Edition #44 - 12 DEC 2022
Aggregate NFT sales volume in November was less than $400 million.
Volumes are still in the gutter since their boom last year – weeks after FTX collapse, NFT volumes have plummeted to a 16-month low.
Trading activity hasn’t seen such lows since July 2021, when OpenSea – the world’s largest NFT marketplace – was the only major trading venue in town.
gaming developments
Axie Infinity announces expanded vision in its Axie Core update, linking collectability and play;
Decentraland will now let you become a virtual landlord by allowing land renting to other players;
Upcoming game Kiraverse sells out Kira Genesis collection, raking in over $1.5 million;
Illuvium announces private beta for its Overworld game launching on 12th December.
metaverses & Adoption
Countries and institutions move into crypto despite market drop;
Cryptocurrency market is ‘most mature’ in US and Vietnam, new Huobi report reveals;
Binance suspends account of customer for being ‘unreasonable’ on Twitter;
The Block CEO resigns after failure to disclose loans from Bankman-Fried’s Alameda;
CNBC trader wants to team up with Binance CEO to issue new FTT coin;
Crypto.com releases proof-of-reserves data showing client assets are fully backed;
Three Arrows Capital co-founder says it wasn’t Luna that took it out, but FTX;
Japanese banking giant SMBC will use soulbound tokens for identity verification;
GameStop to drop crypto efforts as Q3 losses near $95 million;
Amber Group owes troubled crypto lender Vauld's CEO $130 million.
defi
Bancor DAO mulls proposal for self-arbitrage bot on Bancor DEX to cover $26 million deficit;
Coinbase takes a swipe at Tether, tells customers to switch to USDC stablecoin;
Chainlink’s first staking pool pulls in $170 million of LINK tokens, hitting community limit after 2 days;
Over $500 million flew out of Solana in a week, DeFi TVL down 63%;
Waves' USDN stablecoin depegs, Korean regulator issues warning;
MakerDAO may expand non-cryptoasset portfolio with BlockTower, Centrifuge;
1inch tokens worth over $100 million unlocked in December.
funding rounds
Crypto-focused tax and accounting platform Bitwave raised $15 million in a Series A funding round led by Hack VC and Blockchain Capital. SignalFire, Valor Equity Partners, Arca, Pulsar Trading and Alumni Ventures Blockchain Fund are among investors;
DeFi derivatives protocol Perennial raised $12 million in a Seed funding round led by Polychain Capital and Variant, with participation from Archetype, Coinbase Ventures, Scalar Capital, Robot Ventures, A Capital and others;
Web3 developer platform Fleek raised $25 million in a Series A funding round led by Polychain Capital. Coinbase Ventures, Digital Currency Group, Protocol Labs, Arweave, North Island Ventures, Distributed Global, The LAO and Argonautic Ventures are among investors.
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