White Star Capital Digital Asset Fund - newsletter #45
Take a peek at the continued funding momentum in the blockchain ecosystem 📈
The blockchain funding wave is showing continued strong momentum
The biggest piece of news coming out of the blockchain ecosystem this week was FTX’s $900m fundraise, valuing the company at $18bn. Launched in 2019, FTX has grown to become one of the most publicly visible exchange venues, with its headline-catching sponsorship deals with the likes of Major League Baseball and e-sports team TSM, among others.
FTX makes money from trading fees from crypto trading. It has also expanded into other areas, including stocks and commodities via derivatives contracts. This month, the firm has clocked in a staggering $19.3bn worth of volumes, which would be impressive for any exchange let alone one that was started less than 5 years ago.
It represents the biggest crypto investment round to date, dwarfing Circle's $440m deal from earlier this year—which was previously the largest crypto VC deal. The below chart lays out the top 15 venture funding deals in the blockchain sector by size:
The second quarter of this year saw a record $4bn in venture capital raised by cryptocurrency firms, amid a bumper crop of $30.8bn in fintech deals generally, a 29% increase from the year before, according to business trend watcher CB Insights. While bitcoin and other cryptocurrency prices have flattened in recent months, the size of crypto raises appears to be increasing so far in the third quarter!
🔦 White Star & Portfolio Spotlight
Paraswap remains the most efficient decentralized exchange aggregator on Polygon L2
Meet Alice: an interview with Alethea AI’s Alice
🏦 Enterprises & Institutions
Elon Musk says SpaceX owns Bitcoin and he owns Ethereum in Jack Dorsey talk
Elon Musk confirmed both Tesla and SpaceX own Bitcoin during his discussion with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood.
Goldman Sachs reports nearly half of its rich family office clients want to get into crypto
The firm—which recently has been making its own big moves in crypto–surveyed its family office clients and found that 15% of them have already invested in crypto
GlobalX, subsidiary of $560bn investment manager, files for Bitcoin ETF
GlobalX follows several other firms that have also applied to create bitcoin ETFs, including Valkyrie Digital Assets, ARK Investments and Kryptoin.
JP Morgan greenlights wealth management advisors to take crypto fund orders
Specifically, orders for Grayscale and Osprey's crypto-based offerings are now on the table for wealth management advisors at the U.S.'s largest bank.
Colombia central bank launches blockchain bond project
Banco de la Republica is working with IDB Group and Banco Davivienda on the project.
BankProv launches payments network for crypto customers
The network will compete with the Silvergate Exchange Network and Signature’s Signet in the 24/7 real-time payments market.
Amazon wants to hire a digital currency and blockchain product lead
The job ad appears wide-ranging, mentioning "central bank digital currencies" and "distributed ledger" among other catch-all phrases for digital currency applications.
Bitcoin will be a 'big part' of Twitter's future, says CEO Jack Dorsey
Dorsey said bitcoin could be integrated into Twitter’s products such as Super Follows, Commerce, Subscriptions, and Tip Jar.
Goldman Sachs is settling crypto ETPs in Europe
The U.S. bank’s prime brokerage division is offering services in crypto-linked ETPs to some of its European hedge fund clients.
Shopify is starting to allow its e-commerce customers to sell NFTs 'directly'
In a pair of tweets, company president Harley Finkelstein said "we are making it easier for our merchants to sell NFTs directly through their stores" before highlighting a pending NFT drop from the Chicago Bulls basketball team.
Goldman Sachs files with SEC to create a 'DeFi and Blockchain Equity ETF'
Wall Street megabank is planning to create an exchange-traded fund tied to the performance of companies that are working on blockchain technology and the digitization of finance.
Mastercard adds a crypto track to its incubator program
Mastercard rival Visa has a similar program called Fast Track that has catered to a number of crypto startups looking to work with Visa and issue debit or credit cards.
⚖️ Government & Regulation
Canada CBDC ‘probably necessary’ for competition, central bank says in paper
The authors argue a central bank digital currency will likely be positive for Canadians, breaking monopolies in big tech and traditional finance.
Ukraine presents road map for developing the digital assets industry
The Ministry of Digital Transformation hopes to see 47% of Ukrainians using digital assets by 2024.
India’s central bank considering pilot programs for CBDC
While India's government has previously shown an intent to ban cryptocurrencies outright, the mood has changed somewhat in recent months with signs of the country taking a more lenient approach and seeking to regulate the crypto market.
Nigeria’s CBDC pilot to start October 1st
Speaking at a press briefing in June, Mohammed said the bank had been researching a possible CBDC for years, and would possibly be launching a pilot before the end of the year.
💰 Funding & Exits
Ethereum-based project EthSign raises seed funding to put signed documents on the blockchain
The Singapore-based startup has raised $650k in a funding round led by venture capital firm Draper Associates.
EthBlockArt raises their pre-seed round
$3.3m raised for Ethereum options protocol Lyra that is built on Optimism and Synthetix
The funding round was led by venture capital firms Framework Ventures and ParaFi Capital. Apollo Capital, the DeFi Alliance, Divergence, Orthogonal and Robot Ventures also participated in the seed round.
