Worldwide Web3 Wonderland | Edition #25 – March 2023
Worldwide Web3 Wonderland | Edition #25 – March 2023
Summary of news from 2nd to 16th March 2023
Hey there, fellow Web3 Explorers! ♾️
The weekend is finally here, as is the new edition of the Worldwide Web3 Wonderland, and this time around, we’ve got a chock-full of breakthroughs from the world of decentralisation. Innovative payment solutions gained ground last week, with industry participants exploring digital asset opportunities in contextualised commerce through collaborations and fresh ideas.
Now, for the Top 10 picks of the week to keep you informed and up-to-date on all things web3 –
Keeping customer loyalty at the forefront, Brazil-based Nubank partnered with Polygon to expand the reach of its Nucoin loyalty programme to around 70 million customers. Customers will reportedly have the option to freeze or even exchange their Nucoins for cash or other benefits in the future.
Expansion was also on the mind of Coinbase, which entered Singapore in partnership with Standard Chartered as it prepares to ramp up its global outreach. At the same time, National Bank Australia (NAB) completed an intra-bank cross-border transaction using its own minted stablecoin conducted in concert with Fireblocks and Blockfold.
Empowering merchants to equip themselves for a blockchain-enabled future, Worldline launched a strategic initiative, supported by Solana Foundation, allowing providers to route payments automatically while offering the lowest fees and highest conversion. Circle was also banking on partnerships the past week – it selected Cross River Bank as its new commercial banking partner for producing and redeeming USDC, while also expanding its partnership with other banking partners to assist with USDC redemption, including Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon).
Funding activities took centre stage last week, with Ethereum Layer 2 network Scroll raising $50M at a valuation of $1.8B, JPMorgan-backed Tilia securing fresh capital from Seoul-based fintech Dunamu, crypto payroll startup Toku raising $20M in a funding round to accelerate global expansion and scaling, and Saudi Arabia’s NFT marketplace platform Nuqtah raising a seed round of funding led by Animoca Brands with participation from Polygon and regional investors.
Animoca Brands Japan also grabbed headlines for investing in Delaware-based entertainment company Rainshine Global Inc. with the aim to build a gateway for Japanese intellectual properties (IPs) to reach new global markets.
Web3 Word Of The Week: Zero-knowledge Rollups
Zero-knowledge rollup (ZK-rollup) is a layer-2 scalability solution that works by using both on-chain and off-chain processes to validate transactions quickly and reduce gas fees while storing the transaction data on-chain on a layer-1 network. This greatly increases transaction throughput while inheriting the security of the base-layer (layer-1) network they are connected with for settlement.
That's all for now!🤘
We hope you enjoyed this edition of the Worldwide Web3 Wonderland!
If you're hungry for more fintech insights, check out some of our other work at WhiteSight.
Our latest publications include –
J.P. Morgan's Fintech Frontier: Collaboration, Diversification, and Innovation
Virtual Assets, Real Opportunities: Financial Institutions’ Metaverse Exploration
If you're someone who likes to read think pieces, you will likely love our monthly blog, Fintersections, where our team members analyse the convergence of FinTech with the world.
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