Edition #65 - 26 MAY 2023
6thman.ventures Analysed 5000 token unlocks – here is what was found.
May 22 was Bitcoin Pizza Day.
It’s a big day because: It was the first time someone made a “real world” purchase using Bitcoin; is it the craziest trade ever? 2 pizzas for 10,000 BTC (worth ~$270M at today’s prices).
Hong Kong's Securities Commission decision.
Crypto trading to be allowed for retail starting June 1, 2023.
gaming developments
STEPN just became the first Web3 app to integrate with Apple Pay. Funny that users buying the STEPN NFTs with Apple Pay will pay 40% more than if they were to buy the same NFT with crypto :)
People can now turn any Nintendo Game Boy into a hardware wallet. Holy nostalgia.
metaverses & AI
Sotheby’s successfully sold $2.5M worth of NFTs from the 3AC collection. One of the NFTs (Fidenza #725) sold for over $1M. Wowza.
With the launch of its new “Phygital” Toy Collection & Experience on e-commerce giant Amazon, the popular NFT collection Pudgy Penguins saw explosive interest and sales. Over 20,000 toys were sold for $500K+ within the first 48 hours.
defi
Wallet-as-a-service startup Openfort raised $3M in a Seed funding round led by gumi Cryptos Capital and Maven 11 Capital, with participation from Game7 (GDC), NGC Ventures, Newman Capital, Pear VC, Arcane Group, Gabby Dizon, Alchemy Ventures, Safe (ex Gnosis Safe).
Enjoy State of DeFI report by Stateofdefi.org. We've gathered the most interesting takes: 🔹 DeFi tokens are extremely popular, accounting for 54% of the assets held by Crypto Native and Curious Enthusiasts—just as popular as BTC and ETH. 🔹 Twitter is the go-to platform for DeFi news, with 82% of surveyed users preferring it. Discord takes up 42%, while enthusiast blogs and podcasts make up 21%. 🔹 Uniswap (69.7%), Aave (28.3%), and Compound (3.8%) remain the leading protocols in terms of Total Value Locked (TVL). Among the most widely used protocols are Uniswap, Curve, and Aave. 🔹 Over 50% of DeFi users were initially drawn to the ecosystem out of curiosity, while others actively sought solutions to issues like complex swaps, yield problems, and trust in other frontends. 🔹 Users still hesitate to fully embrace DeFi products due to concerns about unclear risks (43.8%), trust in underlying protocols (29.4%), and market timing. 🔹 An encouraging sign is that 68% of early adopters found everything they were looking for in DeFi protocols. 🔹 Key reasons users prefer DeFi include its user-friendly nature, multiple ways to earn passive yield, and the ability to avoid centralized exchanges. 🔹 DeFi users desire more liquidity, lower fees, improved user experience, and enhanced security. Many users also express a need for better educational resources and simpler onboarding processes. 🔹 If they lose access to their current DeFi protocol, 46% of surveyed users are open to switching to another one. 🔹 Among Layer 2 (L2) solutions, Arbitrum takes the lead (85.8%). Other protocols received the following vote percentages: Optimism (83.9%), zkSync (56.2%), Starknet (36.5%), dYdX (28.5%), Other (11.3%).
funding rounds
Tools for Blockchain UI development Sort raised $3.5M in a Seed funding round led by The General Partnership, Lemniscap, with participation from Alliance DAO, Punk DAO, Orange DAO, Blizzard, Parasol, gmjp (good morning japan).
Privacy-Preserving Proof-of-Personhood Protocol Worldcoin raised $115M in a Series C funding round led by Blockchain Capital, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z crypto), Bain Capital Ventures (BCV), Distributed Global.
