What’s Up, Web3 Wanderers!
The Web3 crew returns to wrap up your weekend, this time with a big punk bash! Get on the Web3 rollercoaster 🎢 right now to take a peek through its sights, highlighting five themes that describe today's decentralised world. You're in for one heck of an escapade >>
The NFT landscape has been changing the game for ownership of unique virtual assets across various industries.
Find out how NFTs are becoming the Next Fascinating Thing for Corporates across Industries as they unlock the doors of engagement and individualised brand experiences!
No, we didn't forget to bring you insights from the blue bird. Here’s a tweet detailing the hot topic of the moment — Ethereum.
Read the whole thread here.
Here's the TL;DR:
Regulatory approval seemed to be all the rage last week, with Crypto.com being approved by the regulators in France to provide digital asset services and Coinbase securing regulatory approval to become a crypto service provider from the Dutch Central Bank.
Voyaging further to the waters of the US, FTX US’s $1.42B bid won the auction to buy Voyager Digital. Waltzing into the metaverse was also US retail giant Walmart, bringing a metaverse experience aimed at young shoppers with Roblox.
Web3 wallets seemed full of interesting affairs the past week, as the MetaMask Institutional wallet added Cobo NFT management to its growing list of custodial services for institutional investors, while Robinhood Web3 wallet made headlines for entering beta and tapping Polygon as the first blockchain.
A wave of new partnerships waved hi to the decentralised world ― as hi app and Mastercard joined forces to launch a debit card with NFT avatar customisation. Bounding the financial market with clarity and transparency, Notadvise.Financial released Soulbound tokens to combat fake influencers. MetaDAO also teamed up with KVERSO to create a metaverse social network.
Panning it all out with one last update, we also had Pantera Capital eying to raise $1.25B for its second blockchain fund.
Let's dig deep into the decentralised dimension –
Decentralised Assets 一 To get the ride started, we've got a ton of stuff from the decentralised assets’ ecosystem ranging from Crypto, DeFi, and Tokenised Assets.
Regulation seemed to have taken centre stage last week – with Crypto.com getting regulatory approval in France after registering as a Digital Asset Service Provider (DASP) by the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) following clearance from the Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR).
A big party is in store for Coinbase, which also secured regulatory approval from the Dutch Central Bank as a crypto service provider, allowing it to offer its full suite of retail, institutional, and ecosystem products to customers in the country.
In a sudden turn of events, the SEC investigated crypto exchange Bitkub for fabricating and inflating trading activity on its website.
On the other hand, Binance announced plans to seek a licence to operate in Japan, four years after retreating from the country as it didn’t have a permit.
Crypto chips are gaining more and more acceptance, with exchanges in Russia announcing their readiness to begin operating with cryptocurrencies after authorities legalise cross-border settlements in crypto.
Aiming to better the ecosystem, investment robo-advisor Betterment partnered with crypto exchange Gemini as part of its cryptocurrency portfolio service, allowing Betterment's 730,000 customers to choose from customised crypto investment plans based on their risk profile. Further, Phuture partnered with Notional to power its new yield-farming product dubbed USV (USDC Savings Vault) with guaranteed premium returns.
What’s more – cryptocurrency exchange FTX.US won the bid to buy out Voyager Digital for a whopping $1.4B. The jiggling of the wallets continues as bug bounty program Immunefi announced it raised a $24M Series A funding that will enable it to build out infrastructure to meet the growing demand for its services.
Decentralised Tech – This party features Blockchain, Smart Contracts, and Oracles – a must-attend event for anyone interested in Web3 infrastructure!
The DLT segment saw a bunch of launches – while Cosmos unveiled a new white paper proposing a Cosmos hub designed to enhance interoperability and security and alter its native ATOM token, Layer-1 trading blockchain launched a $50M ecosystem and liquidity fund to support the new DeFi applications on its platform.
Keeping the launch game going strong, Robinhood announced the launch of self-custody, Web3 wallet Robinhood Wallet on iOS with Polygon (MATIC) as its first supported blockchain. Further, layer-1 blockchain Aleo introduced private application development for blockchains where users can leverage zero-knowledge features to maintain privacy.
On the partnerships vertical, Byline Bank partnered with Tassat Group to provide private blockchain-based, real-time solutions to the former’s commercial customers where they will have access to payments 24hr a day. Fortress Blockchain and Google Cloud also joined the party by announcing the launch of The Fortress Vault, a new NFT database solution built on Google Cloud's infrastructure.
That’s not all – wiring around geographies, Wirex signed an MoU with the Uzbekistan Direct Investment Fund intending to support the Uzbek government in implementing blockchain solutions and distributed ledger technology for various government services. Furthermore, Helium Network made the headlines for officially migrating to the Solana (SOL) blockchain to reduce reliance on internal blockchain operations and expand its ecosystem on Solana.
