📬 Inbox Dump #49

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!

✉️ Terra to Bring Liquidity to TerraUSD (UST) Stablecoin Pairs on SynFutures

MAY 3, 2022 — Decentralized derivatives exchange SynFutures today announced a new collaboration with Terra, a public blockchain protocol that’s bringing DeFi to the masses through a suite of algorithmic decentralized stablecoins. Terra will add liquidity to its TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin trading pairs on SynFutures.

✉️ SUPERRARE UNVEILS FIRST EVER NFT EXHIBITION DEDICATED TO SHOWCASING THE WORK OF ASIAN AMERICAN ARTISTS, #THEGOLDSTANDARD

New York, NY — May 2, 2022 — In celebration of AAPI Month, SuperRare, the pioneering marketplace for unique curated NFT artworks, is pleased to announce the first-ever NFT exhibition dedicated to showcasing the work of Asian American artists. Running the entire month of May and entitled #TheGoldStandard.

✉️ Polygon Studios Announces Strategic Partnership with Wireshape to Boost the Metaverses

Florianópolis, Brazil, and Middletown, DE, May 02, 2022 – Polygon Studios has recently announced a strategic partnership with Wireshape. This partnership aims to help decentralized applications, providing high-definition 3D scanned assets, and accelerating the creation of realistic games and metaverses.

✉️ Bittrex Launches USDC Trading Pairs

Seattle – May 3, 2022 –Bittrex, a leading U.S.based cryptocurrency exchange, today announced that it has added support for USD Coin (USDC) to its list of trading pairs. Traders will now have the ability to trade against USDC along with other quote currencies currently available on the Bittrex exchange.

✉️ Introducing Studio, a way for anyone to build web3 integrations on Zapper

Studio is an open platform that gives developers more control over when their favorite app appears on Zapper’s dashboard. Web3 dashboard Zapper is launching Zapper Studio, a public collection of resources and developer tools for integrating applications with their platform.

✉️ VanEck Announces Launch of Community NFT, First NFT Offered by a Global Asset Manager

May 02, 2022, NEW YORK- VanEck is today unveiling an innovative new way for investors and the crypto-curious to join the VanEck crypto community via the launch of the VanEck Community NFT. Designed to highlight the real-world utility of NFT (non-fungible token) projects, VanEck Community NFT grants holders exclusive and early access to events, research and more.

✉️ Arcade and Nexo Issue Unique 4-Way NFT Loan Backed by Rare Zombie Punks

Using Arcade’s decentralized platform, Nexo’s NFT Lending Desk has issued a loan worth 1200 ETH against two rare Zombie Cryptopunks. The loan, whose value in USD adds up to roughly $3.5 million, was executed via the DeFi marketplace Arcade with Meta4 as a risk hedging partner.

✉️ DeFi Saver introduces Stop Loss and Take Profit options for Liquity Troves

DeFi Saver is expanding support for its new automated strategies system, with the first automation options for Liquity protocol, a month after releasing the automation system overhaul together with the first strategies. The release introduces the global first automation options for Liquity protocol - Stop Loss and Take Profit.

✉️ DNAverse partners with Polygon Studios to drive the replication of organic life in the Metaverse

Madrid, 3 May 2022 -DNAverse, the world's first art NFT collection customized with real DNA data, has announced today a strategic partnership with Polygon Studios, an organization onboarding developers, brands, artists, and content creators to Web3 through investment, marketing, developer, and community support.

✉️ ONT ID Framework Upgraded: Ontology’s Verifiable Credentials SDKs Now Open Source for All Go and Java Developers

In making the code widely accessible, Ontology is accelerating the adoption of decentralized identity (DID) in the blockchain sphere. As the project that has focused on the Decentralized Identity (DID) field for over 4 years, Ontology’s goal is to build the infrastructure to provide trusted access to Web3.

✉️ Centre Appoints Rebecca Cohen as General Counsel

NEW YORK – MAY 3, 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 named Rebecca R. Cohen as its new General Counsel (GC). As GC, Cohen will oversee and advise Centre on legal strategy as the consortium continues to set industry-wide standards for the blockchain industry.

Funding

💰 LootRush Secures $12m Seed Round

LootRush closed a Seed Round of $12M, led by web3 and crypto firm Paradigm, and with substantial participation from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). The round also included support from Y Combinator, Brex founders, and a group of angel investors, including the founders of Axie Infinity, Plaid, Wildlife Studios, Dapper Labs, The Chainsmokers, and Vivi Nevo.

💰 Crypto info startup Amberdata raises $30 million in new funding round

Amberdata, a startup that provides digital asset data to financial institutions, has raised $30 million in a Series B funding round. The round was led by Knollwood Investment Advisory, with participation from Susquehanna International Group, Nasdaq Ventures, NAB Ventures, Chicago Trading Company, Nexo, Coinbase, and Innovius.

💰 Mad Realities Raises $6m Seed Led By Paradigm

Mad Realities closed a $6M seed round from Paradigm with participation from funds Maveron, Long Journey, Paris Hilton's 11:11 Media, and individuals, Selby Drummond, OK Play co-founder Chris Ovitz’s Electric Ant, Rob Hayes, Behance founder Scott Belsky, co-founders of crypto social club Friends with Benefits Trevor McFedries and Alex Zhang, Not Boring founder Packy McCormick, and more.

💰 Bundlr Network Raises $5.2 Million Seed Round to Build an Easier, Faster Way to Store Data on Web3

LONDON, May 4, 2022 - Bundlr Network, a decentralized platform that makes it fast and easy to store data on web3, has raised a $5.2 million seed round co-led by Framework Ventures, Arweave, Hypersphere Ventures, and Permanent Ventures. Other investors included OpenSea Ventures and Race Capital.

💰 GD1 becomes the first NZ Venture Capital firm to launch a dedicated web3/Crypto VC fund

(Auckland, New Zealand) > The US$5 million fund, will be led in-house by renowned cryptocurrency and web3 expert Nawaz Ahmed as General Partner. Focused on investing in the next generation of web3/Crypto entrepreneurs and projects around the world, the fund has already warehoused two deals that will see GD1 invest in companies that count VC giants Andreessen Horowitz, True Ventures and Kleiner Perkins as investors.

💰 LongHash Ventures Leads $1.5 Million Pre-seed Funding Round

One of Asia’s leading Web3-focused venture funds and accelerator, has announced that it led a $1.5 million pre-seed funding round for Particle Network, a Web3 mobile game development platform. The funding round also includes participation from Insignia Ventures Partners, CyberConnect, BitCoke Ventures, 7 O’Clock Capital, FSC Ventures and Monad Labs.