White Star Capital Digital Asset Fund - newsletter #102
Announcing our investment into Thala Labs’ seed round
Announcing our investment into Thala Labs’ seed round
White Star Capital Digital Asset Fund - newsletter #102
By Sep Alavi, Florent Jouanneau, and Marthe Naudts
Thala is building a decentralised stablecoin that can power the next generation of scalable blockchains, building the Move-native stablecoin and liquidity layer.
Aptos and Sui are two multi-billion dollar Layer 1s that entered the crypto scene this year, building excitement for the scalable future of blockchain technology. They use a new smart contract coding language: Move. A language developed at Meta when they entered into the peer-to-peer payments foray and wanted to build a permissioned blockchain-based stablecoin payment system, which they named Diem.
It promises a number of benefits over other languages, such as Solidity, primarily in security and composability. Many of the original team members left Meta and took the promise of the new Move language with them.
Both Aptos and Sui are Layer 1s cracking the scalability issues that plague other L1s. They both use proof of stake as their consensus mechanism, but apply different versions of Move and algorithmic designs behind their parallel execution - which means their consensus algorithms differ.
Aptos’ testnets were able to process over 160k transactions per second and >1s time to finality, while Sui claims almost instant settlement of most transactions with up to 120k transactions per second each.
Compare that to Ethereum’s maximum of 45 TPS and Solana’s 2.3–46s TTF, and it’s easy to see what the excitement’s all about. They've raised about $600m between them and have built up over 500k active community members combined.
Our investment
Our team did extensive research on the new language, of which you can find some of the details published here. This, combined with previous work looking into the problems of algorithmic stablecoins (see here), led us to develop a strong thesis around the ecosystem and the need for it to have its own native decentralized, overcollateralized stablecoin.
Enter, Thala.
Thala is building the first Move-native stablecoin, Move Dollar (MOD) - a fully-collateralised, yield-bearing stablecoin backed by a basket of on-chain assets. Through its monetary policy, collateral mobilization, and associated automated market maker providing liquidity, Thala solves the decentralized stablecoin trilemma of peg stability, security and capital efficiency.
The team at Thala is extremely talented, with experience ranging from crypto-native and traditional tech backgrounds, including work at ParaFi Capital, NEAR, MakerDAO, Twitter, Apple, Amazon, and Google.
We are thrilled to announce our investment in Thala’s $6m Seed round, alongside Shima Capital, ParaFi and other phenomenal investors. We have seen how much thought and energy Adam, San and the entire founding team have put into the product and launch, and we’re excited to keep working with them.
Follow Thala’s Twitter, join their discord, and check out their website for updates!
🔦 White Star & Portfolio Spotlight
Multis allows new features such as Conversion to USD from ETH
Multis off-ramp feature is getting stronger, it is now allowed to convert ETH to USD from a decentralized wallet.
Alpine and the collective Obvious join forces with Exclusible for the launch of the “Let There Be Light” NFT collection
This drop combines art by OBVIOUS and utility from Alpine, such as exclusive community access, merch and the possibility to drive an actual Formula 1 car at the Circuit Paul Ricard in France.
Auros Global added liquidity rewards to their pool on Atlendis Labs
Auros is an algorithmic trading and market-making firm founded by derivatives traders and trading system architects with over 20 years of experience, generating daily notional turnover in billions of dollars.
🏦 Enterprises & Institutions
GameStop Adds Web3 Gaming NFTs to Marketplace With Immutable X
Interactive NFTs from games like Gods Unchained and Illuvium are now available through the video game retailer's Web3 platform.
Apollo expands crypto offering for clients via partnership with Anchorage
Apollo Global Management has expanded its crypto offering for clients via a partnership with Anchorage Digital.
Google Cloud announces blockchain node service starting with Ethereum
Google Cloud is opening up a blockchain node engine that will, the company says, streamline the process of setting up a brand new node, as well as the complications of hosting it on your own hardware.
