White Star Capital Digital Asset Fund - newsletter #42
Taking stock of a record-breaking first half of 2021
DeFi protocols catering towards institutional clientele and record-breaking NFT volumes
We saw major product updates from Aave and Compound this week catered towards bringing institutions closer to DeFi, offering higher yields than traditional financial markets. Compound launched Compound Treasury, for Businesses & Institutions while Aave teased their upcoming Aave Pro platform. Both are offering yields higher than institutions can find in traditional markets, which may spur increased DeFi adoption.
In other news, Reuters recently put out a report outlining the explosive growth NFTs saw in the first half of this year. The short of it is that the market for NFTs surged to new highs in the second quarter, with $2.5bn in sales so far this year, up from just $13.7m in the first half of 2020.
The data backing up the volume figures have shown the resiliency of the NFT market during which the broader crypto market has fallen off upwards of 50%.
While some NFT categories such as sports may have seen a decrease in volumes from March, we are seeing other categories pick up the slack, especially collectibles. We foresee Metaverse NFTs also claiming a larger share of the overall market volume in the coming quarters.
The development of new NFT projects and increased adoption from brands & creators are continuing to fuel the growth of the sector to new records!
🔦 White Star & Portfolio Spotlight
More creator launches on Rally!
CowSwap incorporates ParaSwap as a DEX aggregator
🏦 Enterprises & Institutions
NYDIG’s latest deal enables even more banks to offer bitcoin purchases to customers
Enterprise payments company NCR Corporation has reportedly struck a deal with investment services firm NYDIG that will enable 650 U.S. banks and credit unions to offer bitcoin purchases to millions of customers.
Twitter released several NFTs on Rarible
Visa makes five strategic crypto hires and placements
The company focuses heavily on stablecoins and is gearing up to support central bank digital currencies.
Soros Fund Management is said to be trading bitcoin
The approval to trade the leading cryptocurrency was given by CIO Dawn Fitzpatrick.
EY releases a zero-knowledge layer to tackle increasing ethereum costs
The tool was built to address network congestion and rising transaction costs brought about by the growth of DeFi.
Sygnum Bank now offers Ethereum 2.0 staking service
Swiss crypto bank Sygnum has launched an Ethereum 2.0 staking service, claiming to be the first bank to offer this service. The development means Sygnum clients can now stake their ether holdings with the bank and earn a yield of up to 7% per annum currently.
Hedge fund Marshall Wace plans to invest in the crypto sector
London-based hedge fund Marshall Wace, with $55bn in assets under management, reportedly plans to invest in the crypto sector.
German neobank N26 is working with 'top-tier crypto exchanges' on new trading feature
N26, the Berlin-based neobank valued at $3.5bn, is planning to launch crypto trading tools as part of a new marketplace initiative.
⚖️ Government & Regulation
Beijing, Suzhou enable China's digital yuan payments for subways
The Chinese capital city of Beijing has extended the testing of China's central bank digital currency, dubbed the e-CNY, to its railway system.
German law allowing $415bn investment into crypto takes effect
The law allows "special funds" to invest up to 20% of their assets in crypto.
The first legally recognized DAO has been formed in Wyoming
Ukraine puts CBDC on par with cash in new payments law
The Ukrainian legislation now lists the future central bank digital currency as a kind of money similar to cash or bank accounts.
Philippine Stock Exchange wants to provide crypto trading when regulators approve it
PSE president and CEO Ramon Monzon told CNN Philippines that the exchange would be an ideal platform for crypto trading because it has both the trading infrastructure and investor protection safeguards in place.
Japan’s CBDC to get a clearer picture by 2022 says government official
“If the BOJ were to issue CBDC, it would have a huge impact on financial institutions and Japan’s settlement system…CBDC has the potential to completely reshape changes occurring in Japan’s financial industry.”
Crypto lobbyists put DeFi proposals to FATF in open letter
A group of crypto lobby groups spread across the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States and Asia has called for “well-balanced” approaches to regulating the DeFi sector in an open letter to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
💰 Funding & Exits
Index Cooperative raises $7.7m from Galaxy Digital, 1kx, others
The DAO develops and oversees a collection of structured DeFi products that both retail and institutional investors can buy to gain exposure to various corners of the crypto market.
