Issue #13

Market Overview

As of the time of writing (Monday 5pm), the total market cap of the crypto asset market $US1.06T, up 9.3% from last week.

Below is the weekly performance of the top crypto and NFT assets. 

News Headline Highlights

• Popular financial writer, Matt Levine, has penned a 40k word essay, “The Crypto Story” for Bloomberg Businessweek. The article is a deep examination and explanation of crypto, covering: how it started; how it works; is it a scam; what is its future; and more!
• The UK lower house of Parliament has voted in favour of recognising crypto assets as regulated financial instruments and products. 
• Google Cloud announced that it’s launching Blockchain Node Engine, “a fully managed node-hosting for web3 development.”
• Hong Kong is pivoting toward a friendlier regulatory regime for cryptocurrencies with a plan to legalise retail trading, contrasting with the city's sceptical stance of recent years.
• The Apple App store has released new rules for crypto apps that allow for custody of virtual currencies and in-app purchases of NFTs. The new rules also allow for licensed exchanges to facilitate crypto transmissions.
• Blockchain.com, one of the world's most popular crypto platforms, announced the debut of its Visa Card, with 50,000 waitlist sign-ups already at launch.
• The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) is restructuring and building a blockchain platform to allow for trading of crypto currencies. 

 Crypto Asset Project Updates

• Bitcoin mining difficulty increased 3.4%, reaching all time highs and reflecting the continued high levels of  hashrate being contributed to the network.
• Binance US Dollar stablecoin (BUSD) has experienced growth in activity since it became the default secondary stablecoin on the Binance exchange. Its share of volume on the exchange has increased relative to Tether as has its share of on-chain supply relative to USDC.
• Maker Improvement Protocol (MIP) 81 has passed, signifying DAO approval for the Maker protocol to allocate up to $1.6b USDC to Coinbase to partake in its institutional rewards pilot program. The program will  earn the DAO 1.5% on the USDC allocated.
• The world's largest crypto exchange, Binance, launched native oracle services on the BNB smart Chain to enable smart contracts to run on real-world inputs and outputs.

The Weekly Deal Room

• Teleport, a decentralised ride sharing app looking to compete with the likes of Uber and Lyft, raised $9m in seed funding led by Foundation Capital and Road Capital.
• Spindl, a web3 attribution analytics company, raised $7m from Dragonfly, Chapter 1, Tribe, Polygon Ventures and Multicoin.
• Origami, a company aiming to ease the transition from community group to DAO through providing technological framework and guidance, raised $6.2m in a funding round led by Bloomberg Beta.
• Thala Labs, a Aptos based DeFi protocol, raised $6m in a seed round led by ParaFi, White Star and Shima Capital.
• Exclusible, an NFT startup, raised $5m in a round led by the co-owner of Swiss football club FC Basel Dan Holzmann and venture capital firm Tioga Capital.
• Notebook Labs, who are building verified DeFi identities that don’t compromise user privacy, raised $3.3m in seed funding led by Bain Capital.
• Kollider, a digital asset exchange built on the lightning network, raised $2.4m in seed funding led by Lemniscap.

Metric of the Week

A Charles Schwab research report found that 46% of Gen Z and 45% of millennials wished that they could invest in crypto via their 401(k).  

Source: Charles Schwab