News
July 4, 2022

Weekly Web3 Roundup

💰 CRYPTO MACRO

🟢 Tracking 3AC

🟢 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.

👾 NFTs

🟢 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.

🎮 CRYPTO GAMING

🟢 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

🟢 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.

🚀 CRYPTO & BUSINESS

🟢 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.
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