Crypto Alpha Recap

Edition #005, 10.11.2022

Nov 10, 2022

I’m speechless. The less said about crypto, the better. I’ll do a separate post about the recent implosion on Tuesday of the second-biggest exchange, FTX. This will have so many repercussions. Faith and trust have been shaken, U.S. regulators will have a field day. FTX/Binance deal already fell through. Uncertain times around the contagion. But let me say just this: Ethereum didn’t break; a business based out of the Bahamas did. Crypto isn’t dead. Only some bad actors are. The FTX hole seems to be between $8bn - $10bn. And who knows the size of Alameda’s crater? We can quickly realize just how severe this is since Celsius came in at $5bn while Three Arrows Capital owes $3bn to creditors.
Makro: CPI came at 7.7%, core m/m down 0.2%, also unemployment with a slight downside. Relief bounces across the boards in stocks as core CPI cools down. BTC trying to reclaim $17k after it got obliterated and reached a new year low of $15,3k last night.

GM! Sharing is caring. Be a chad and share this newsletter with your colleagues.

A16z-backed Mythical Games, which reached unicorn status last November, cuts approximately 10% of its workforce as part of business restructuring.
Lens Protocol, which bills itself as a decentralized social graph, has received an investment from FTX Ventures ($2b in AUM), the venture capital arm of crypto exchange FTX.
Crypto trading platform Amber Group lowered its valuation to the $3B at which it previously raised, as the company seeks an additional $100M from investors. Attempted to raise again at a much higher valuation between $5B-$8B.
Solana made a series of launch announcements as it prepares to go mainstream. Unveils Google partnership, smartphones, Web3 store at Breakpoint 2022 in Lisbon.
Meta plans to cut thousands of employees this week. Meta’s metaverse arm lost billions of dollars this year and joins other tech firms in reducing head counts.
Google Cloud is adding support for the Solana blockchain in BigQuery to make it easier to access Solana data and also working on bringing Solana support to its Blockchain Node Engine.
Iris Energy Limited bitcoin miners received a notice of default on $103 million in outstanding debt.

DeFi landscape:

Trading platform GMX will be granted $4 million in AVAX tokens for growth incentives. The grant is part of the Avalanche Rush incentive program, which aims to grow the DeFi ecosystem on Avalanche.
Metamask users can now bridge across multiple blockchain networks using MetaMask Bridges, which aggregates different blockchain bridges in one place
BetDEX, a sports betting exchange built on a blockchain, will open on Solana mainnet on Nov. 17 at the beginning of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar - offering fee-free betting on all World Cup games.
Drift Protocol is back. V2 was released on gated mainnet. V2 alpha ticket holders can now trade $SOL perps with SOL & USDC collateral.
The next generation exchange, Duality, is now coming to Cosmos, launching in Q1 23.
Wintermute-backed DeFi aggregator Bebop expands to Polygon. Bebop is a DEX with low slippage and allows users to trade a basket of tokens in a single transaction.

NFT & Metaverse:

OpenSea laid out the first of a suite of tools for its users, allowing creators of new NFT collections to enforce royalties on-chain.
STEPN announces partnership with ASICS and Solana to launch the UI Collection, a physical product available to order using USDC on Solana Pay
Flowcarbon is launching a new NFT project, Flow3rs, that uses 75% of its proceeds to retire carbon credits. The blockchain startup, created by WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann, previously raised $70 million in funding led by a16z.

Funding Highlights:

Digital currency exchange Coinmetro raised $7m in a funding round, valued the business at 180m euros, and plans to use the capital to scale up its operations in the U.S., U.K. and Europe.
South Korean gaming giant NCSoft has invested $15m in Mysten Labs as part of a previously announced $300 million funding round. Mysten Labs, the builder of the Sui blockchain, has entered a strategic partnership with South Korean gaming company.
Japanese mobile operator NTT Docomo plans up to $4bnn web3 investments over the following years.
Blockchain-based intelligence company TRM Labs announced a $70m expansion to its Series B funding round, bringing the total raised to $130m, led by Thoma Bravo, with Goldman Sachs and previous TRM investors PayPal Ventures, Amex Ventures and Citi Ventures participating.
Archax, the U.K.'s only digital asset exchange to be licensed by the Financial Conduct Authority, has raised $28.5m in a Series A fundraising round.
Crypto payments firm Ramp has raised $70m in Series B funding as its valuation increases to at least $450m.
LeadBlock Partners, a venture capital firm based in London and Paris, completed the first close of its new fund, with a target value of $150m.
Xternity raised $4.5m in pre-seed funding led by NFX.