Binance launches oracle product for real-world data DeFi integrations)
Crypto exchange Binance has released an oracle service called Binance Oracle to help blockchain applications connect with real-world data.
⚖️ Government & Regulation
TradFi policies ‘inadequate’ for treating DeFi, claims EU Commission study
The European Commission is investigating proposals on how to supervise decentralized finance with a new report published this week.
UK government includes new crypto amendment in finance regulation bill
The UK’s Financial Services and Markets bill is home to new amendments seeking to regulate crypto and ban unauthorized service providers, following an amendment paper published on Friday.
Chinese central bank exec says digital yuan will offer ‘controllable anonymity’
China’s digital yuan is one of the earliest CBDCs whose pilot phase has expanded to include millions of users and billions in transaction volume.
South Korean regulators aim to toughen crypto fraud punishments
The legislation, separate from the upcoming Digital Asset Basic Act, may came into force already in 2023.
Singapore’s MAS says no urgent case for retail CBDC, but launches 4 fast trials of it
The Monetary Authority of Singapore will trial a retail central bank digital currency in various contexts at a fintech event, despite the electronic payment options already available.
💰 Funding & Exits
Souffl3.com Completes 2 Million USD Seed Round Investment
Souffl3, a MOVE-based leading NFT market and launchpad on Aptos blockchain, has completed a $2 million seed round investment co-led by Crypto.com Capital and Synergis Capital.
Coinbase Ventures participates in $4.2 million funding round for NiftyApes
The firm joins an increasing number of NFT-focused debt financiers receiving venture capital interest.
Fluidity announces $1.3 Million Seed Round led by Multicoin Capital
Fluidity aims to solve the utility problem in DeFi by introducing a novel incentive mechanism that rewards users for on-chain transactions.
Fireblocks-powered crypto custodian RakkaR Digital raises $10 million
RakkaR says its platform is powered by Fireblocks and aims to serve institutions in Southeast Asia.
Pantera backs Braavos' $10 million raise to simplify crypto wallets on StarkNet
The round is led by Pantera Capital and includes participation from Brevan Howard Digital, Crypto.com and Matrixport.
Race Capital leads Aptos wallet Martian’s $3 million raise
Martian, a crypto wallet for the recently launched Aptos blockchain, has closed a $3 million pre-seed round led by Race Capital.
Hong Kong Fintech Startup Reap Raises $40 Million For Web3 Payments
Reap, a digital payment company based in Hong Kong, has netted $40 million in a funding round aimed at developing infrastructure to help facilitate payments between Web3 projects and traditional businesses.
Spice Finance Raises $1.7M Led By Shima Capital To Solve & Scale NFT Lending
Spice will kick off by introducing a groundbreaking yield optimizer and liquidity routing protocol for NFT lending markets.
🚀 Project Launches & Updates
Defi hedge fund Edge Capital Management has raised two funds totaling $66.8 million
The hedge fund has raised one offshore fund in the Cayman Islands from eight investors for $38.6 million and another Delaware-incorporated fund for $28.1 million from six investors, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings dated Oct. 19.
Lendary Capital Expands in Asia with Crypto Alternative Debt Fund Launch
The Hong Kong and Germany-based Investment Management Group continues to expand its alternative investment strategies with the launch of its Crypto Alternative Debt Fund.
Crypto Asset Manager BlockTower Launches $150M Venture-Capital Fund
The new venture-capital arm will be led by general partner Thomas Klocanas, a veteran of investment firm White Star Capital.
🔥 Other Bits We're Excited About
Musk Takeover, Twitter Crypto Wallet in the Works
Binance’s Changpeng Zhao and MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor welcomed Twitter’s new boss.
Premier League on verge of signing $35M/yr deal with SoRare for soccer NFTs
The Premier League was previously in talks with ConsenSys and is considering offers from Dapper Labs, but it has yet to reach an agreement with any company for its NFT digital collectibles.