binance exits russia

Edition #80 - 29 SEP 2023

Crypto exchange Binance has agreed to sell the entirety of its Russia business to CommEX as it looks to fully exit the market over compliance concerns.

Valkyrie to offer Ethereum futures ETF

In a huge breakthrough, investment manager Valkyrie Funds LLC has begun adding ethereum futures to its existing Bitcoin ETF, after getting the green light from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

gaming developments

• MilkRoad is partnerting with our portfolio company Mars4.

• Top video game companies have their sights set on Web3.

• Most popular NFTs: top collections people are watching.

metaverses & AI

• ​​​​​​​​Snoop Dogg is now a chat bot. Meta is unleashing celebrity AI chatbots: Snoop Dogg is a “Dungeon Master,” assisting users in adventure games; former NBA player Dwyane Wade is “Victor” and helps users work out. Kendall Jenner will be “Billie”, a “big sis” referred to as a “ride-or-die companion.”​​

• Gucci launched a virtual recreation of its recent runway show at Milan Fashion Week. The metaverse experiences will be available across three different metaverses - Roblox, Zepeto, and QQ.

defi

• ​​​​​​​​Protocol for leverage trading Avantis raised $4M in a Seed funding round led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Founders fund, Galaxy Digital, Base Ecosystem Fund, Modular Capital.

• ​​On-chain leveraged trading platform LeverFi (ex RAMP DeFi) raised $5M in a Strategic funding round led by Unicorn-Verse.

• DeFi portfolio manager Bril Finance raised $3M in a Seed funding round from FalconX, Kosmos Ventures, Algorand Foundation.

funding rounds

• ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​The infrastructure layer powering account abstraction, Pimlico raises $1.6M pre-seed round led by 1confirmation, with further backing from Safe, Consensys and 10+ other angels. Pimlico also recently completed a16z crypto's Crypto Startup School.​​

• ​​Provider of ratings for Ethereum validators and node operators Rated raised $12.89M in a Series A funding round led by Archetype, with participation from Placeholder, 1confirmation, Cherry Ventures, Semantic Ventures, Robot Ventures, Chorus One, Factor Ventures, Maelstrom.

• ​​Confidential blockchain powered by Fully Homomorphic Encryption Fhenix raised $7M in a Seed funding round led by Multicoin Capital, Collider Ventures, with participation from Node Capital, Bankless Ventures, Hack VC, Tane, Metaplanet, Robot Ventures.

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