📬 Inbox Dump #5

Hello Defiers! Welcome to the fifth edition of Inbox Dump where we include the updates and announcements that flood our DMs each week and didn’t make it to our 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 I know many of you are hunting for projects before they are fully developed and before they are newsworthy. My 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!

👨‍⚖️ Groundbreaking rules published to enable rapid resolution of blockchain and crypto legal disputes

London, 22 April 2021: The UK Jurisdiction Taskforce of LawtechUK, chaired by Sir Geoffrey Vos, Master of the Rolls, has today published its Digital Dispute Resolution Rules designed to enable faster and more cost effective resolutions to legal disputes relating to novel digital technology such as crypto assets, smart contracts, and blockchain applications, and foster confidence amongst businesses in the adoption of these technologies.

📈 Diginex’s Crypto Exchange, EQUOS, Trade Volume Crosses US$1bn for April Month-To-Date

April 19, 2021, Singapore: Diginex Limited (Nasdaq: EQOS), a digital assets financial services company, today announced record total volumes of over US$1 billion in April month to date, with average daily volumes during the period increasing over three times compared to average daily volumes in the prior month.

🐶 D8 Holdings to Accept Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin for Delta-8 THC Products

Miami, Fla. | April 20, 2021D8 Holdings, Inc., the market leader in hemp-derived Delta-8 THC—today announced it will start accepting Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin as payment methods on their site. “Our customers are early adopters, many of whom are heavily involved in the crypto market,” said Chris Duffield, CEO of D8. “With $2 trillion dollars sitting in crypto assets, and $45 billion parked in Dogecoin, the ability to accept crypto currency presents a big opportunity for our company.”

📊 FIRSTSHOT CENTERS STO approved by CEZA for listing on CryptoSX Digital Asset Exchange

MANILA, PHILIPPINES / ACCESSWIRE / April 20, 2021 / Cryptosx announced FirstShot Centers, LLC ("FirstShot") has received formal approval from CEZA ("Cagayan Economic Zone Authority") for security token offering and listing on Cryptosx. FirstShot intends to raise up to US$100M from investors in the North America, Europe and Asia to acquire, repurpose and operate undervalued retail shopping centers across the US. Every FirstShot center or store will be reformatted as an entertainment hub specifically targeted for the firearm, ammunition and outdoor sporting industry and communities. Centers will be themed destination offering a state-of-the-art shooting range, outdoor sporting and adventure retail stores and unique experiences.

🔄 Hermesus Announces Official Launch of Regulated Cryptocurrency Exchange

DEL MAR, CA / ACCESSWIRE / April 19, 2021 / Hermesus, LLC, a recognized blockchain technology company within the global markets, today announced the official launch of its cryptocurrency exchange “HERMESUS”. Traders will now be able to register and trade by visiting the official website at https://hermesus.com/. HERMESUS offers all traders low fees and high security; in addition, market makers will be compensated for participating in the exchange.

💸 WallStreetBets Selects BSCstarter to Host Exclusive Public Token Sale

British Virgin Islands, April 19, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (via Blockchain Wire) - BSCstarter (https://www.bscstarter.finance), the first community-focused fundraising platform, today announced the launch of $WSB token through an exclusive partnership with WallStreetBets DApp (https://wsbdapp.com), a decentralized application of the popular subreddit /r/wallstreetbets. The WallstreetBets DApp is a creation of WallStreetBets (https://twitter.com/wallstreetbets), an establishment behind the global movement against the current financial system, financial institutions, and Wall Street. Inspired by their aligning visions of a financial democracy, BSCstarter and WallStreetBets DApp will launch the official $WSB token through an Initial Dex Offering (IDO) on BSCstarter’s launchpad.

🏦 Circle Selects Signature Bank for USDC Integration and Reserve Balances

BOSTON, April 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Circle, a global financial technology firm that provides payments and treasury infrastructure for digital businesses announced today that Signature Bank (Nasdaq: SBNY), a New York-based, full service commercial bank, will become their leading financial institution to hold billions of dollars in reserve deposits related to USD Coin (USDC), the fastest growing digital dollar in the world.

🤝 Sheesha Finance Partners with TeraBlock to Bring Machine Learning-Driven Trade Automation to Cryptocurrency Portfolios

UAE - April 19, 2021 -- Sheesha Finance (https://sheesha.finance), the first comprehensive DeFi solution for investors to easily access a variety of projects while solving issues surrounding locked crypto assets, today announced their partnership with TeraBlock (https://terablock.ai), a trade automation exchange for cryptocurrencies that personalizes each user’s experience through machine learning. The partnership will leverage Sheesha’s unique DeFi staking model and TeraBlock’s machine learning technology to simplify the way people enter the crypto ecosystem as well as increasing and promoting the use of DeFi services instead of traditional finance.

🧐 Block.one Commissions Economic Analysis of Stake-Based Voting and Rewards Mechanism for EOS Public Blockchain

Block.one, the developer of the EOSIO open-source software, has shared an economic analysis performed by Prysm Group for a proposed Stake-Based Voting and Rewards Mechanism, which specifies an alternative model for “inflation distribution” on the EOS public blockchain network. The proposal aims to serve as a “guidepost” for the EOS community as they “consider the released code,” according to a release shared with CI.

