📬 Inbox Dump #46

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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• Matcha: Matcha makes sure you’re getting the best possible price by routing orders across all the various DeFi exchanges, now with an integrated fiat on-ramp. Start trading at matcha.xyz/defiant

Inbox Dump!

Secret Network Partners with dYmension Blockchain to Improve Scalability

TEL AVIV - April 13, 2022 - Secret Network, the privacy-first blockchain, today announced its partnership with dYmension, which will run layer 2 rollups as a part of the Cosmos ecosystem. Secret Network has seen skyrocketing network activity, and partnered with dYmension to improve scalability on its blockchain.

Tampa Condo sold as Real Property NFT via Blockchain-powered Propy Platform and Marketplace

Palo Alto, CA – Propy successfully completes another real property NFT sale from start to finish. Continues its Web3 and blockchain-powered transformation of real estate, the property, a Tampa Condo, received multiple offers over a 24-hour period and sold for $185,000 USDC Ownership transferred within 15 minutes.

Kalos Labs Launches Web3 Bridge for Global Brands

Los Angeles – April 5, 2022 – Kalos Labs (“Kalos” or “the Company”) today announced the launch of its proprietary web3 bridge technology that provides customized NFT platforms, wallets, and other metaverse experiences. Through Kalos, global brands can now seamlessly leverage their popularity and notoriety in the new digital ecosystem.

American Idol Will Be Launching The First Ever Real-Time Predictive NFTs As Part Of The Live Televised Broadcasts Celebrating The 20th Season

April 14, Los Angeles – To celebrate America Idol’s 20th season, and two decades as America’s greatest television talent show, American Idol will be launching a range of contestant-based digital trading cards as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for collectors and fans of the show. These unique collectibles will be available on ThetaDrop, Theta Network’s green and low-cost NFT marketplace.

Inca Digital Announces Series A Funding Round Led by GTS Venture Capital and Galaxy Digital

WASHINGTON – April 13, 2022 – Inca Digital, a digital asset intelligence company that provides data, analytics and expertise to many of the world's leading exchanges, financial institutions, regulators and government agencies, today announced that it has completed a Series A investment round led by GTS Venture Capital and Galaxy Digital, with support from Wedbush Capital, Menai Financial Group, Consolidated Trading, Richard Gorelick’s Aquamarine Holdings and early-stage Web3 investor Grant Gittlin.

Cronos Partners with Chainalysis for Transaction Monitoring Solution for Cronos-Based Digital Assets

April 13, 2022 - Cronos, the first Ethereum-compatible blockchain network built on Cosmos SDK technology backed by Crypto.com, today announced a partnership with Chainalysis, the blockchain data platform. Chainalysis KYT (Know Your Transaction), the real-time transaction monitoring solution for compliance, is now available. Chainalysis Reactor, the cryptocurrency investigations solution, will be available later this year for enhanced due diligence for Cronos (CRO) token and all CRC-20 tokens deployed on the Cronos blockchain.

GRIPNR SECURES $2.5M TO BRING TABLETOP ROLEPLAYING GAMES TO THE BLOCKCHAIN

New Orleans, LA, April 12, 2022 - Gripnr, a Web3 technology company bringing tabletop games to the blockchain, today announced its initial $2.5Minvestment round alongside its first 5E game and genesis NFT collection, The Glimmering. The oversubscribed investment round closed in 60 days and is coming from XBTO Humla Ventures, Sopris Capital, Voodoo Ventures, Better Angels, Abstraction Ventures, and Carl Sparks (Managing Partner of Interlock), as well a series of New Orleans based investors.

Centre Expands Team with New Executive Appointments

NEW YORK – APRIL 12, 2022 —Centre – the consortium founded by Circle Internet Financial, LLC and Coinbase Global, Inc. to serve as a network governing and standard setting body for blockchain-based financial services – has announced new appointments to its growing team. Financial regulation veteran, Linda Jeng, will join Centre as Chief Policy and Regulatory Officer, while enterprise operations expert Danielle Harold will serve as Chief Operations Officer. Both new hires will strengthen Centre’s positioning and industry footprint as the digital financial ecosystem continues to grow.

Router Protocol Adds Optimism and Arbitrum to its Cross-Chain Messaging Protocol

[SINGAPORE, April 12, 2022] Router Protocol - an infrastructure layer enabling communication between blockchains, today announced it has added Optimism and Arbitrum to its platform. The community can now transfer funds and swap assets across networks with the largest TVL in cross-chain bridges (Fantom, Polygon, Avalanche C-chain and Arbutrum), in addition to Ethereum, Optimism and Binance Smart Chain. The integration also gives users access to enhanced interoperability features, including:

Anchor Protocol and Acala Integrating to Unite Terra and Polkadot DeFi Ecosystems and Grow Decentralized Stablecoin Market

Acala is working with the team at Anchor, a savings and borrowing protocol built on the Terra blockchain, to grow the decentralized stablecoin space through a variety of integrations spanning the Terra and Polkadot ecosystems. Acala and Karura, Acala’s Kusama-based parachain, will initially help expand Anchor’s collateral options for the UST stablecoin with Liquid DOT (LDOT) and Liquid KSM (LKSM), Acala’s yield-bearing liquid staking derivatives.

