💸Aptos Raised $150M Series A - TWJ #194
FTX and Jump have a new champion in town.
In today’s issue:
The crypto market is down with its total market cap above ~$900 billion. Arweave (AR) is the worst performer in the top 100 in the past 7-d. EU and US equities performance are mixed ahead of the highly anticipated Fed’s interest-rate hike.
In other news, Aptos raises $150M Series A, Moelis launches blockchain advisory team, and the SEC investigates Coinbase crypto listings.
We’re continually improving our content, please reach out if you have ideas or want us to recap another market segment.
- Curated by Marco Manoppo (@manoppomarco)
📰Market News
⎆Aptos Raises $150M Series A
Aptos, the blockchain firm founded by former Meta employees who were involved in the development of now-defunct Novi/Diem stablecoin has raised $150M Series A led by FTX Ventures and Jump Crypto.
Here’s an excerpt from a great piece by Ann:
Sam Bankman-Fried, the king of crypto has apparently taken a new queen into his palace.
A $150 million dowry. Raised by King Sam and his entourages — i.e. Multicoin— to secure the heart of the new queen, cryptofolks ponder if the number is a tad too big. “In this economy?”
Aptos is her name. The new queen. What could be her power that she is about to replace the long-reigning Solana as Sam’s number one Layer 1? The courtship was scandalous in many ways. Gossips spread into the corners of the realm. Distasteful, some folks might say, although most of us are not surprised with Sam’s pump-and-dump behavior.
⎆Moelis Launches Blockchain Advisory Team
The investment bank Moelis has launched a dedicated blockchain advisory team. The new division will be led by Moelis co-founder John Momtazee.
“With more than 50 unicorns and several decacorns in the sector already and nearly $20 billion of capital raised for blockchain companies last year, blockchain technology is poised to be as transformative to the global business landscape,"
⎆The SEC Investigates Coinbase Crypto Listings
Bloomberg reported that the SEC is investigating the Coinbase crypto listing process, scrutinizing whether the platform might have listed digital assets that should’ve been registered as securities.
“We are confident that our rigorous diligence process -- a process the SEC has already reviewed -- keeps securities off our platform, and we look forward to engaging with the SEC on the matter,”
👨🏻💻Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
Vector Finance Smart Converter Function is Live
LidoDAO Rejects Sale of 10M LDO Tokens to Dragonfly Capital
Shiba Inu ($SHIB) Remains Ethereum Whales’ Largest Altcoin Position
Chia Network Reissues Its Asset Token to Address Security Vulnerability
Tether, Bitfinex, Hypercore Launch Encrypted Communications Protocol
Teddy Doge 'Soft' Rug Pulls $4.5M Worth of Tokens, PeckShield Says
🏛Governance - Active Proposals
Reflexer Ungovernor - Fixing 3 year Sablier stream for DAO Member (fixes proposal #3)
🦮NFT & Metaverse
GameStop 'Falling Man' NFT Saga Shows People's Power at Its Finest
Top Sales (Last 24-h); Source: https://dappradar.com/nft
📈Deal Flow & Capital Raise
Kima - $1M Unknown Round
Coinzix - $300K Seed Round
STFX - $2M Seed Round
DSCVR - $9M Seed Round
Aptos Labs - $150M Series A
⚖️Regulatory Update
SEC Probing Coinbase for Allegedly Listing Securitie
US Stablecoin Bill Delayed, but Draft Language May Soon Emerge
Josh Gottheimer (US Rep.) Proposes $3M Boost to Treasury’s Crypto Crime-Fighting Unit
Bitstamp Registers to Operate in Italy
Binance CEO CZ Sues Bloomberg Businessweek for Defamation in Hong Kong
Titanium Blockchain CEO Pleads Guilty to Securities Fraud
SEC Philippines to Investigate Binance Over Alleged Illegal Operations
US Senators Push Bill to Make Small Crypto Transactions Tax-Free
📚Noteworthy Reads
Data Finnovation’s Read on 3AC, DCG & Amazing Coincidences
Path’s Read on Pandemic to Contagion: a Cycle in Review
Foobar’s Thread on Principal Component Analysis
Feel free to reach out to manoppomarco@gmail.com — feedbacks and constructive criticisms are much appreciated.