⚡️ BSCstarter Launches ‘Certified START Program’ for Binance Smart Chain Projects

BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS - April 23, 2021 - BSCstarter (https://www.bscstarter.finance), the first community-selection launchpad for Binance Smart Chain (BSC), today announced the the “Certified START Program” to provide end-to-end support for team-approved BSC projects seeking capital. The program aims to build an entire funding ecosystem where projects and founders are matched with token buyers that believe in the projects’ medium and long-term success. Projects accepted into the program will receive IDO guidance, marketing and community support, access to private investors, and launch coordination with exchanges and market-makers.

Funding

💰 Injective Protocol Raises $10M at $1B Valuation From Investors Including Pantera

Injective Protocol, a decentralized derivatives exchange, said it raised a $10M at a $1B valuation from investors including Pantera Capital, BlockTower, Hashed, Cadenza Ventures (formerly BitMex Ventures), among others. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban also participated, while Cumberland, DRW’s crypto arm, disclosed its investment in the company.

💰 Polyient Enters Bitcoin-Based Tokenized Asset Space With $500,000 Investment in Sci-Fi MMO Infinite Fleet

Luxembourg — 14th April 2021 — Exordium, a triple-A game publisher, today announces a $500,000 investment from Polyient Ventures, an investment group focused on virtual economies, as part of its ongoing security token offering (STO) for the revolutionary sci-fi massively multiplayer online (MMO) strategy game Infinite Fleet.

💰 Aleo Raises $28M to Launch the First Platform for Fully Private Applications

Aleo announced today it has raised $28M to build the next-generation platform for decentralized, private applications. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) with participation from Placeholder VC, Galaxy Digital, Variant Fund, and Coinbase Ventures. Other notable investors include Polychain Capital, Slow Ventures, Dekrypt Capital, Scalar Capital, a_capital, zkValidator, Balaji Srinivasan and Ethereal Ventures, a new venture fund established by Joseph Lubin.

💰 DexGuru raises $1M Seed Investment to Build an Innovative Trading Platform for Web3

Today, DexGuru is excited to announce a $1M financing round led by ParaFi Capital to develop a Web3 trading platform that helps traders analyze data across major EVM-compatible blockchains. In addition to ParaFi, DexGuru is proud to welcome the support of Lemniscap, The LAO, Divergence Ventures, and BitScale in addition to Loi Luu from Kyber, Evgeny Yurtaev from Zerion, Julien Bouteloup, and Calvin Chu, who’ve joined this round as strategic angels.

💰 DeFi Index Provider Phuture Raises $1.5 Million In Seed Funding Round

Decentralized protocol Phuture has today announced that it has completed a private seed round, led by private investment firm Ascensive Assets. The funding round has raised a total of $1.5 million.

💰 Lever.Network successfully closes a $600,000 seed funding round

Lever.Network, the number one AMM-based decentralized margin trading platform, is excited to announce the successful completion of a $600,000 seed funding round led by NGC Venture, ArkStream Capital, LD Capital and AU21 Capital, along with contributions from DAOMaker, YBB, DFG and other top venture capitalists in the field.

💰 MOAR secures funding to increase DeFi capital efficiency and usability

MOAR, a first-of-its-kind, derivative-aware, capital-efficient DeFi lending platform, has secured a private round from notable investors, such as Spark Digital, 3Commas, Moonwhale, Stakely, Kyros Ventures, Ruby Capital, AU21 Capital, Paribus Ventures, Ape Capital, X21, Magnus Capital, Prometeus Labs, Black Edge Capital and more.

💰 Torum closes $1.45M funding round to create social media platform with NFT & DeFi integrations

Torum, a social media platform specially designed for cryptocurrency users, today announced that the project has closed a $1.45M private round engaged by 13 private investors which consist of AU21 Capital, Momentum 6, Lotus Capital, Consensus Lab, Redline Blockchain Capital, Waterdrip Capital, Angel One, Hotbit, Oasis Capital, N7 Labs, Skywater Capital, IDC, Worshipper Capital.

💰 DeFi Startup MOUND raises $1.6M in seed round led by Binance Lab

• MOUND is a Decentralized finance startup.
• It is recognized for its yield farming aggregator Pancake Bunny.
• The startup raises $1.6 million in seed funding led by Binance Lab.
• Investors include IDEO CoLab, SparkLabs Korea and Handshake co-founder Andrew Lee.

💰 Raze Network Collects $2.2M to Build Private DeFi on Polkadot

SINGAPORE / ACCESSWIRE / April 19, 2021 / Raze Network, a Substrate-based blockchain enabling private decentralized finance (DeFi), has successfully completed its fundraising efforts after collecting over $2.2 million from venture investors in private and seed rounds.

💰 Enso Finance Completes Funding Round, Raises $5M

Enso finance has raised $5M in its private fundraising round co-led by Polychain Capital and Dfinity Beacon Fund. As such, the funds will be used to fund a mainnet launch in Q2 2021. For now, Enso will focus on its platform development and community expansion.

That’s all for today. Let me know what I missed!

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