URBAN OUTFITTERS SUPPORTS LAUNCH OF SMILEY X ANDRÉ SARAIVA NFT AS PART OF 50 TH ANNIVERSARY

(LONDON March 2022) Urban Outfitters will be supporting the launch of Smiley NFT artwork by legendary graffiti artist, André Saraiva in celebration of the brand’s 50 th year anniversary. On 15 th April, 500 NFTs will be launched by Urban Outfitters to mark Smiley’s 50 th year anniversary milestone as part of the Smiley Collectors’ Edition. In celebration of the anniversary, Smiley has enlisted the creative eye of Sarah Andelman, co-founder of the world-renowned Parisian concept store Colette, to curate 50 halo partnerships, and as part of the halo partnerships, Smiley enlisted the famous graffiti artist André Saraiva to reimagine the iconic Smiley logo.

RaceDayNFT, Pocono Raceway Reach Partnership Agreement

LONG POND, PA. (April 7, 2022) – RaceDayNFT and Pocono Raceway have reached a partnership agreement to feature ‘The Tricky Triangle” in the innovative digital marketplace for race fans. Pocono-specific items will be available prior to the track’s July 22-24 NASCAR weekend, featuring NASCAR Camping World Truck, Xfinity, and Cup Series races plus an ARCA Menards Series race.

Quantum is Expanding Into Digital Art - Press Release

PALO ALTO, Calif. Quantum today announced the first Digital Art collection dropping on its curated platform - By Proxy, by the award-winning 3D virtual model creator Shavonne Wong and the acclaimed fashion photographer Lenne Chai. When you think of Quantum, you more than likely think of fine art photography; indeed, this has been the main focus of the NFT curation platform. Quantum has officially announced its expansion into Digital art, a development that has garnered a high level of excitement in the Web3 space.

peaq Advances Vision for Web3 Economy of Things by Leveraging Subsquid’s Data Solutions in New Partnership

6th April 2022 -peaq, the decentralized Web3 network powering the Economy of Things (EoT), has announced a partnership withSubsquid, a blockchain data processing solution that empowers Web3 builders and analysts with its development framework for robust, natively multichain APIs. Through the partnership, peaq and Subsquid are building upon their shared vision to offer better infrastructure for a decentralized future.

Funding

Announcing $350 Million Investment in NEAR

NEAR Protocol has successfully raised $350 million in its latest funding round, accelerating its mission to help billions of people learn and use blockchain and decentralized technologies. Led by hedge fund Tiger Global, with participation from Republic Capital, FTX Ventures, Hashed, Dragonfly Capital, ParaFi Capital, Blockchange Ventures, PDO International, and MetaWeb.vc, this fundraise includes crypto-native funds as well as a notable move into crypto and the NEAR ecosystem from more traditional firms.

Jump Crypto, Tiger Global, and Polygon Studios Invest in $10.1 Million Series A for Ethereum Push Notification Service (EPNS), the Native Communication Protocol for Web3

British Virgin Islands, April 14, 2022 — Today, Ethereum Push Notification Service (EPNS) announced it has raised $10.1 million in its Series A funding round, with an average valuation of $131M. The announcement comes less than 3 months after the EPNS mainnet launch in January 2022. Jump Crypto led the round, with additional participation from Tiger Global, ParaFi, A.Capital.

Inca Digital Announces Series A Funding Round Led by GTS Venture Capital and Galaxy Digital

WASHINGTON – April 13, 2022 – Inca Digital, a digital asset intelligence company that provides data, analytics and expertise to many of the world's leading exchanges, financial institutions, regulators and government agencies, today announced that it has completed a Series A investment round led by GTS Venture Capital and Galaxy Digital, with support from Wedbush Capital, Menai Financial Group, Consolidated Trading, Richard Gorelick’s Aquamarine Holdings and early-stage Web3 investor Grant Gittlin.

Inflation-Resistant Stablecoin, Volt Protocol, Raises $2M in Round Co-Led by Framework Ventures

April 11, 2022 – Volt Protocol, a decentralized, inflation-resistant stablecoin, has raised $2M in a seed round co-led by Framework Ventures, a venture capital firm known for its early entry into the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, and by Nascent, a team of crypto-native builders and investors. By tracking the consumer price index (CPI) instead of an existing fiat currency, Volt incorporates inflation into the equation, seeking to give DeFi users the ability to retain their true purchasing power during turbulent and uncertain times.

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