💼NEAR Launches $100M VC Fund - TWJ #227
The L1 blockchain continues to build its ecosystem.
In today’s issue:
The crypto market is up with its total market cap above ~$1 trillion. Near (NEAR) has been the worst performer in the top 100 in the past 24-h. The SEC is looking to reform the Treasury market.
In other news, NEAR unveils a $100M VC fund, Fireblocks achieves “Centaur” status, and MicroStrategy could raise $500M to buy BTC.
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
⎆NEAR Unveils a $100M VC Fund
The NEAR Foundation, an entity associated with the L1 blockchain, has introduced a $100M VC fund and is in partnership with Caerus Ventures.
NEAR will anchor the fund, which has an initial closing of $50 million and a target of $100 million for seed series A investments. The first investment will be in the venture lab, which will work with creators, talent and franchise owners to conceive, validate, test and build the next generation of platforms, according to the press release.
⎆Fireblocks Achieves “Centaur” Status
Crypto market infrastructure, Fireblocks, has achieved a “Centaur” status. The term means a SaaS company that has earned $100M ARR.
"We pioneered MPC [Multi-Party Computation] technology and it's become an industry status," Fireblocks co-founder and CEO Michael Shaulov told The Block in an interview. MPC enables multiple parties — each holding their own private data — to evaluate a computation without ever revealing any of the private data held by each party. It is seen as the gold standard for crypto key management and protection.
⎆MicroStrategy Could Raise $500M to Buy BTC
MicroStrategy submitted a filing that might sell up to $500M of its class A common stock. Market participants speculate that the capital might be allocated to buy more BTC.
👨🏻💻Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
BNB Chain Introduces zkBNB
Curve Live on Kava
Kiln, Ropsten and Rinkeby Testnets are Shutting Down
Aptos Testnet NFT
Dopex Introduces The Bridgors Bonding Program
Google Is Counting Down to Ethereum Merge with 'Easter Egg'
🏛Governance - Active Proposals
Gitcoin - Gitcoin // Radicle Public Goods Alliance
PoolTogether - PTIP 81 - Extend ETH/POOL LP on Uniswap V2
🦮NFT & Metaverse
Japanese Gov't Issues NFTs to Reward Local Authorities' Work
NFT Mints on Solana have Surged to an All-time High
DBS to Acquire Land in The Sandbox Metaverse
Ford Prepares to Enter the Metaverse
Google Cloud to Validate Transactions on Axie Infinity’s Ronin Network
Quentin Tarantino Settles Miramax Lawsuit over Pulp Fiction NFTs
Top Sales (Last 24-h); Source: https://dappradar.com/nft
📈Deal Flow & Capital Raise
Revolving Games - $25M Unknown Round
Community Labs - $30M Strategic Round
Bitmama - $2M Pre-seed Round
Sentiment - $2.4M Seed Round
Forward - $5M Seed Round
NEAR - $100M VC Fund
Bloccelerate - $100M Second Fund (raising)
⚖️Regulatory Update
Paradigm: Infrastructure Providers Should Not Be Subject to US Sanctions
Algorand Foundation Declares $35M Exposure to Troubled Lender Hodlnaut
US Senators Press Mark Zuckerberg to Combat Crypto Scams
📚Noteworthy Reads
Ishan B’s Thread on Frameworks For Tokenomics
Paradigm’s Read on Base Layer Neutrality
Vitalik’s Read on Demand-based recurring fees on ENS domains?
Feel free to reach out to manoppomarco@gmail.com — feedbacks and constructive criticisms are much appreciated.