📬 Inbox Dump #36

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 ...

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!

[This post is exclusive to subscribers]

🙏 Together with:

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

Inbox Dump!

✉️ Katy Perry Launches “The Roar Box” Exclusive NFTs and Auctions the Iconic Golden Lion on Theta Network

Los Angeles (December 14, 2021) – Global pop superstar Katy Perry, in collaboration with Theta Network, is launching her first set of NFTs for her fans worldwide on December 15 on ThetaDrop. The first of these digital collectibles features personal content from Katy titled “The Roar Package: Looking Back While Moving Forward” in preparation for her upcoming “Play” residency at the Resorts World Las Vegas hotel beginning December 29.

✉️ MIKE JUDGE DROPS FIRST EVER NFT “DANCING DAN” ON SUPERRARE, DECEMBER 14

DECEMBER 14, 2021 NEW YORK, NY | SuperRare, the pioneering marketplace for curated NFT artworks, is pleased to announce that animator, musician, writer, producer, director, actor, and voice actor Mike Judge will be releasing his first ever NFT “Dancing Dan” on SuperRare. “Dancing Dan” is a character that Judge created before his runaway success as the creator of cult classics including Beavis and Butt-Head, King of the Hill, Office Space, Idiocracy, Silicon Valley, and Mike Judge Presents: Tales from the Tour Bus. The work features original illustrations and music by Judge including Mike on the guitar, upright bass, and drums. Three physical 1/1 signed drawings are also included for the original collector of this NFT. “Dancing Dan” will be available to bidders worldwide on December 14, 2021, at 12pm EST.

✉️ SMU Donors and Businesses Commit to Multi-Million Dollar NIL Program for Football

Dallas, TX, December 8th, 2021 – Today a group of prominent SMU alumni and businesses from the Dallas area have announced the commitment of over one million dollars annually for an NIL (name, image, and likeness) program tied to SMU football. The NIL program “PonyUp” will be led by alumni and donor, former SMU football player and longtime supporter of the football program, Paul Loyd with support from former players: Eric Dickerson, Luke Crossland, Dick Anderson, Kevin Beachum and Richie Butler.

✉️ Decentralized Pictures (DCP) Launches Betanet of Blockchain-Based Filmmaking Platform

LOS ANGELES - December 14, 2021 - Decentralized Pictures (DCP), a blockchain-based nonprofit co-founded by Roman Coppola, Leo Matchett and Michael Musante to support independent and underrepresented filmmakers, today announced the launch of the betanet of its blockchain, the T4L3NT Network which is based on Tezos technology. Its first application on this blockchain will be the DCP App, a decentralized platform designed around principles of community reviews and ratings, voter data insights and a robust rewards system to incentivize participation to identify rising filmmaking talent and content.

✉️ Crypterium Partners with Top Crypto Asset Infrastructure Provider Fireblocks

Crypterium, the cryptocurrency wallet app with over 500,000 clients in over 170 countries, has partnered with the top-tier crypto custodian project Fireblocks to ensure the optimal security of users’ funds.

✉️ Paris Blockchain Week Summit Returns April 12-14th 2022

Paris, France - December 15th, 2021 - Paris Blockchain Week Summit (PBWS), a leading international conference dedicated to professionals in the blockchain and crypto assets space, has announced its 2022 edition will take place as a hybrid event from the 12th - 14th April 2022.

✉️Ether Capital Corporation Announces First Commitment to Ethereum Staking

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ether Capital Corporation (“Ether Capital” or the “Company”) (NEO: ETHC), a leading technology company focused on participating in the development of the Ethereum and Web 3 ecosystem, is pleased to announce that it has taken the first step towards staking a majority of its Ether balance.

✉️GigLabs’ App Enables Shopify Merchants to Mint and Sell NFTs

Atlanta, December 15, 2021 – GigLabs, a blockchain company that empowers brands to bring their IP to life through non-fungible tokens (NFTs), announced its GigLabs NFT App for the Shopify App Store will be made available for eligible Shopify Plus merchants to create and sell NFTs on their Shopify storefront in minutes without any prior development or blockchain experience. Shopify Plus members interested in adding the GigLabs NFT App to their account should contact GigLabs:https://www.giglabs.io/shopify.

