Edition #41 - 04 NOV 2022
In the largest jump in 33 years, England is trying to bring soaring inflation under control by dramatically increasing the cost of borrowing money. The Bank of England’s bank rate, or the cost of borrowing money, rose by 0.75% to 3%. According to the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), the Bank of England voted by a majority of 7-2 to increase interest rates to 3%.
gaming developments
Final Fantasy maker Square Enix reveals its first Ethereum NFT game Symbiogenesis;
Nyan Heroes, the highly-anticipated shooter game, is set to release its first playable demo in Q1 2023;
NFT Rivals, the first official NFL blockchain game releases gameplay footage;
Immutable onboarded more web3 games in Q3 than any other quarter, co-founder says.
metaverses & Adoption
Crypto exchange volumes hit 23-month low;
US accounting standards board member supports reporting crypto swings as income;
NFT winter isn’t getting any warmer: sales down another 25% in October;
Meta announces new product allowing creators to build Instagram NFTs on Polygon;
UBS prices its first $370 million bond to be listed and settled on a digital exchange;
Terra LUNA announces NFT minting on Terra blockchain;
Fidelity opens waiting list for its retail crypto product Fidelity Crypto;
Japanese digital ministry announced creation of its own DAO.
defi
Circle begins putting reserves into new, SEC-regulated BlackRock money market fund;
NEAR decides to wind down its native USN stablecoin to avoid a Terra-style scenario, points to under-collateralization risk;
Solana lending protocol Solend exploted for $1.26 million in market manipulation attack;
Terra victim Invictus Capital defaults on $1 million uncollateralised TrueFi loan;
After Huobi delisting, its stablecoin HUSD falls 72% from dollar peg;
Crypto exchange Deribit hacked for $28 million in Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDC;
Protocol Ventures, the pioneer crypto fund-of-funds founded in 2017, is shutting down citing losses as much as 90%;
Troubled exchange Zipmex close to signing $100 million rescue deal in return for a 90% stake.
funding rounds
Connector of Cosmos and Ethereum Evmos raised $27M in a token sale led by Polychain Capital. Galaxy Digital, Huobi, HashKey Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Circle Ventures and Asymmetric are among investors;
Digital payment company Reap raised $40M in a Series A funding round led by Acorn Pacific Ventures, Arcadia Funds and HashKey Capital. Payment Asia, Hustle Fund and Fresco Capital are among investors;
Web3 communications protocol WalletConnect raised $12.5M in Ecosystem round. Shopify, Coinbase Ventures, ConsenSys, Circle Ventures, Polygon, Uniswap Labs Ventures, Union Square Ventures, 1kx, Gnosis Chain, HashKey, Foresight Ventures, Smart Token Labs, Snapshot, and Dialectic are among investors.
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