📬 Inbox Dump #27

Hello Defiers! Welcome to Inbox Dump where we include the updates and announcements that flood our DMs each week and didn’t make it to The Defiant’s content platforms. Sometimes announcements here didn’t meet the bar to become a news story, sometimes they may have slipped through the cracks, or they came late and we haven’t had a chance to cover.

At The Defiant we cover the most important DeFi-related news and developments but we know many of you are hunting for projects before they are fully developed and before they are newsworthy. Our goal with this installment of the newsletter is to help you find them. Look at this as the starting point to DYOR.

We also include a compilation of DeFi and crypto funding rounds in the past week so you have these in one handy place.

Keep in mind these have been unedited. With that —here we go!

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Inbox Dump!

✉️ Competitive interest rates & fast due diligence draw project finance company towards crypto loans

HELSINKI, SINGAPORE - Oct. 10 2021 - For Immediate Release WEnergy Global has agreed to explore cryptocurrency lending solutions to access project finance. The company is partnering with Silta, a new technology solution that connects decentralized finance (DeFi) with infrastructure funding. Silta gives DeFi lenders access to a new real asset class, diversifying the investment universe and offering competitive interest rates. With this deal, WEnergy Global will be one of the first borrowers to receive early access to Silta’s new DeFi solution.

✉️ XREX Partners with TRM Labs to Bolster Platform Security

Taipei, Taiwan, October 13 – XREX Inc, the Taipei-headquartered neo fintech, today announced it has implemented a full suite of risk management tools developed by TRM Labs, a blockchain intelligence provider, to further enhance the platform’s ability to detect and defend against fraud, scammers and suspicious activities.

✉️ Stronghold Digital Mining, Inc. Announces Launch of Initial Public Offering

New York, New York – October 13, 2021 – Stronghold Digital Mining, Inc. (“Stronghold”) announced today that it has launched an initial public offering of 5,882,352 shares of its Class A common stock at an anticipated initial offering price between $16.00 and $18.00 per share pursuant to a registration statement on Form S-1 previously filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). In addition, Stronghold intends to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 882,352 shares of Stronghold’s Class A common stock at the initial public offering price, less the underwriting discount and commissions. Stronghold plans to list its Class A common stock on the Nasdaq Global Market under the ticker symbol “SDIG”.

✉️ International fashion Group OTB joins the AURA Blockchain Consortium as new Founding Member

Venice – October 15th, 2021 After a successful launch in April 2021 and several projects already on track, the AURA Blockchain Consortium, is delighted to welcome the OTB Group as a new and fourth founding member. Since April, each brand has developed its own experience according to its specificities and customer expectations. Brands such as Bulgari, Cartier, Hublot, Louis Vuitton, Hennessy and Prada are already active on the platform.

✉️ Since its launch in February, Orca has seen explosive growth.

As one of the first apps in the Solana ecosystem, Orca stands out from existing AMMs by focusing on delivering the simplest DEX experience. Since its launch in February, Orca has seen explosive growth.

• One of the top 15 DEXes by trading volume with around ~$50-70M in volume per day (up from ~$2-3M per day).
• Has seen a %1300 increase in TVL, ~$50M in TVL in the beginning of August to >$700M today.
• The Orca token went from ~$2 at launch (Aug 9) to ~$17 today.

✉️ Eugy drops Your Touch NFT Via Eco-Friendly NFT Platform Serenade

London, October 13th 2021. Ghanaian-British artist Eugy, alongside Marathon Music Group, has partnered with Serenade to release an NFT in relation to his hit single My Touch. The single has racked up over 11 million streams to date.

✉️ Decentraland Hosts First-Ever ‘Metaverse Festival’

14 October 2021 – Decentraland, the blockchain-based virtual social world, announced today that it is hosting the world’s first-ever multi-day music festival held in the metaverse from October 21–24. The Metaverse Festival will feature over 80 artists, including Deadmau5, Paris Hilton (alongside a very special surprise guest), Flume, 3LAU, Nina Nesbitt, RAC, and dozens of other global artists across the musical spectrum.

Funding

💰 CeDeFi Lending Platform SmartFi Raises $10 Million In Token Sale Using Groundbreaking Financial Model

Oct 12 2021 - SmartFi, the open lending cryptocurrency platform, which launched in July 2021, has raised over $10 million in the first 2 weeks of its unique SmartCycle token sale. Token purchasers buying over $1 million in SmartFi’s SMTF tokens apiece include Blockfills and a consortium from the software development team behind the Komodo Platform.

💰 DeFi Perpetuals Exchange Futureswap Launches New Version After $12M Funding Round

Futureswap has raised $12 million in venture funding from Framework Ventures, Ribbit Capital and Placeholder.vc to launch an updated version of its Ethereum-based exchange.

💰 Solana hackathon winner Nova Finance raises $3 million to bring programmable assets to DeFi

Edinburgh, Scotland — Nova Finance, a Solana-based decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol, has announced the completion of a $3 million funding round with participation from Rarestone Capital, Solana Capital, Sky Vision Capital, Animoca Brands, Morningstar Ventures, Lian Group, 3Commas, DFG, Spark Digital Capital, Jsquare, Genblock Capital, Mirana, Stacker Ventures, Ascendex, Solanium, Citizen X and others.

💰 TOP HAT FOUNDER MIKE SILAGADZE SHIFTS FROM EDTECH TO CRYPTO INVESTING WITH NEW DEFI FUND

Top Hat founder and former CEO Mike Silagadze is turning his attention from digital education to crypto investing with the launch of a new asset management firm. Silagadze, alongside former Top Hat employee and Checkout 51 founder Andrew McGrath, has spent the last few months creating Gadze Finance. At the beginning of October, the firm launched a DeFi (decentralized finance) crypto fund with an initial $25 million USD under management.

💰 Consensys Aims for $3 Billion Valuation in Upcoming Funding Round

Consensys, the Ethereum-based software boutique, is aiming to get a valuation that could reach $3 billion dollars in its upcoming funding round. The company would be taking advantage of the bullish climate the industry is experiencing right now to achieve this important milestone. Also, Consensys is flexing its economic muscle by acquiring Treum, developer of Music NFT service EulerBeats.

💰 Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic raises $60 million in Series C funding

Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic has raised $60 million in a Series C funding round. The round was led by cybersecurity-focused venture capital firm Evolution Equity Partners, with participation from SoftBank Vision Fund 2.

💰 Lending platform Celsius raises $400m in funding round

Celsius Network has raised more than $400m in a funding round led by growth equity firm WestCap amid a period of uncertainty and regulatory pressure for the earning and borrowing platform.

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