📈Mysten Labs Raises $300M - TWJ #225
The ex-Meta employee L1 blockchain is valued at $2 billion.
Hi folks,
Indexing, or investing in a “basket of assets” within a specific set of rules, has been the number one investment trend in the past few decades. In 2020, the combined AUM of index funds reached $10 trillion. The big three index funds: BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street managed a combined $22 trillion in AUM. The big three index providers, S&P Dow Jones, FTSE Russel, and MSCI facilitated a combined AUM of more than $40 trillion benchmarked to their indexes.
Frankly, it is surprising that we haven’t seen much success in the on-chain indexing space. Or is it?
In this write-up, we present explanations of why on-chain indexes are struggling, their pros and cons, as well as their parts in the future of the crypto market.
Here are the quick takeaways:
Indexing has been the number one investment trend and crypto needs to embrace it if it wants to reach $10 trillion in market capitalization.
On-chain indexes are currently stagnating because they target the wrong crowd.
Smart contracts are suitable to automate index methodology on-chain, but require a robust framework and adaptability on the protocol level.
If governance functions as intended, on-chain index winners will become the BlackRock of crypto.
On-chain indexes lack distribution, which might require centralization tradeoffs to optimize.
In today’s issue:
The crypto market is flat with its total market cap above ~$900 billion. Chain (XCN) has been the worst performer in the top 100 in the past 7-d. Goldman expects the Fed to raise interest rates by another 75 bps this month.
In other news, Mysten Labs raises $300M, Gensler responds to crypto industry pushback, and Brevan Howard reveals its crypto fund details.
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
⎆Mysten Labs raises $300M
The L1 blockchain raises $300M at a valuation of over $2 billion in a Series B round led by FTX Ventures.
The startup’s co-founder and CEO Evan Cheng, who was head of research and development at Meta’s crypto wallet Novi Financial until September last year, told The Block in an interview that Mysten aims “to bring about consumer adoption — mass adoption.”
“We focus a lot on designing an architecture that is completely different that allows us to horizontally scale the capacity of the blockchain,” he said.
⎆Gensler Responds to Crypto Industry Pushback
The US SEC chair is preparing his remarks for a speech tomorrow. Many said that he’s not changing his mind on crypto enforcement.
The industry and its allies in government have shot back at Gensler over what they have called regulation by enforcement.
“Some in the crypto industry have called for greater ‘guidance’ with respect to crypto tokens,” Barron's quotes Gensler's speech. “Not liking the message isn’t the same thing as not receiving it.”
⎆Brevan Howard Reveals Its Crypto Fund Details
The firm's $1 billion crypto fund details are now available.
July, submitted a filing for the Digital Asset Multi-Strategy Fund Ltd hedge fund, which has raised $184.15 million since sales opened on April 1. The capital came from four investors, and there’s a $10 million minimum set for any outside investments. The firm indicated “Indefinite” for total offering amount, essentially the fund’s target size.
The firm also updated its filing for the similarly named Brevan Howard Digital Asset Multi-Strategy Fund, L.P. to show $29.71 million raised from six investors. The firm first filed for the limited partner fund in January with $3 million raised at the time.
👨🏻💻Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
Quicksilver Protocol Mainnet Postponed
Nansen Introduces Nansen Connect
Kyber Network Interim Update
dAMM Finance is Live
Aave Devs Look Set to Receive $16.3M
Avalanche Flash Loan Exploit Sees $371K Stolen
SEBA Bank to Provide Ethereum Staking Services
Binance US Launches High-Yield Ethereum Staking
ETC Group to Launch New ETP for 'Imminent' Ethereum Hard Fork
🏛Governance - Active Proposals
Compound - Initialize Compound III COMP Distribution
Compound - cETH Risk Mitigation
Compound - Risk Parameter Changes for FEI
Fei - TIP_121a (cont.): Consolidation ops and technical cleanup
Gitcoin - Public Goods Funding S15 Budget Request
🦮NFT & Metaverse
Sony Music Files Trademark Application for NFT-Authenticated Music
GameStop Doubles Down on Crypto amid a New Partnership with FTX US
BAYC Buyers Plunged in August to Second-lowest on Record
NFT Game Consultant Says Poor People Could Be NPCs
Sorare Takes on NBA Top Shot With Ethereum NFT-Based Fantasy NBA Game
Top Sales (Last 24-h); Source: https://dappradar.com/nft
📈Deal Flow & Capital Raise
Tesseract - $78M Unknown Round
Ultrade - $2.4M Seed Round
Metaverse Magna - $3.2M Seed Round
Omni Wallet - $11M Seed Round
Gameplay Galaxy - $12.8M Seed Round
Spice AI - $13.5M Seed Round
⚖️Regulatory Update
Celsius Had Been Insolvent Since 2019: Vermont Regulator
South Korea Is Gearing Up to Institutionalize Security Tokens
Fed Vice Chair Brainard Calls for Crypto-Specific Regulations
Thai SEC Files Police Complaint Against Crypto Exchange Zipmex
📚Noteworthy Reads
Arthur Hayes’s Read on For the War
Jeremy Allaire’s Thread on Perspective on Binance Conversion of USDC
Kathryn Haun’s Read on Tornado Cash: What web3 Needs to Know
Feel free to reach out to manoppomarco@gmail.com — feedbacks and constructive criticisms are much appreciated.