📈Variant Raised $450M for 2 Venture Funds - TWJ #197

Li, Jesse, and Spencer continue to crush it.

In today’s issue:

The crypto market is up with its total market cap above ~$1.1 trillion. Bitcoin Gold (BTG) has been the best performer in the top 100 in the past 7-d. Questions and concerns surrounding ETH merge started to appear from the Asian crypto community.

In other news, Variant raises $450M for 2 venture funds, Ethereum announces Goerli testnet merge date, and Babel finance lost $280M.

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

⎆Variant Raises $450M for 2 Venture Funds

Variant, the crypto investment firm led by 3 General Partners, Li Jin, Jesse Walden, and Spencer Noon, has raised $450M for two new venture funds. The capital will be distributed between a $300M opportunity fund and a $150M early stage fund.

Li Jin @ljin18

gm. We’re excited to announce that Variant Fund III is here! We’ve raised $450m across Seed + Opportunity funds that will enable us to continue backing founders who are leveraging crypto to build net-new markets and solve user needs in better ways.

variant.fundIntroducing Variant Fund III – Variant

⎆Ethereum Announces Goerli Testnet Merge Date

Ethereum testnet Goerli will undergo the beacon chain merge between August 6-12, 2022.

⎆Babel Finance Lost $280M

The Hong Kong-based crypto lender that suspended withdrawals last month has reportedly lost $280M trading customers’ funds. The firm lost approximately 8,000 BTC and 56,000 ETH in June 2022.

DeFiyst @DeFiyst

Wow... so Babel's withdrawal freeze & losses were predominantly from directionally trading funds?! They blamed Celsius & 3AC when they had limited exposure themselves and it seems that the majority of capital lost from lack of hedging? Embarrassing...

The Block @TheBlock__

SCOOP: Babel Finance lost over $280 million in proprietary trading with customer funds By @Yogita_Khatri5 https://t.co/MiWExM8YtR

👨🏻‍💻Decentralized Finance (DeFi)

• Synapse Introduces Synapse Chain

• SushiSwap Team Nominate a New Potential 'Head Chef'

• Umami Raises USDC Vault Cap

• Huff Language Launch

• Apple Seeking Web3-Savvy Content Marketing Directors

• Spice DAO to Dissolve After Infamous ‘Dune’ Book Auction

• NIRV Drops 85% Following $3.5M Exploit

• Mirror Publisher Subscription Model

🏛Governance - Active Proposals

• Gitcoin - Gitcoin Product Collective Workstream S15 funding request ratification

🦮NFT & Metaverse

• Binance Jumps into NFT Ticketing after UEFA League Fiasco

• Axie Infinity CEO Moved $3M in Tokens Before $622M Hack Disclosure

• MetaMask Ethereum Wallet Update May Help Thwart NFT Scams

• ApeCoin Proposal to Fund 24-Hour BAYC News Approved

• Miami to Launch 5,000 Ethereum NFTs with TIME, Mastercard, Salesforce

Top Sales (Last 24-h); Source: https://dappradar.com/nft

📈Deal Flow & Capital Raise

• Nas Academy - $12M Unknown Round

• Sweatcoin - $13M Unknown Round

• Strive - $500k Pre-Seed Round

• Socket - $2M Pre-Seed Round

• Alchemon - $1M Seed Round

• Space and Time - $10M Seed Round

• Center - $11M Seed Round

• Nomad - $22.4M Seed Round

• Variant - $450M Variant Fund III

⚖️Regulatory Update

• US Tech Bill Creates White House Blockchain Adviser Role

• Voyager Ordered by US Regulators to Stop Misleading Customers

• Ex-CFTC Chairman Sees Europe’s MiCA Bill as Threat to US Crypto Industry

• US Senate Republican Seeking Bipartisan Support for Stablecoin Oversight

• French Lawmaker Calls for Crypto Committee as Legal Questions Loom

• US Sen. Brown Pressures Apple, Google on Fake Crypto Investing Apps

• Digital Euro Needs Curbs to Halt Lending Crunch, ECB Study Finds

📚Noteworthy Reads

• Ryan Hoover’s Read on How to raise from LPs

• Kuppy’s Thread on FOMC Print

• Lauren Stephanian’s Thread on Token Vesting Schedule

Feel free to reach out to manoppomarco@gmail.com — feedbacks and constructive criticisms are much appreciated.