DeFi protocol Tranchess raises $1.5m in seed round led by Three Arrows, Spartan
Money raised will go towards furthering the project's expansion while completing the development of its DAO.
Tracer DAO raises $4.5m to launch derivatives for anything ‘with an oracle feed’
The raise saw participation from Framework Ventures, Maven 11, DACM, and Apollo Capital.
Mark Cuban-backed NFT platform Mintable raises $13m in Series A
The round saw participation from Ripple, Animoca Brands, Metapurse, and others.
CoinFund leads $2.3m investment in Esports startup trying to bring crypto to gamers
Community Gaming's seed round also drew NFT collector WhaleShark, Multicoin Capital and Kevin Durant's Thirty Five Ventures.
Crypto trading firm Valkyrie raises $10m to drive bitcoin ETF hopes
Precept Capital Management, XBTO, 10X Capital and UTXO Management headlined the fundraise but it also included Tron founder Justin Sun, Litecoin founder Charlie Lee and former Major League Baseball pitcher C.J. Wilson.
Blockware raises $25m to expand bitcoin mining operations in Kentucky
The mining firm will use the funding to buy 14,000 rigs – 8,000 for itself and 6,000 to sell.
Spencer Dinwiddie’s crypto app for creators, Calaxy, raises $7.5m
Calaxy, a mashup of “Creator’s Galaxy,” allows creators and celebrities to raise money with tokens and allow fans to interact with them through video messages, online classes, video calls and fan club subscriptions.
Coinbase Ventures invests in mobile game developer Bling
Bling’s suite of mobile games allows users to earn small amounts of bitcoin.
Solana’s Solrise Finance closes $3.4m funding round
The round saw participation from Alameda Research, CMS Holdings, Delphi Digital, and more. Solrise Finance allows anyone to create an investment fund and manage investors' assets in a non-custodial manner.
SoftBank invests $200m in Brazilian crypto exchange Mercado Bitcoin
The Series B raise comes just five months after the crypto exchange secured an undisclosed sum through a Series A round, which was co-led by G2D/GP Investments and Parallax Ventures.
NFT digital property company Animoca Brands raises a total of $139m in recent funding round
Investors in Animoca’s most recent round include Coinbase Ventures, Blue Pool Capital, Liberty City Ventures, Korea Investment Partners, Gobi Partners, Samsung Venture Investment Corporation, Scopely, Token Bay Capital, and zVentures.
CoinShares to acquire blockchain equity index from Alan Howard’s Elwood
Europe’s largest crypto asset manager CoinShares is set to acquire the exchange-traded fund (ETF) business of Elwood Technologies, which is owned by hedge fund heavyweight Alan Howard, for $17m.
🚀 Project Launches & Updates
Aave, Fireblocks, and Galaxy explore next steps toward permissioned DeFi
Before banks and financial institutions can get involved in automatic anonymous lending, permissioned versions of DeFi will have to emerge – and with it, a system of whitelisted and blacklisted wallet addresses.
CryptoKickers is bringing NFT sneakers to the hypebeasts of the Metaverse
Sole Selector lets users design and mint their own sneaker NFTs on the Solana blockchain.
🔥 Other Bits We're Excited About
NFT of the original World Wide Web code fetches $5.4m at Sotheby's auction
The auction began on June 23, with bids starting at $1k. All proceeds of the sale will go to initiatives supported by Berner-Lee and his wife.
NFT collection by digital artist FEWOCiOUS rakes in over $2m at Christie's
The collection was inspired by the 18-year-old artist’s experiences as a young, transgender artist growing up in an abusive household.
Bitcoin Mining Council paints rosy picture of how much sustainable energy the network is using
The BMC claims to have gathered data "from over 32 percent of the current global Bitcoin network in its first ever voluntary survey. The results of this survey show that the members of the BMC and participants in the survey are currently utilizing electricity with a 67% sustainable power mix."