Edition #38 - 14 OCT 2022
In recent months, Bitcoin (BTC) has traded in tandem with stocks, with both asset classes battling prevailing macroeconomic factors led by skyrocketing inflation and interest rate hikes. However, Bitcoin’s volatility appears to cool down compared to traditional stocks as the flagship crypto shows signs of decoupling from equities.
In particular, the Dow Jones index, tracking the 30 largest industrial stocks, was more volatile than Bitcoin this month.
gaming developments
Blockchain games and metaverse projects raised $1.3 billion in Q3;
Axie Infinity launches its first mini land game Raylights:
Gaming veteran Konami Digital plots NFT web3 and metaverse hiring spree;
Axie Infinity player count drops 74% from peak just 10 months ago, falls back to January 2021 levels.
metaverses & Adoption
Bitcoin investment firm NYDIG laid off about one-third of its staff in late September;
SEC is probing Bored Ape creator Yuga Labs over unregistered offerings, questions whether NFTs are securities;
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg debuts Meta Quest Pro VR headset, retailing at $1,500;
Crypto fitness app Stepn denies layoff reports;
Sam Bankman-Fried hedges on whether FTX will make a bid for Celsius.
defi
Stablecoin issuer Tether cuts commercial paper holdings to zero, replaces with US treasury bills;
TrueFi’s $4 million of bad debt in limbo shows risk of crypto lending without collateral as it issues a default notice to Blockwater;
Russian stablecoin usage surged after Ukraine invasion;
DeFi protocol Temple DAO struck by $2.3 million exploit;
Ethereum’s average gas fee jumps more than 80% higher nearing $5 per transfer;
HUSD stablecoin depegs again following Huobi delisting HUSD trading pairs;
Avalanche’s total revenue declined by 94% in Q3.
funding rounds
Uniswap Labs, a leading DEX, raises $165 million in a Series B funding round led by Polychain Capital, with participation from a16z crypto, Paradigm, SV Angel and Variant;
Crypto custodian Copper raises $196 million in a Series C round from “new and existing investors”;
Nxyz, a web3 infrastructure platform, raises $40 million Series A, led by Paradigm, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Greylock Partners, Sequoia Capital, and prominent web3 angels like Balaji Srinivasan, Jaynti (JD) Kanani, Jing Wang, Packy McCormick, Surojit Chatterjee, Ryan Selkis, and others;
Blockchain developer platform Tatum raised $41.5 million in a funding round led by Evolution Equity Partners, with participation from Octopus Ventures, 3VC, Tensor Ventures, Depo Ventures, Leadblock Fund and Circle.
Subscribe to Weekly Essentials