✉️ Ethereum Enters the Multichain: Gravity Bridge Serving Cosmos is Live

Baar, Switzerland — 15 December 2021 — The Interchain Foundation (ICF), a Swiss non-profit and steward of the Cosmos ecosystem, has announced the launch of the Gravity Bridge. Developed by Althea, the Gravity Bridge facilitates the transfer of ERC20 assets between Ethereum and Cosmos-based chains, as well as Cosmos assets to Ethereum ERC20 representations. With Gravity’s planned upgrade to use of the Cosmos Hub’s Interchain Security service, the bridge to Ethereum will soon be backed by billions of dollars staked in ATOM, Cosmos’ native token.

✉️ COACH RELEASES FIRST COLLECTION OF NFTS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH VAYNERNFT

Coach announces the launch of its first collection of NFTs featuring eight Coach Holiday animals from the house’s recently launched Snow City digital game. Inspired by “Give A Little Love,” Coach’s message for the holiday season and marking the finale of the house’s 80th anniversary year, the 80 one-of-a-kind pieces of digital art will include Coach’s beloved mascot Rexy, Fuzz the polar bear, Belle the penguin, Holly the deer, Ginger the fox, Paddles the goose, Luna the owl, and Spike the hedgehog.

✉️ CIRCLE COLLABORATES WITH ENDAOMENT, CREATING USDC-BASED DISASTER RELIEF FUND TO HELP COMMUNITIES AFFECTED BY DEADLY TORNADOES

BOSTON, SAN FRANCISCO -- DECEMBER 16, 2021 -- Circle Internet Financial, LLC, announces a collaboration with Endaoment to create a disaster relief fund to help the communities impacted by this weekend’s deadly tornadoes. The fund will simultaneously be launched to Circle employees and the broader Web3 community with a goal of raising $1M in grants to support the American Red Cross and local, boots-on-the-ground non-profit organizations and includes a commitment from Circle to match employee donations. Endaoment is providing the platform to facilitate Circle Impact Disaster Relief Fund donations and will deploy them to the agencies in need.

✉️ Marieke Flament appointed CEO of NEAR Foundation to spearhead growth

Zug, Switzerland, December 16th 2021: The NEAR Foundation, a Swiss non-profit that oversees the governance and development of the NEAR blockchain, has selected global executive Marieke Flament as its new CEO, effective January 1 2022.

✉️ Theta Labs Launches Entertainment Partnership with Jukin Media for Blockchain Video Delivery, NFTs

Los Angeles (December 16, 2021) -- Theta Labs, Inc and Jukin Media have announced the launch of a comprehensive entertainment partnership that will encompass video content, video delivery infrastructure, and fan engagement. As part of the agreement, Jukin Media properties FailArmy and The Pet Collective will implement the Theta Network infrastructure, video player and peer-to-peer bandwidth relaying. Theta will also license content from Jukin Media, and the companies will work together to launch exclusive NFTs for FailArmy and The Pet Collective on the ThetaDrop NFT platform.

✉️ Announcing $WSB Listing On OKEx

December 16 – Hope you’re hungry Apes, because this news… is bananas. The $WSB token is going to be listed on top-tier exchange OKEx! Our community, token value, and DeFi ecosystem are all gaining traction faster than a cheetah on Adderall. So, let's make sure you're ready for the ride.

✉️ BitColors NFT Collection Acquires Leading Crypto News Platform BTC Peers

BitColors continues to make its mark on the crypto and NFT industry, this time by acquiring media outlet BTC Peers. This acquisition is a strong commitment to establishing broader branding and influencing the crypto sphere from within, and the first time an NFT project has made a strategic acquisition of this magnitude to reinforce its market position. A media resource of this magnitude will help the BitColors team influence the crypto audience and ensure its vision spreads across the globe.

✉️ Mattel Creations Teams Up with VeeFriends to Transform Rare NFTs into Physical Collectibles

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., December 17, 2021 – Mattel, Inc. (NASDAQ: MAT) announced today a collaboration for the NFT community and crypto currency holders from Mattel Creations and VeeFriends with a reimagined UNO deck featuring Gary Vaynerchuk’s VeeFriends NFT signature characters. As one of the first physical products created from a digital NFT brand, the new deck offers UNO fans and NFT collectors the opportunity to own a VeeFriends collectible in the physical form of an UNO deck.

✉️ NFL cornerback Terrance. Mitchell will accept part of salary in UnitedCoin UNITS

Terrance Mitchell, cornerback for the Houston Texans football team, announced he will be taking part of his National Football League salary in UnitedCoin UNITS. UnitedCoin is a cryptocurrency bank and exchange, and UNITS is its native cryptocurrency. UNITS have recently been listed on BitMart.com.

