📬 Inbox Dump #28

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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🙏 Together with:

• Sorare: Experience true football connection in The Global Fantasy Football Game! Trade & collect, play with football NFTs #OwnYourGame

Inbox Dump!

✉️ Cosmos and Forte partner to expand blockchain gaming for next-generation developers and players worldwide

Oct.19, 2021, Las Vegas, NV, and San Francisco, CA — Tendermint, a leading software development company, and the Interchain Foundation (ICF), have announced a partnership with Forte, an organization building a blockchain platform for video games. As core contributors to the Cosmos Network, Tendermint's partnership with Forte creates accessibility to blockchain gaming for all developers and gamers who can easily integrate their gaming ecosystems with the Cosmos interoperable blockchain network.

✉️ 192 Blockchain-encrypted Bible Verses Already Purchased in CryptoVerses Project

Tel Aviv, Israel, October 19, 2021. CryptoVerses, a revolutionary NFT project that encrypts Bible verses on the blockchain, today announced that since the inception of the project, four months ago, 192 Bible verses have already been purchased. In the last ten days new verses have been purchased daily.

✉️ THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE FRANCHISE ANNOUNCES LEATHERFACE NFT PROJECT

October 19th, 2021 - Iconic horror franchise, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, announces its arrival on the Ethereum blockchain with the unveiling of Leatherfaces - a generative NFT project with illustrations by world class horror artist, Skinner. Alongside Ultra Rare, one of the most trusted teams on the Ethereum blockchain, a total of 10,666 Leatherfaceavatarswill be made available on Leatherfaces.io and grant collectors access to a Texas Chainsaw Massacre metaverse.

✉️ Amun Launches PECO Index Token Providing Exposure to Top Projects on Polygon

Seychelles, October 21 2021, 12pm Noon UTC – Amun, a leader in DeFi index products, today announces the launch of the Polygon Ecosystem Index (PECO) token. Available through the Amun Platform, the PECO token is an index of the top projects being built on Polygon – an Ethereum scaling platform onboarding millions of people to Web3 – giving users targeted exposure to the entire Polygon ecosystem, rather than just projects that live on both chains.

✉️ 192 Blockchain-encrypted Bible Verses Already Purchased in CryptoVerses Project

Tel Aviv, Israel, October 19, 2021. CryptoVerses, a revolutionary NFT project that encrypts Bible verses on the blockchain, today announced that since the inception of the project, four months ago, 192 Bible verses have already been purchased. In the last ten days new verses have been purchased daily.

✉️ Artist Romero Britto and Grammy-winning Producer DJ White Shadow to Launch Limited Edition NFT Art Collection

NEW YORK, NY - October 21, 2021, 9:00 AM EDT – Today, YellowHeart, the music industry’s NFT leader and technology innovator known for their fiat/crypto NFT marketplace and top 100 artist partnerships that have facilitated exclusive music releases, NFT-based ticketing & artist community token launches, today announced an NFT drop & collaboration between the most commercially licensed artist in history, Romero Britto, and Grammy Award-winning producer, DJ, & songwriter DJ White Shadow, best known as a crucial piece of Lady Gaga’s songwriting and producing efforts on top hits like Born This Way, ArtPop, and A Star is Born.

✉️ MEXC Global and ByBit Team up in Strategic Partnership

Global cryptocurrency and digital asset exchange MEXC Global is partnering with derivatives trading platform ByBit to help develop a strategic partnership and boost services and utility for their joint user base of more than ten million people.

✉️ HASBRO MAKES NFT DEBUT WITH POWER RANGERS COLLECTION ON WAX

(Los Angeles, CA) - October 22, 2021 - Today, Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS), a global play and entertainment company, has partnered withThe Worldwide Asset eXchange (WAX) to release its very first NFT collection on the WAX blockchain. Available for a limited time, exclusively through Hasbro Pulse, the collection features the iconic Power Rangers franchise. The announcement was made earlier today during Hasbro Pulse Con. Hasbro Pulse Premium members will have exclusive access to purchase the collection on HasbroPulse.com today at 4 p.m. ET before it opens to the general public at 5 p.m. ET, while supplies last.

✉️ Circle Expands USDC Multichain Ecosystem with Support on the Hedera Network

BOSTON, October 18 2021 -- Circle, a global financial technology firm that provides payments and financial infrastructure for internet businesses, today announced support for USD Coin (USDC) on the Hedera network, one of the most used, sustainable, enterprise-grade public networks for the decentralized economy.

✉️ Introducing GODS on OKEx Jumpstart – Stake OKB to Earn GODS

We are pleased to announce it is the first exchange to list GODS, the native ERC-20 token of the blockchain-based trading card game, Gods Unchained, on OKEx Jumpstart - our cryptocurrency project accelerator that has been supporting mining since late last year. OKB holders can stake their OKB tokens to earn high rewards and staking incentives while enjoying the secure and robust infrastructure that the OKEx exchange provides on any Jumpstart projects.

