White Star Capital Digital Asset Fund - newsletter #43
New investment announcement and our upcoming visit to Paris for EthCC 🇫🇷
Announcing our newest portfolio company, Superfluid!
Summer is in full swing but the digital asset ecosystem show no signs of stopping! With continued CBDC progress, funding announcements and project updates, we are excited for what the rest of the summer has in store. The digital asset team will be in Paris next week for EthCC – we look forward to connecting in-person for those also attending!
Earlier this week, we announced our investment into Superfluid, a programmable money protocol for Web3 to enable continuous and securitized cashflows that are netted in real-time. We believe streaming digital assets will create massive efficiencies and enable a new generation of not only DeFi, but also broader applications to bloom.
We believe this could change how money works. From settling transactions to settling agreements, making transactions obsolete, and updating our financial system for the modern digital world.
The big news out of the traditional payments landscape this week was from Visa who reported that the number of their partnerships with crypto firms has grown by 43% in the last four months. Visa now has 50 active partnerships. That means 50 crypto firms have launched or are set to launch debit and credit cards with the payments technology giant.
Some of the notable partnerships include those with Coinbase, Binance, Crypto.com, and others. These firms offer Visa-linked debit cards, which help their customers to spend cryptocurrencies at Visa's global network of 70 million merchants. BlockFi, on the other hand, offers a Visa credit card that allows customers to spend fiat and get rewards in crypto. Visa also said more than $1 billion has been spent via its crypto-linked cards in the first six months of this year.
Besides crypto card programs, Visa has also entered into stablecoin settlements. The company recently became the first major payments network to use the USDC stablecoin to settle a transaction. Visa plans to offer the USDC settlement capability to additional partners later this year.
Total Stablecoin Supply
🔦 White Star & Portfolio Spotlight
Superfluid raises $9m to build the real-time finance economy
Wault Finance is live on Paraswap
Rall’s CMO/CRO Bremner Morris addressed some of the most common questions about NFTs in Rolling Stone
Read why Rally thinks crypto will be as disruptive to the music industry as MTV was
🏦 Enterprises & Institutions
More neobanks are expanding into crypto trading and rewards
Neobank Monese is the latest fintech firm to explore crypto products
London-based neobank Monese is exploring offering new crypto products through its mobile money app.
BofA has launched a new markets research team dedicated to cryptocurrencies
The launch of a dedicated crypto research division at BofA comes as banks dive deeper into the industry, which was once shunned by the upper echelons of Wall Street.
Jack Dorsey's Square commits to building a bitcoin hardware wallet
A personal hardware wallet is non-custodial, meaning crypto holders stay in control of their own private keys instead of letting third parties like crypto exchanges handle the keys for them.
Instagram is set to allow users to sell NFT collectibles
Instagram appears to be working on implementing NFT features on its app according to mobile developer and leaker Alessandro Paluzzi.
Fidelity Digital Assets plans big headcount boost in response to institutional interest in crypto
Fidelity Digital Assets, the crypto-focused arm of the asset manager Fidelity, plans on hiring as many as 100 employees to bolster cryptocurrency projects in response to institutional demand in crypto
Grayscale links up with banking giant BNY Mellon to prep for bitcoin ETF
The new deal sets the stage for BNY Mellon's role in Grayscale's plans to convert GBTC into a bitcoin ETF.
S&P announces new indexes, including one tracking more than 200 cryptos
S&P Dow Jones Indices went live with a group of new digital asset-focused products this week, including one that tracks more than 240 cryptos at launch.
⚖️ Government & Regulation
Jamaica’s central bank to start CBDC pilot with financial institutions in August
Bank of Jamaica Governor Richard Byles said the banks plans to expand the trial between September and December and then gradually move toward a full-fledged launch.
New Zealand to explore central bank digital currency as part of public consultations
New Zealand's central bank is set to spend the coming months in public consultation on issues ranging from stablecoins to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
Argentine lawmaker proposes bill for businesses to pay employees in crypto
Independent deputy Jose Luis Ramon said his bill would promote greater autonomy and self-governance for Argentina's citizens.