✉️ Reactive Markets and Tradefeedr Partner for Crypto and FX Trade Analytics

London, UK, 13th December 2021: Reactive Markets, provider of Switchboard, the cutting-edge cross-asset trading and price streaming network, has formed a strategic partnership with Tradefeedr, the leading independent data and analytics provider.

✉️ THE BIGGEST NFT PROJECT: $850 MILLION Value Prizes with Romero Britto

December 13, 2021. Miami, Florida. ”The biggest NFT project yet” - according to its developers at DCB World - is a limited-edition original art NFT created by internationally acclaimed Brazilian artist Romero Britto. Britto has exhibited in galleries and museums in over 100 countries. His work is among the collections of royalty and celebrities, and he has collaborated with Prince Charles, Sir Elton John, Michael Jordan, Leonardo Di Caprio, and DJ Khaled, to name a few.

✉️ Bitfinex Recovers 6.51458211 Bitcoin Stolen in 2016 Hack

ROAD TOWN, British Virgin Islands, December 14, 2021 10:00 AM UTC - Bitfinex, a state-of-the-art digital token trading platform, has successfully recovered 6.51458211 bitcoin (BTC) stolen in the August 2016 hack, underlining the exchange’s commitment to recover all property lost as a result of the security breach.

✉️ Cryptocurrency trade reporting is expected by majority of market

London, New York, 14 December 2021 – The growing acceptance of cryptocurrency as a mainstream asset can be seen in the findings of an IHS Markit survey in which 51% of respondents expect post-trade transaction reporting regulation for cryptocurrencies to be enacted within three years. The US is believed to be the most likely jurisdiction for these new regulations, followed by the EU and then the UK. Switzerland and Singapore were also highlighted.

✉️ ConsenSys Launches ConsenSys Rollups With The Support Of Mastercard, Fostering Innovation and Scalability on the Ethereum Mainnet and Permissioned Blockchains

New York, NY, December 16, 2021 — Today, ConsenSys, the leading Ethereum software company, announced the launch of ConsenSys Rollups, to provide enterprise-grade scalability to leading financial organizations, addressing the key use case of scalable applications on the Ethereum blockchain. ConsenSys leveraged the expertise of Mastercard’s engineering team to design the ConsenSys Rollups solution.

✉️ Binance.US welcomes Sidney Majalya

Binance.US welcomes Sidney Majalya to its leadership team as the company’s first Chief Risk Officer. Sidney has more than 20 years of experience in both the government and tech sectors and most recently served as Vice President, Legal and Chief Compliance Officer at Intel Corporation. Prior to that he worked at Uber Technologies and Oracle, and spent nearly a decade as a trial attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice. In this new role, Sidney will sit on the company’s executive team and report to Binance.US’s CEO, Brian Shroder.

✉️ Exodus Launches NFT Marketplace

OMAHA, Neb., December 17, 2021 -- Exodus Movement, Inc. (tZERO ATS: EXOD), (the “Company” or “Exodus”) a leading non-custodial cryptocurrency platform, today announced the launch of its Non-Fungible Token (“NFT”) Gallery feature, integrating Solana NFTs into their mobile application. This launch marks the first ever native NFT marketplace in a mobile wallet.

Funding

💰 Rumble Kong League Raises $4.5 Million to Become the Go-to Web3 Sports Game for Players, Fans, and Brands

LOS ANGELES - December 14th, 2021 - Rumble Kong League, the first gaming title of Rumble League Studios Inc, today announced it has raised $4.5 million in growth capital to launch its play-to-earn 3v3 basketball experience and to continue building the go-to metaverse sports league. RKL merges traditional gaming elements, web3 functionality, asset ownership, basketball, fashion, and collectible NFTs to build an engaging sports-game ecosystem. Investors in this initial financial round were led by JDS Crypto, with participation from IDEO CoLab Ventures, SkyVision Capital, Animoca Brands, Framework Ventures, Victory Creative Group, CAA Sports, Sebastien Borget, Arthur Madrid, Paul George and more.

💰 Blockchain Analytics Startup Breadcrumbs.app Closes a $1.6 Million Seed Round

SINGAPORE, Dec. 16, 2021 — Breadcrumbs.app, an open blockchain analytics tool, announced a $1.6 million seed funding round today.

💰 Polynize Closes USD $1M Seed Round to Gamify and Tokenize Innovation

Polynize is pleased to announce the conclusion of a private seed round of USD $1M led by Borderless Capital. The round was marked by unexpectedly high demand across a diverse set of funds and angels, demonstrating an appetite within the investment community for a new, gamified way of doing early-stage innovation and IP creation.

