White Star Capital Digital Asset Fund - newsletter #57
Global cryptocurrency market cap hits $2.6tr, returning to all-time high 📈
Global cryptocurrency market cap hits $2.6tr, returning to all-time high
Over the weekend, the market cap of the entire crypto market broke $2.6tr. This puts it back at levels last seen in May when bitcoin first topped the $60k mark (bitcoin is currently sitting around $64k at the time of writing).
We are (and the rest of the market is) attributing the recent gains to several pieces of extremely bullish news, including the launch of the ProShares bitcoin futures-linked ETF, potential GBTC conversion, Facebook’s Novi launch and more.
The surge has largely been driven by bitcoin and ether, which comprise 61.5% of the market. Since the start of the year, bitcoin's price has doubled, rising from $29k to $64k today. This added an extra ~$650bn to the crypto market.
Ether's price rise was even more explosive, increasing by 411% from $738 to $3.8k today. But since it has a smaller market cap, it only added an extra ~$365bn to the market.
Since ether's price rose faster than bitcoin, however, it did eat into its market share. Ether's share of the market has grown from 7.4% to 17.5% over the course of the year. In contrast, bitcoin's dominance has declined from 65.9% to 44.9%.
The rest of the total market cap is spread across the remaining 9819 coins that CoinGecko tracks. There are 19 more coins with market caps above $10bn, including binance coin, cardano and XRP, which make up a significant portion of the remaining market.
🔦 White Star & Portfolio Spotlight
Rally turns 1! Check out their latest community meeting
Exclusible is gearing up to launch their Alpha NFT collection
Thomas points out the strong crypto teams coming out of France
🏦 Enterprises & Institutions
Visa launching NFT program to support digital artists
The financial services giant is partnering with Aku creator and former Major League Baseball player Micah Johnson.
Average BlockFi credit card holder on track to spend $30k per year
500% higher than the average of $5,000 per year on all Amex, Mastercard, and Visa cards in the US.
Morgan Stanley CEO says cryptocurrencies ‘aren’t going away'
Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman said that his crypto doesn’t touch a large part of his firms business, but he doesn’t think the asset is going away.
Bakkt set to start trading on NYSE next week
Digital asset platform Bakkt Holdings has completed its merger with VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings.
Revolut launches commission-free crypto trading for US investors
The London-based fintech firm launched in the U.S. in March 2020, and most recently it emerged the firm is looking to launch its own cryptographic token.
Novi set to launch pilot with Paxos's stablecoin as uncertainty hangs over Diem
Facebook's crypto wallet Novi is inching forward with a "small pilot" in the U.S. and Guatemala.
Chainalysis buys bitcoin for its balance sheet, intends to buy more digital assets
Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis has purchased an undisclosed amount of bitcoin for its balance sheet, following the likes of MicroStrategy, Square, Tesla and SpaceX.
⚖️ Government & Regulation
Cathie Wood’s Ark, 21Shares team up on bitcoin futures ETF application to SEC
The filing was submitted by Alpha Architect ETF Trust with 21Shares listed as the fund’s sub-adviser.
Digital Pound Foundation launches, aiming to promote a UK CBDC
A group of crypto advocates and firms are forming a new coalition to push the United Kingdom to issue a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
ProShares announces listing of bitcoin futures ETF $BITO
The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF will trade under the ticker $BITO. It will invest mostly in bitcoin futures, though it will not directly invest in the cryptocurrency. The SEC has yet to approve a spot-based bitcoin ETF, and many proposals have been cast aside due to concerns of price manipulation in the bitcoin spot market.
Grayscale hints at plans to convert Bitcoin trust into BTC-settled ETF
Grayscale looks to be seeking to restructure its Bitcoin Trust into a physically backed fund after the SEC approved a Bitcoin futures ETF.
Yearn developer Matt West is running for Congress
The Oregon resident will be running on a pro-crypto platform as a Democrat.
💰 Funding & Exits
Good Games Guild raises $1.7m in seed funding round
Investors include OKEx Blockdream Ventures, MapleBlock Capital, LD Capital, Basics Capital, Twin Apex Capital and others.
Nova Finance $3m round successfully closed
The round saw participation from the Solana Foundation, Rarestone, Animoca Brands and others.
Lending platform Sublime, which lets users stake their 'digital reputations,' raises $2.5m
Sublime has received backing from investors such as Galaxy Digital and Electric Capital.
AcknoLedger raises $1.53 million in seed round to become a gateway to metaverses
Investors include Momentum 6, Basics Capital, Krypital Capital, Shima Capital, Magnus Capital, X21 and others.
Laguna Games raises $5m to launch Crypto Unicorns with egg NFTs
The seed round was led by ed by Bitkraft Ventures and Delphi Digital, as well as Transcend Fund, Headline Ventures, and Polygon Studios.
Former ConsenSys exec raises $6.15m to build crypto staking protocol Obol
The round was led by Ethereal Ventures, a venture fund set up by ConsenSys founder Joseph Lubin, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Acrylic Capital, and many others.
Genopets raises $8.3m in seed round funding
This round of seed funding was co-led by Konvoy Ventures and Pantera Capital.
Ethereum-compatible developer platform Aurora raises $12m
This was an equity round and was co-led by Pantera Capital and Electric Capital, Aurora Labs CEO Alex Shevchenko.
Fintech Tala raises $145m to launch crypto product for emerging markets
Participants in the round included the Stellar Development Foundation, Kindred Ventures and the J. Safra Group.
Republic launches $60m crypto seed fund
The crowd-equity platform says that new portfolio companies coming in through the fund should benefit from Republic’s other divisions.
Tribe Capital to launch $75m crypto fund
The firm has invested 20% of its assets in crypto projects.
‘League of Legends’ vets launch $90m gaming seed fund
The fund will invest heavily in Web 3.0 projects and includes a16z’s Chris Dixon as a backer.
Variant closes $110n fund after merger deal
In conjunction with the launch of the new fund, the firm has also merged with Atelier Ventures and brought on its founder Li Jin as a partner investor.
Galaxy Digital’s entertainment arm raises $325m fund for NFT, gaming bets
Galaxy Interactive has already showered about $150m on projects such as Art Blocks.
VC fund NFX launches crypto gaming seed fund
The venture capital fund recently lined up $450m to invest in seed-stage companies.
🚀 Project Launches & Updates
Crypto startup deal with ViacomCBS could lead to SpongeBob and South Park NFTs
RECUR — the NFT company backed by billionaire hedge funder Steve Cohen — announced plans with media giant ViacomCBS to create a platform for trading NFTs tied to the firm's brands and franchises.
Sports-betting firm DraftKings to become a full validator for the Polygon network
DraftKings Marketplace, an ecosystem that focuses specifically on NFTs, will launch a node on the Polygon Network to authenticate transitions using a proof-of-stake consensus protocol — reducing the carbon and monetary cost of each transaction. This marketplace has previously used Polygon.
🔥 Other Bits We're Excited About
Art house Sotheby’s launches curated NFT platform called 'Sotheby’s Metaverse'
Sotheby’s new NFT platform is powered by Mojito, a startup that builds NFT platforms and ensures compliance.
CryptoPunk owner declines a $9.5m bid for his rare NFT
The owner of the non-fungible token (NFT) CryptoPunk #6046 has turned down a 2,500 ETH (around $9.5m) offer for his NFT. If it would have sold, it would have been the largest CryptoPunk sale ever by dollar amount.