France tests CBDC flows with Singapore using automated liquidity pool
Running on JPMorgan’s Onyx blockchain, it was the first cross-border CBDC transaction to use automated market-making smart contracts.
SEC delays decision on SkyBridge Capital’s proposed bitcoin ETF to August
U.S. regulators have been extremely reticent to approve such investment vehicles, which would provide retail investors with access to the bitcoin market without having to own bitcoin itself.
Lawmaker in Paraguay says he will introduce bitcoin regulation law
Another large bank in South Korea to provide custody of crypto assets
Woori Financial Group is joining forces with bitcoin exchange Coinplug to offer the service.
Australian government grants $4.1m to 2 blockchain pilot projects
Funding of AU$5.6m has gone to blockchain provenance startup Everledger and tech consultancy Convergence.Tech.
💰 Funding & Exits
DeFi investing platform Zerion raises $8.2m in Series A funding
The round was led by Mosaic Ventures, with participation from Placeholder, Digital Currency Group, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Blockchain.com Ventures, and several others.
Welsh crypto insurer Coincover lands $9.2m Series A fundraise
The startup combines a technology platform with insurance protection underwritten by Lloyd’s of London. In the event of business or systems failure, customers are covered for up to $1m.
Argentinian crypto exchange Buenbit raises $11m to expand in Latin America
Buenbit plans to expand in Peru, Colombia and either Brazil or Mexico.
Nifty's launches NFT-focused social media platform with $10m in seed funding
Niftys.com first partnership, which is with Warner Bros., will feature a collection of limited-edition non-fungible tokens of characters from the upcoming live-action/animated film Space Jam: A New Legacy.
Ethereum-based interoperability network Connext raises $12m in new funding
The round saw participation from a record 82 investors. ConsenSys Mesh and 1kx co-led the round, with Coinbase Ventures, OkEx Ventures, eGirl Capital, and Hashed also participating.
Polychain leads $21m round for retail-oriented DEX
Shipyard’s Clipper DEX aims to attract retail traders with low trading fees.
Chinese bitcoin miner BIT Mining raises $50m to move overseas
BIT Mining, which is headquartered in Shenzhen and formerly known as 500.com, said it plans to use the net proceeds to "acquire additional mining machines, build new data centers overseas, expand its infrastructure, and improve its working capital position."
Ash Egan launches crypto specific VC fund with $55m
Egan has raised $55m from an array of funds and investors, including Cendana, a fund-of-funds; Accomplice, his former employer; Digital Currency Group; the founders of Bison Trails and others.
Stablecoin firm Circle to go public via SPAC merger
The deal values Circle at $4.5bn and comes after Circle raised $440m from investors including Fidelity, Valor Capital Group and the London-based hedge fund Marshall Wace in May.
🚀 Project Launches & Updates
Boston Celtics basketball team joins fan token platform Socios
Socios, the blockchain-based platform responsible for tokenizing many popular sports franchises, has said the Boston Celtics basketball team will be joining its roster.
DeFi data feed service API3 becomes a DAO
As well as steering the direction of the project, the DAO aims to provide a kind of decentralized insurance against oracle failings.
Uniswap takes next step toward adopting Layer 2 tech with alpha launch on Optimism
Optimism is one of a number of startups working on so-called rollups, which aggregate transactions onto a secondary protocol with the goal of scaling the base layer and sharply reducing transacting costs.
🔥 Other Bits We're Excited About
Israel’s new president will receive an NFT of the presidential oath
The Israeli parliament has issued an NFT of the original draft of the presidential oath, which will be given to incoming President Isaac Herzog ahead of his inauguration.
Growth in Euro stablecoins spurs dreams of digital forex market
Glimpses of recent growth in euro-backed stablecoins have some token issuers thinking of a future where digital versions of national currencies easily flow on blockchain-based markets between cryptocurrency exchanges and the fast-developing trading and lending platforms of decentralized finance (DeFi).