Weekly Web3 Roundup

💰 CRYPTO MACRO

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🟢 Tracking 3AC

• Crypto brokerage Voyager Digital issued a default notice to 3AC this week after the hedge fund failed to make payments on loans of 15,250 bitcoins and 350M USDC.
• 3AC’s liquidation has been ordered by a British Virgin Islands court. Teneo Restructuring has been called in to handle insolvency proceedings.

🟢 Tracking Celsius

• Celsius is in dispute with its lawyers regarding Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
• A Chapter 11 bankruptcy is a costly procedure. As a result, Celsius is attempting to get its customers to move against the proposal.

🟢 Crypto VC funding declines, but investment in quality projects continues

• Crypto startups have raised around $3.7B in June, down from $4.2B in May.
• However, lower valuations make investing in quality projects particularly appealing.
• Confirming continued demand, the Bank of America has stated that crypto winter hasn’t frozen investors’ interest, calling blockchain technology the most important software evolution since the internet, in a report.
• Further evidence of this demand can be highlighted by crypto market data provider Kaiko’s announcement of a $53B Series B.

🟢 Tether CTO addresses Tether FUD in Twitter thread

• Tether CTO, Paolo Ardoino, has alleged that USDT has been the victim of a coordinated attack by hedge funds that are attempting to depeg the stablecoin with the goal of purchasing it back en masse at a lower price.
• He claims stories that Tether is not 100% collateralized, or has significant exposure to risky assets, have been fabricated.

🟢 EU Members agree on the bloc’s crypto regulatory framework, MiCA

• MiCA has been the subject of debate since 2020.
• The regulations set out the rules for how crypto and digital assets should be treated in the EU based on where current frameworks fall short.

🟢 Ethreum successfully activates Gray Glacier hard fork

• A hard fork is an upgrade that splits a blockchain in two, with all network participants automatically moving to the new, forked chain.
• The successful hard fork brings Ethereum one step closer to the merge to ETH2, which is expected in September.

🟢 Polkadot to form Fellowship of token holders

• The governance upgrade has been implemented to make voting in the Polkadot ecosystem a more inclusive process.

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👾 NFTs

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🟢 Yuga Labs sue Ryder Ripps over #BURNBAYC & Nazi claims

• Yuga Labs is suing Ripps and his co-conspirator for trademark infringement, false advertising, and several other charges.

🟢 Bored Ape owners sign up to hire out their NFTs to brands

• Multiple Bored Ape owners have signed up to a new NFT licensing Marketplace that allows holders to rent out their Ape’s IP to brands.
• The Marketplace aims to list all 10,000 BAYC NFT for brands to browse through and potentially rent without infringing on IP laws.

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🎮 CRYPTO GAMING

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🟢 Axie Infinity’s Ronin bridge back up and running following hack

• The Ronin bridge was hacked for $600M in March, the largest crypto hack ever.
• The new bridge has security features included that prevent unusually large withdrawals.

🟢 Harmony announced a partnership with Miracle Universe.

• Harmony has partnered with Miracle Universe to support the next generation of web3 gaming.
• The move comes as part of Harmony’s ambitions to broaden its gaming ecosystem.

🏙 METAVERSE

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🟢 KPMG invests $30 million in web3 training

• KPMG is entering the Metaverse through a hub that will connect employees and clients.
• The hub will be focused on education, collaboration, training, and events.

🟢 Sandbox launches Its first-ever Metaverse pride event

• Sandbox has launched its first Metaverse Pride Event in celebration of Pride Month.
• Metapride event is part of a bigger event which is called “Sandbox Belonging Week.”
• Sandbox Belonging Week consists of three custom experiences: the Valley of Belonging, the Metapride, and the World of Women Museum. 

🟢 Sandbox landowners to migrate to Polygon

• Sandbox has created a land bridge page that encourages land owners to transfer their lands to Polygon.
• Land transfers are being incentivised with a 10 mSAND reward (10 USD).
• The move is part of the Sandbox’s wider ongoing move to Polygon.

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🚀 CRYPTO & BUSINESS

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🟢 Coinbase’s share price drops as Goldman Sachs changes rating to “sell”

• The rating change is based on the likelihood that Coinbase’s revenue will decrease as trading volumes drop.

🟢 ANZ uses its stablecoin to purchase tokenized carbon credits

• One of Australia’s biggest banks, ANZ, has used its own stablecoin, A$DC, to purchase tokenized carbon credits from BetaCarbon.
• BetaCarbon tokenizes Australian carbon credits into its BCAU token.
• The transaction highlights an exciting use-case for blockchain technology and tokenization beyond crypto.

🟢 Harmony One’s Horizon bridge hacked for $100M

• A Harmony One blockchain bridge, Horizon, has been exploited for $100M.
• The hacker has begun to attempt to hide the funds via Toranda Cash, a platform used to conceal transaction history.
• Harmony has offered a $1M bounty to the hacker to return the funds, but has yet to receive a response.

🟢 Lido community vote against proposal to limit the platform’s growth and influence on ETH2

• Following issues surrounding the “depeg” of stETH from ETH, the Lido community submitted a governance proposal, suggesting that the largest liquid ETH staking platform reduces its influence on the ETH2 merge.
• The issue is whether too much ETH concentrated on one platform could give rise to censorship issues if LDO holders opt to vote in their favor.
• Less than half of one percent of votes were in favor of the proposal.

🟢 MakerDAO governance is voting to purchase $500M in US Treasury Bills

• The MakerDAO community is voting on a proposal to create a new real-world asset vault.
• The motivation behind the vote is based on Maker’s vaults being largely held in stablecoins, generating no yield.
• An investment in T bills should reduce counterparty and credit risks.

🟢 BlockFi and FTX US strike deal featuring acquisition clause

• BlockFi has agreed a $680 million deal with FTX.US. The deal includes a $400M credit facility and an option to acquire BlockFi for up to $240M.

🟢 Arbitrum Odyssey has been paused

• Arbitrum Odyssey is a two-month long initiative designed to incentivize users to explore dApps on the layer 2, by rewarding certain behaviors with NFTs.
• The Arbitrum team, Offchain Labs, have paused Arbitrum Odyssey to combat high congestion and gas fees.
• At its worst point, Odyssey saw Arbitrum’s fees even exceed Ethereum’s.