On the funding front, Space and Time secured $20M in strategic funding led by Microsoft’s venture capital arm M12 to engineer the product, integrate with larger data ecosystems, and ensure customer adoption. Further, crypto venture-capital investment firm Pantera Capital was in the news for its plans to raise $1.25B for its second blockchain fund, where it will invest in digital tokens and equity.
Virtual Assets World – The place where you can discover all the coolest stuff from the Web3 universe through NFTs, Metaverse, and eXtended Reality!
News-flashing NFTs
You gotta partner up to sledge up with the ever-changing ecosystem of Web3. Mastering the partnership art, Mastercard in partnership crypto and fiat financial app hi made the bulletin for launching a debit card featuring NFT avatar customisation.
Adding to its shores, NFT marketplace OpenSea declared its plans to widen its selection to include projects created using the Optimism layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum. At the end of the horizon, reaching for the sky, we had TravelX, a marketplace for tokenised travel products, which went live with the offering of inventory of the low-cost Argentine airline Flybondi.
With launches taken to a new level, Christie’s introduced a new on-chain Ethereum NFT marketplace called Christie’s 3.0. Kitsumon also launched NFT land sale in partnership with top NFT and gaming platforms, including Babylons, Balthazar, DareNFT, and many more.
Investments keep pouring into the NFT world ― The MetaMask Institutional wallet added Cobo NFT management to its growing list of custodial services for institutional investors.
Keeping up with the funding game, Coral raised $20M in a strategic funding round to build out the first flagship product, Backpack, a wallet for executable non-fungible tokens (xNFT). With the aim of breaking the ceiling, Glass raised a $5M seed round to jumpstart the web3 creator ecosystem.
Majestic Metaverse
The magic of metaverse was alive and kicking, with retail giant Walmart partnering with popular kids gaming platform Roblox to launch Walmart Land and Walmart’s Universe of Play.
Glamming up the metaverse, Siam Piwat partnered with ZEPETO to create an extended fashion experience in the metaverse with an integrated real-world/virtual fashion phenomenon.
Not just this, but Telefonica and Qualcomm, too, inked a partnership to advance joint extended reality and metaverse initiatives.
Decentralised Governance – A jam-packed schedule all week long covering partnerships, launches, and everything in between!
Upholding the spirit of decentralisation, numerous regulatory steps have been taken to tighten the seatbelt of the Decentralised Governance segment. To begin with – The Commodity and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed and settled charges of $250,000 against bZeroX DAO and its founders for facilitating margined and leveraged retail commodity transactions.
On top of that, we also had members of the Aragon Network announce that they are holding votes to make a decision on the treasury funds after the DAO is dissolved and then revived under a new framework.
At the same time, Karate Combat announced the decision to form a DAO to transition its governance to fans and athletes, which will be launched as part of a three-year sponsorship deal with Hedera’s HBAR Foundation.
On the partnerships front, MetaDAO joined forces with KVERSO to build a metaverse social network with an immersive experience and multi-level interaction.
Kapital DAO made the bulletin for announcing the close of its latest raise, which was backed by prominent major games and guilds, including YGG.
As a part of its upgrade, Uplift DAO also announced a strategic partnership with Blockpass to offer a one-click compliance gateway, as well as its On-Chain KYC (TM) services for Uplift ecosystem projects, optimising their KYC requirements.
On the other hand, DeFi hub Umee grabbed headlines for its plans to create an institutional lending DAO called UDX to help facilitate the transition of bond markets into DeFi lending.
Decentralised Identity – The game that’s got the high buzz, with all the hype swarming around identity in the blockchain space.
New releases are booming in the Decentralised Identity domain – Notadvise.Financial released Soulbound tokens to combat fake influencers and bring transparency to the financial market by verifying the accounts of creators, influencers, gurus, and course instructors in the space.
Dubai-based management consultancy Scopernia launched a dedicated vertical called Imagin3 Studio to cater to the region’s growing Web3 and metaverse demand.
Meanwhile, Ethanim Network’s new official website was also launched with the core theme of building interoperable metaverse AR applications and adopting a decentralised identity system.
Not just that, but TB Financial’s research and innovation arm ATB Ventures also launched its enterprise suite of digital identity software platform, Oliu, to accelerate the adoption of digital identity in organisations.
Extending its hand for collaboration was community-based MMORPG-lite Tatsumeeko, which announced a partnership and integration with Layer-2 Ethereum scaling solution, Immutable X, to empower Tatsumeeko developers with on-chain tools and enhance the front-end gameplay experience.
The drip doesn’t stop there, as Drip Capital partnered with Onfido to streamline the onboarding process for new customers by leveraging the latter’s real-time identity verification system.
To wrap it up, we had passport network Quadrata integrate its passport identity technology with Polygon to reach new applications being built on it that need access to identity and compliance natively on-chain.
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
Airdrops: Airdrops are one of the most popular features in crypto. Using airdrops, users can receive free cryptocurrencies in their wallets in exchange for minor social media engagement. Small amounts of the new virtual currency are sent to the wallets of active members of the blockchain community for free or in return for a small service, such as retweeting a post sent by the company issuing the currency.
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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