White Star Capital Digital Asset Fund - newsletter #64
Institutions took crypto profits amid 'shaky' macro picture📊
Institutions took crypto profits amid 'shaky' macro picture 📊
Cryptocurrency traders have been gripped by a drawdown that executives in the market say is tied to institutional selling.
The price of bitcoin plunged below $43k overnight Saturday, falling from highs near $57k during Friday's session. While the price of bitcoin has since pared some of those losses -- trading above $50k at the time of writing -- trading executives have noted that large institutional selling triggered a broader market shift. Specifically, one trading executive said that there appeared to be an institution that sold more than $500m in bitcoin on Friday morning.
That selling triggered "aggressive liquidations" in the crypto derivatives market, the person added. The market saw more than $1.3bn in long positions liquidated in the move from $51k to $42k. Total open interest in the derivatives market also fell from $21.6bn to $16.7bn in less than an hour.
Such liquidations are not atypical in the crypto market. Over the last year, certain market drawdowns have been exacerbated by over-levered traders on offshore venues being liquidated.
Over the last few weeks, traders across crypto and equities have had to digest headlines related to the emerging variant of COVID-19 known as omicron and indications from the U.S. Federal Reserve that faster tapering might be on the horizon.
Still we have seen a slight recovery in the broader crypto market as fears of the omicron variant have subsided.
🔦 White Star & Portfolio Spotlight
Superfluid has released their SDK suite for developers to build on top of Superfluid
Jarvis Landry launches his creator coin on Rally!
ParaSwap projecting their 2nd highest volume week
🏦 Enterprises & Institutions
Thoma Bravo is building a crypto and fintech growth investment practice
Private equity firm Thoma Bravo is building a growth investing business aimed at crypto and fintech.
21Shares to list Europe’s first Polygon ETP in Paris, Amsterdam
The listing follows the polygon ETP’s unveiling on the SIX Swiss Exchange last month.
Square changes its name to 'Block' as part of broader push into crypto
The name change stems from the firm’s desire to become more deeply embrace decentralized and blockchain technology, citing that the name change has been in the works for the past year.
OpenSea hires new CFO from Lyft, plans IPO
Brian Roberts says he wants to raise more funds for OpenSea's booming NFT marketplace. He also has plans to take it public with an IPO.
Gaming giant Ubisoft is testing in-game NFTs through a new platform
Ubisoft has launched the beta version of a new platform called Ubisoft Quartz, which allows users to acquire NFTs of items that can be used in-game, such as a weapon, clothing or vehicle. Ubisoft Quartz is calling these NFTs “Digits,” and has opted to base them on the Tezos blockchain.
⚖️ Government & Regulation
Congress to hold hearing with execs from Coinbase, FTX, Paxos and others
The witnesses are CEOs from leading crypto firms: Circle's Jeremy Allaire, FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried, Bitfury's Brian Brooks, Paxos' Chad Cascarilla, Stellar's Denelle Dixon and Coinbase's Alesia Haas.
OCC highlights digital assets in risk report for banks
“The OCC is approaching crypto-related activities ... very carefully,” the OCC’s semiannual risk report says.
Gibraltar's government plans to bridge the gap between public and private sectors with blockchain
Officials have already started digitizing government services on the smart contract network RSK, but plan to step up work on the integration in early 2022.
💰 Funding & Exits
Three Arrows Leads $4.3m round for Solana-based metaverse project Solice
Solice is bringing VR to the mix in a bid to compete with Decentraland and The Sandbox.
AAG Ventures raises $12.5m to launch new ‘learn-to-earn’ platform
Play-to-earn (P2E) game company AAG Ventures (AAGV) has raised $12.5m in a private funding round led by Shima Capital, Tribe Capital and Tess Ventures.
DeFi startup Earnity raises $15m led by miner BitNile
Earnity said the platform will allow users to earn, learn about, collect and gift a variety of tokens and portfolios.
Structure raises $20m to make DeFi mainstream and mobile-friendly
The funding included a seed round led by Polychain Capital and proceeds from a sale of Structure’s STXR token.
Crypto robo-advisor Stacked raises $35m from Fidelity International unit and others
Alameda Research and Mirana Ventures co-led the round, with Fidelity International Strategic Ventures, DRW Venture Capital, Alumni Ventures, and Jump Capital also participating.
A16z leads $36m bet on Web 3 startup Mysten
Mysten was founded by veterans of Novi Research, the crypto research and development division of Facebook, now known as Meta.
TRM Labs raises $60m as Visa, Amex play catch-up on crypto tracking
After Mastercard bought CipherTrace in September, American Express and Visa are throwing their weight behind TRM.
Blockchain auditing firm CertiK raises another $80m in Series B2 funding
Sequoia Capital led the round, with existing investors, including Tiger Global, Coatue Management, and GL Ventures (Hillhouse Capital's VC arm) also participating.
VCs in talks to invest up to $150m in Polygon
Investors like Sequoia Capital India and Steadview Capital are eyeing an investment in the Ethereum layer 2.
1inch Network closes $175m Series B, aims to serve institutional customers
Amber Group led 1inch's Series B and it was a token funding round. Other participants in the round include Jane Street, VanEck, Alameda Research, Celsius, Nexo, and Gemini Frontier Fund.
Maven 11 Capital closes second crypto investment fund at $120m
The vehicle, named Venture Fund II, is a closed-end fund that wrapped up a $40 million ‘first raise’ in June. Since then, the Maven team has made 28 investments — primarily in DeFi protocols and Web3 apps.
South Korean crypto VC Hashed launches new $200m fund
The Hashed Venture Fund II will invest in Web3 startups, including those focused on metaverse, blockchain gaming, NFTs, and DeFi.
Binance Smart Chain, Animoca Brands launch $200m blockchain gaming fund
Both companies will invest $100m each in the investment program that will target short-listed developers building blockchain-based games on the BSC network.
Dan Tapiero’s 10T is raising $500m for a third digital assets fund
10T, the crypto investment firm run by hedge fund veteran Dan Tapiero, is launching a third digital assets fund just two months on from closing its second.
Blockchain.com acquires Latin American crypto investment platform SeSocio
While the actual purchase agreement has not been made public, sources familiar with the matter say the deal is in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
CoinShares acquires crypto investment provider Napoleon for $15.7m
Napoleon provides prebuilt, noncustodial crypto portfolios catering to different investment goals. The portfolios are integrated with such exchanges as Binance, Bitfinex, Bitstamp and FTX.
Crypto.com splashes $216m to acquire two US-based derivatives platforms
The two platforms are North American Derivatives Exchange, Inc. (Nadex) and Small Exchange.
🚀 Project Launches & Updates
Blockchain.com launches beta version of its own NFT marketplace
While its NFT marketplace is still in the beta stage and requires individuals to sign up on a waiting list, Blockchain.com now joins one of many other crypto firms entering the NFT market. The firm’s forthcoming NFT marketplace will enable individuals to purchase, sell, and store NFTs inside their Blockchain.com wallet.
🔥 Other Bits We're Excited About
The Free Ross movement is taking a leaf out of ConstitutionDAO’s book
The Free Ross organization is selling an NFT to raise funds for Ross Ulbricht and to support other prisoners. While the bidding has reached $1.2m, a DAO has raised nearly $4m to win the auction.
DraftKings to expand NFT marketplace with NFLPA partnership
The sports betting site is adding to its NFT offering in a deal with NFL players starting next season.