✉️ Polygon and DraftKings Enter Into a Strategic Blockchain Agreement

Polygon has today announced a blockchain collaboration with DraftKings Marketplace, a digital collectibles ecosystem built by DraftKings (Nasdaq: DKNG) for mainstream accessibility to support custom NFT drops along with secondary-market transactions. DraftKings now has the option to potentially contribute to Polygon’s governance and help secure the network as a validator node with its own stake pool.

✉️ Outlier Ventures Announces Polygon x Base Camp to Accelerate the Polygon Startup Ecosystem

Outlier Ventures is pleased to announce applications are open for thePolygon x Base Camp Accelerator, its third ecosystem cohort following the successful launch of the Polkadot and Filecoin Base Camp accelerators.

✉️ Martha Stewart and Marquee Brands Announce the Launch of NFT Boutique FRESH Mint

Boston, MA // London, UK – Entrepreneur and cultural icon Martha Stewart has made her first foray into the new world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) with the launch of her digital boutique, FRESH Mint. Collections will be launchedin partnership with leading NFT provider Tokns Commerce, Inc.

✉️ Banco Hipotecario Invites Innovators to Build the Future of Banking in El Salvador

Berlin, 19 October 2021⁠ — Banco Hipotecario announces today the opportunity to participate in the first “Bitcoin Bankathon”, running 3 weeks from November 19th until December 5th. The genesis event is aimed at engaging developers across the globe to build on a technology platform provided by four industry leaders ⁠— Open Bank Project, API3, Qredo, and Sovryn ⁠— to generate novel banking applications that will enable Banco Hipotecario to offer Bitcoin banking and financial services to all Salvadorans.

✉️ Otis—the company building the stock market of culture—is dropping two new NFTs available for investment:

Today, anyone can invest inMeebit #12536—valued at $38,100—for just $1. And tomorrow, investors can get a piece ofCryptoPunk #2142—valued at $384,900—also for $1. CryptoPunk #2142is the highest value NFT drop on Otis to date. This punk features 4 attributes, contributing to its rarity, including a vape that is only featured in 272 other punks.

Funding

💰 Sommelier Raises $23M Series A Round to Build Decentralized Blockchain for Automated

San Francisco, Oct. 20, 2021-- Sommelier, the first-of-its-kind decentralized and automated DeFi portfolio manager software, today announced it has raised $23 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Polychain Capital with participation from existing investor Alameda Ventures and with new participation from Zola Ventures, Byzantine Ventures, Tendermint Ventures, Secure Ventures, D1 Ventures, and Ferngrove Ventures.

💰 Obol Technologies raises $6.15MM to build a trust minimized staking protocol for public blockchains

New York, USA, (October 18, 2021): Obol Technologies is delighted to announce it has successfully secured $6.15MM in seed funding to develop a protocol fostering trust minimized staking on public blockchain networks based on secret shared validator (SSV) technology, a primitive conceptualized in collaboration with researchers at the Ethereum Foundation. The funding round was led by Ethereal Ventures, a new venture fund set up by Joseph Lubin and the former investment team at ConsenSys, with participation from Acrylic Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and a sizable group of other strategic supporters, totaling 18 entities and 20 angel investors.

💰 Animoca Brands raises $65M at $2.2B valuation from Ubisoft, Sequoia China, Dragonfly Capital, others

20 October 2021 -- Melbourne, Australia -- Animoca Brands, the company driving digital property rights via NFTs and gaming to build the open metaverse, today announced that it has closed a capital raise for US$65 million (approximately A$87.7 million) conducted at a pre-money valuation of US$2.2 billion.

💰 Solana-based asset management platform Synchrony raises $4.2 million

Synchrony Finance, a Solana-based asset management protocol, has raised $4.2 million in strategic funding. The funding was secured in two rounds — seed and private — and both were via Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (SAFT) sales, Synchrony co-founder Andrew Fraser told The Block.

💰 Element Finance raises $32 million for its DeFi fixed rate protocol

Element Finance has raised a $32 million Series A round at a $320 million valuation. The company has been building a new DeFi (decentralized finance) protocol on top of the Ethereum blockchain. It lets you earn predictable returns on investments thanks to fixed rates over a predetermined period of time.

💰 Lending platform Sublime, which lets users stake their 'digital reputations,' raises $2.5 million

Sublime has received backing from investors such as Galaxy Digital and Electric Capital, both of which co-led its $2.5 million seed funding round. Other investors included FinTech Collective, Collab+Currency, and angel investors, including Jill Carlson Gunter and Ryan Selkis.

💰 Berlin-based Unstoppable Finance raises €4.47 million to bring decentralized finance to mainstream investors

The German fintech startup Unstoppable Finance today announced its €4.47 million seed round with its mission to bring Decentralized Finance to mainstream investors around the world. The oversubscribed funding round was joined by Speedinvest, Inflection, Backed, Cadenza, Discovery Ventures, Fabric Ventures, Rockaway Blockchain Fund, and well-known Angels from the Ethereum/Polkadot ecosystem, Centrifuge and Fractal.

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