public infrastructure layer IDNTTY announced the launch of its public testnet, which will be available for public trial as the first step in building out a host of Web3 identity solutions.
On the partnerships vertical, passport network Quadrata integrated its passport identity technology with Polygon to provide applications being built on Polygon with access to identity and compliance solutions.
In a similar incident, Circle Internet Financial joined forces with Archblock to build the first proof-of-concept for know-your-business (KYB) verification using Verite for decentralised digital identity credentials.
Wrapping it up with another major highlight, we had AIKON, who raised $10M in its Series A funding led by Morgan Creek Digital, in order to increase its team size and service offerings.
It can sometimes be overwhelming for our Web3 wanderers to get their heads around the Web3 world 🌎 with new things popping up every other day 🆕. So, let's learn more about Web3 as we wrap up. Welcome to the LearnVerse! ✨
Web3 Word Of The Week
Diamond hands: Cryptocurrency enthusiasts have popularised the term diamond hands. To put it simply, it means retaining an investment asset despite volatility and risk. Having "diamond hands" means you hang onto investments regardless of what happens. This term is represented by the emoji “💎🙌.”
Also, try out this Web3 tidbit 🍩 this weekend for a peek into the Web3 realm, fresh from ‘The Whitehouse’!
That's all for now!🤘
We hope you enjoyed this edition of the Web3 Weekly Wonderland experience, and we'll see you next Friday! 💌
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