Hedgehog Markets raises $3.5m in funding round
The Hedgehog Markets site, which is in a testing phase with more than 6,000 registered users, will be the first prediction market platform to go live on Solana’s blockchain.
Popular NFT game Splinterlands raises $3.6m from Animoca Brands and others
Participants in the private sale include Animoca Brands, the blockchain gaming off-shoot of Animoca; other blockchain platforms including Enjin and Polygon; and Onchain Capital CEO Ran Neuner.
Russia’s telecom giant MTS invests $11.7m in blockchain trade-finance service
MTS bought 51% of Factorin, a Russia-based trade-finance service, for $11.7m.
Argentinian crypto exchange Lemon Cash raises $16m to expand in Latin America
The exchange will use some of the money to expand its operations in Latin America this year and in 2022, including in Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay
A16z leads $20m bet that Celo’s Valora becomes a ‘global gateway to crypto’
Also participating in the round were Polychain Capital, SV Angel, Nima Capital, NFX and others.
Zed Run developer VHS raises $20m in Series A round led by TCG
The Australian company, founded in 2018, has developed a blockchain-based, virtual horse-racing game, called Zed Run.
Decentralized identity startup Magic raises $27m in Series A funding from Tiger Global and others
Launched last year, the Magic platform provides developers with a plug-and-play software development kit (SDK) that enables various passwordless login methods for users, including Magic links, social login, and WebAuthn.
Crypto venture studio Thesis raises $21m in Series A funding
The round was co-led by ParaFi Capital and Nascent, with participation from Fenbushi Capital, Polychain Capital, and Draper Associates.
Crypto fintech Eco raises $60m for high-yield USDC savings app
The fiat deposit-taking, cashback-granting digital wallet and stablecoin lender is not even five months removed from its $26m pre-seed. But CEO Andy Bromberg said Eco’s user base has swelled since that March debut, and the company is ready to speed up its growth.
Crypto infra startup Fireblocks raises $310m, triples valuation to $2.2bn
Sequoia Capital, Stripes and Spark Capital co-led Fireblocks’ latest round, which also included participation from Coatue, DRW VC and SCB 10X – the venture arm of Thailand’s oldest bank – and Siam Commercial Bank.
FTX closes $900m funding round at an $18bn valuation
Over 60 investors participated including Paul Tudor Jones, Izzy Englander, and Alan Howard.
Solana woos creators with $5m fund for artists and musicians
The Solana Foundation, Audius and Metaplex are trying to get 1,000 creators to start building on Web 3.
Galaxy Digital launches venture fund of funds with backing from Franklin Templeton
The venture fund will invest $33m across several venture funds in the cryptocurrency market on behalf of large, institutional investors.
Binance US is eyeing an IPO, says Changpeng Zhao
After Coinbase's listing earlier this year on Nasdaq, the U.S. now has an ecosystem where crypto companies can go public, according to Zhao.
Stellar Foundation eyes potential acquisition of MoneyGram
The supporter of blockchain-based payment services is partnering with private equity firm Advent on the potential deal.
Bitcoin mining firm Stronghold files for $100m IPO
Stronghold's operation employs waste coal, an environmentally toxic byproduct of coal mining. The Scrubgrass Generating Plant eliminates the vast majority of the toxins in the waste coal, producing fly ash that can later be used as a fertilizer.
Bitcoin mining firm Core Scientific to list on Nasdaq via merger deal
The firm said that it has entered a definitive merger agreement that will see it acquired by Nasdaq-listed Power & Digital Infrastructure Acquisition Corp (XPDI), whose anchor investor is the asset manager BlackRock.
🚀 Project Launches & Updates
Tom Brady’s NFT platform Autograph partners with Lionsgate and DraftKings
Brady's platform has also signed exclusive NFT deals with fellow iconic sports stars Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky, Derek Jeter, Naomi Osaka and Tony Hawk.
Reddit is scaling its two Ethereum-based tokens using Layer 2 solution Arbitrum
Reddit is deploying Layer 2 scaling solution Arbitrum in a bid to upgrade its Community Points — the crypto tokens used as rewards in two of its subreddits.
Index Coop, Bankless DAO team up to launch new crypto index
The BED token represents an even split of bitcoin, ether and Index Coop’s DeFi Pulse Index.
Aave to launch institutional DeFi platform Aave Arc within weeks
DeFi protocol Aave works by letting token holders deposit funds into liquidity pools. Other crypto users can borrow tokens from these pools (having put up collateral) and will pay the tokens back, with interest. This generates a yield for those who lend out tokens.
🔥 Other Bits We're Excited About
Tyson Fury NFT sells for nearly $1m on NFT marketplace HoDooi
A non-fungible token signed by British professional boxer Tyson Fury has sold for $987k on digital marketplace HoDooi, making it one of the most expensive sports NFT sales ever.
VCs pumped $4bn into crypto firms in Q2
It was a record sum for the sector, headlined by Circle, Ledger, Paxos and more.