Edition #70 - 3 JUL 2023
Blackrock filed last Friday with the SEC to launch a spot-based Bitcoin exchange traded product. While many have sought approval to launch spot-based Bitcoin ETFs in the past – from the Winklevoss Twins in 2013 to the likes of Fidelity, Van Eck, Wisdomtree, Valkyrie, Bitwise, 21 Shares, Skybridge in 2021 – the world’s largest asset manager by AUM ($10tn) had never applied for one, until this week.
gaming developments
Mythical Games raises $37M for in-game marketplace in Series C round.
Web3 gaming studio Pixion Games raised $5.5M in a Seed funding round from Blizzard, Shima Capital, ReadyPlayerDAO, Merit Circle, Zee Prime Capital, Mechanism Capital, GSR Markets LTD, Avalaunch, Eldridge.
NFT Lending Volume Reaches All-Time High, But Not For Long.
Anichess, a subsidiary of blockchain gaming giant Animoca Brands, has completed a $1.5 million seed round to develop a decentralized chess game. The round was backed by GameFi Ventures, The Operating Group, Koda Capital, Bing Ventures, 708 Capital and Asymmetry Capital.
metaverses & AI
ChatGPT-powered search engine for crypto Kaito raised $5.5M in a Series A funding round led by Superscrypt and The Spartan Group.
defi
Decentralized peer-to-peer lending protocol on Ethereum and Polygon PWN raised $2M in a funding round from Starkware, Nethermind, Safe (ex Gnosis Safe), Digital Finance Group (DFG), Jsquare, Dialectic, Next Web Capital, F actor, IQTEC, Ematiq
Trustless sequencing layer enabling secure rollup interoperability Radius raised $1.7M in a Pre-seed funding round led by Hashed, with participation from Superscrypt, LambdaClass, CryptoCom Capital.
DeFi protocol AlloyX raised $2M in a Pre-seed funding round led by Hack VC, with participation from Circle Ventures, Digital Currency Group (DCG), Stratos Technologies, Lecca Ventures, MH Ventures, Very Early Ventures, Archblock, dao5 (daofive), Credix Finance.
funding rounds
Liquid marketplace for yield earning opportunities Earn Network raised $2.7M in a Seed funding round led by Shima Capital, with participation from Digital Finance Group (DFG), Jsquare, LD Capital, GTS Ventures, Bixin Ventures, ViaBTC Capital, Mirana Ventures, Cronos Labs, MarsDAO.
NFT-native call options protocol Hook Protocol raised $3M in a funding round led by Collab+Currency, Lattice Fund, with participation from Slow Ventures, Sfermion, Maven 11 Capital, Contrary, Flamingo, Neon DAO, THE LAO, Gmoney.