💰 Blockchain Analytics Firm Nansen Raises $75M Series B

SINGAPORE, December 16, 2021 — Nansen, the industry-leading blockchain data analytics platform, today announces it has raised a $75 million Series B round led by Accel. GIC, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Tiger Global, SCB 10X, and additional prominent VCs and angel investors have also participated in the round. This funding will be used to fuel Nansen’s next phase of growth and development, including hiring top-notch developers and research analysts, and expanding the platform’s features and multichain integrations at a global scale.

💰 JADU RAISES $7M SEED LED BY GENERAL CATALYST TO BRING AR TO WEB3

LOS ANGELES (December 15, 2021) — Jadu, who’s AR NFTs have been making waves on the Ethereum network, today announced a $7 million seed round to fuel the development of the Mirrorverse, a world-scale AR game world, launching next year.

💰 Anchorage Digital Raises $350 Million in Series D Funding Round, Led by KKR

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Anchorage Digital ("Anchorage" or the "Company"), the premier digital asset platform for institutions, today announced it has closed a $350 million Series D funding round led by global investment firm KKR. Participants include Goldman Sachs, Alameda Research, Andreessen Horowitz, Apollo credit funds, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Blockchain Capital, Delta Blockchain Fund, Elad Gil, GIC, GoldenTree Asset Management, Innovius Capital, Kraken, Lux Capital, PayPal Ventures, Senator Investment Group, Standard Investments, Thoma Bravo, and Wellington Management. This funding round values Anchorage at over $3 billion.

💰 DeFi Project Single Finance Raises $1.2M in Seed Round

Hong Kong, China--(Newsfile Corp. - December 15, 2021) - Single Finance, a decentralized finance protocol which provides leveraged yield farming strategy, closed a $1.2 million seed round funding, the DeFi project announced in early December. 0xVentures, Enzac Research, Genblock Capital, Trinity Venture Capital, SkyVision Capital, and some angels in the industry who wish to remain anonymous, are participating in the seed round funding. Aventures and Contango Digital Assets will also join as strategic partners to strengthen the connection to the DeFi world.

💰 Hubble nets $3.6M funding to develop Solana’s DeFi and stablecoin hub

London, Dec. 16, 2021 — Hubble Protocol, a decentralized finance (DeFi) and stablecoin project referred to as a supercharged “MakerDAO of Solana,” has announced $3.6 million raised in a pre-initial DEX offering (IDO) seed round of fundraising.

💰 Kraken Ventures Raises $65 Million to Invest in Web3, Defi, Blockchain Startups and Protocols

The independent investment fund led by Kraken alumni that’s focused on early-stage companies and protocols, Kraken Ventures, announced the successful closing of its first fund at $65 million. Presently, the fund holds positions in platforms like Hashflow, Pstake, Acala, Blockdaemon, Anchorage, and Messari.

💰 Multi-Chain Ambire Wallet is Out of Beta, Focus on DeFi after Raising $3 Million in a Private Funding Round

In a press release on December 17, the Ambire Wallet development team said their primary focus lies on the multi-billion DeFi scene. Towards that end, the wallet will initially connect to four DeFi-active blockchains of Ethereum, the Binance Smart Chain (BSC), Polygon, and Avalanche, with plans to add more networks in the days ahead.

💰 Animoca Brands Leads $130M Investment in Venture Accelerator Brinc for Web 3 Expansion

Venture accelerator Brinc closed a $130 million funding round, led by NFT and metaverse investor Animoca Brands. Brinc closed a $30 million Series B and a further $100 million for startup investments, the company said.

💰NYDIG Closes $1B Funding Round, Raising Valuation Above $7B

NYDIG completed a $1 billion growth equity funding round led by WestCap, according to a company announcement Tuesday. The equity raise increased the company’s valuation to “more than” $7 billion, the company revealed. Prior investors, including Morgan Stanley, Affirm, New York Life, Mass Mutual, Bessemer Venture Partners, FinTech Collective, FIS and Fiserv also contributed to the round.

💰 Dune Analytics is raising funds at a $1 billion valuation: sources

Dune Analytics, the Norwegian crypto analytics startup, is raising a fresh round of financing at a strikingly high valuation of $1 billion, according to several investors with knowledge of the round. One person close to the deal said that Coatue Management, the hedge fund, will participate in the fundraise.

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