False alarm of a Bitcoin ETF

Edition #83 - 20 OCT 2023

Bitcoin jumps to $30K, then dumps, as a fake iShares Bitcoin ETF approval report broke in the crypto news this week. BlackRock confirms that the report is false.

gaming developments

• Web3 mobile gaming publisher Hexacore raised $3.5M funding round led by Scalo Technologies, with participation from Xsolla, Estoty.

• ​​Web3 gaming company Darewise Entertainment (Life Beyond) raised $3.5M funding round from Animoca Ventures, GameFi Ventures, London Real Ventures, Citizen Capital, Blocore, Yat Siu.

• ​​Web3 video gaming platform Forge raised $11M in a Seed funding round led by Makers Fund, BITKRAFT Ventures, Animoca Brands, with participation from Hashkey Capital, Polygon Ventures, Formless Capital, Adaverse, Griffin Gaming Partners, Krafton, Riot Games, Sony Innovation Fund, Kevin Lin.

metaverses & AI

• ​​​​​​​​​​opBNB-based AI platform MyShell raised $5.6M in a Seed funding round led by INCE Capital, with participation from Hashkey Capital, Folius Ventures, SevenX Ventures, OP Crypto, TSVCap.

• NFT creator royalties are broken—Yuga Labs and Magic Eden join forces trying to fix them.

defi

• ​​​​​​​​Decentralized file sharing and storage platform Fileverse raised $1.5M in a Pre-seed funding round led by Gnosis DAO, Factor Ventures, with participation from Arweave, Mask Network, Safe (ex Gnosis Safe), Waterdrip Capital, Forward Research, Galxe (ex Project Galaxy), Daedalus, Formless Capital, Balaji Srinivasan, West Ham Capital, Eleftherios Diakomichalis, Captain Nemo, Kenzi Wang.​​

• Decentralized derivatives exchange SynFutures raised $22M in a Series B funding round led by Pantera Capital, with participation from SIG DTI (a Susquehanna International Group Company), Hashkey Capital.

• ​​Decentralized market making protocol Elixir Protocol raised $7.5M in a Series A funding round led by Hack VC, with participation from NGC Ventures, AngelList, Bloccelerate.

funding rounds

• ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Crypto & blockchain venture capital report – Q3 2023.

• ​​Fan engagement platform KINO Studios raised $2M in a Pre-seed funding round from Sequoia Capital’s Scout program, Blockchain Founders Fund, Slow Ventures, MetaWeb Ventures, Genius Ventures, Near Foundation​​

• ​​Crypto financial services provider Virgo Group raised $5M in a Series A funding round from Waterdrip Capital, Skylean Capital, Nextport Capital.

• ​​Solana-based multisig protocol Squads raised $5.7M in a Strategic funding round led by Placeholder, with participation from 6th Man Ventures (6MV), L1 Digital, Solana Ventures, Multicoin Capital, Jump Crypto, Delphi Digital, LayerOneVC, Everstake.

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