📬 Inbox Dump #6

Hello Defiers! Welcome to the sixth 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. 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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Inbox Dump!

📦 NFT.Storage: Preserving the Data of the Multi-Million Dollar NFT Industry

San Francisco, California, April 29, 2021 — Projected to reach a market capitalization of $710 Million in 2021, the non-fungible token (NFT) market is witnessing a significant surge, however, the growing library of new assets being minted as NFTs are at risk of manipulation or loss. Today marks the launch ofNFT.Storage, a service backed by Protocol Labs and Pinata specifically for storing NFT data. NFT.Storage lets developers store NFT data on decentralized networks easily, securely, and for free. With just a few lines of code, anyone can leverage the power of IPFS and Filecoin to ensure the persistence of their NFT data.

🔁 Avelacom survey finds bulk of proprietary trading firms that are actively trading crypto plan to connect to more exchanges for greater arbitrage opportunities

London, April 29, 2021: A survey by Market Intelligence specialists, Acuiti, commissioned by Avelacom and Deribit, offers insights on how proprietary trading firms are approaching the cryptocurrency markets, both spot and derivatives. The survey also explores how this differs between those firms created specifically to trade these assets vs firms entering these markets alongside their existing business trading “traditional” assets.

🏒 NEW JERSEY DEVILS JOINS FORCES WITH NFT & BLOCKCHAIN COMPANY CHILIZ FOR A MAJOR PARTNERSHIP

NEW JERSEY (April 29, 2021):Socios.com, the leading global blockchain provider for the sports and entertainment industry has entered into its first marketing partnership with a US professional sports franchise, the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League.

💻 Oasis Network is developer ready, launches mainnet upgrade and Parcel SDK

Oasis Network is excited to share that its first major Mainnet upgrade codenamed 'Cobalt’ is now live and comes with a host of features including increased security and performance, as well as strengthened governance mechanisms and more decentralization.

👨‍⚖️ ADAM Submits Comment to the SEC on Custody of Digital Asset Securities

WASHINGTON, D.C.— As part of its mission to advance industry standards that promote integrity, fairness, and efficiency in digital asset markets, the Association for Digital Asset Markets (ADAM) submitted public comment to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s statement on Custody of Digital Asset Securities by Special Purpose Broker-Dealers.

🛍 GenZ’s Shopping Sprees Are Getting An NFT Glow Up. What Will It Look Like?

A recent report found that Generation Z has a higher propensity to be interested in digital assets than any other age group. Now, with fashion brands like Gucci, Adidas and Nike poised to release NFTs, the future of GenZ’s shopping sprees will be shaped by NFTs. What might this new shopping experience look like? Well, for Justin Banon, CEO and Co-Founder of Boson Protocol, NFTs will go far beyond the art world to ultimately power the future of shopping.

📊 Covalent launches decentralized data query network to power web 3.0 infrastructure

VANCOUVER - 28 April 2021 - Covalent, the leading blockchain data provider, has launched its decentralized data query network to power web 3.0 infrastructure. This launch moves the platform beyond a centralized blockchain data API, enabling token holders and developers to engage with the network in new ways.

✨ Alkemi Network Launches Out of Stealth to Bridge CeFi to DeFi

TORONTO, April 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Alkemi Network is launching out of stealth as the world's first decentralized liquidity network to offer institutional DeFi. After closing a $4.6 million investment round with over $5 million of liquidity deposits seeded to the network, Alkemi is live on mainnet. The flagship borrowing and lending protocol, Alkemi Earn, provides centralized financial counterparties with compliant, turnkey access to DeFi.

🇪🇹 Blockchain finally comes of age with the world’s biggest blockchain deployment

27th April, 2021: Global blockchain research and development company IOHK has announced a partnership with the Ethiopian Government, to implement a national, blockchain-based student and teacher ID and attainment recording system to digitally verify grades, remotely monitor school performance and boost education and employment nationwide.

⚖️ Umbria Token Fully Compatible with Polygon’s Layer 2 Chain

LONDON, April 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Umbria governance token (UMBR) has been added to Polygon's token mapper paving the way for key Umbria DeFi developments on Layer 2. Umbria Network (https://umbria.network/) can now create a suite of applications on Polygon, which will be part of the Umbria ecosystem. Polygon – formerly Matic – provides scalable, secure and instant Ethereum transactions using their plasma proof of stake chain. Users of Umbria Network will be able to benefit from the fast, low-cost transactions (two second blocks with approximately 1c transaction fees) and heightened user experience that it affords.

Funding

💰 EpikGG Receives Funding from Top Blockchain VCs to Create Licensed Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) With the World’s Biggest Brands and Games

Singapore – Date –EpikGG, the global leader in creating branded digital items, is pleased to announce partnerships with the top blockchain venture capital firms to create the first digital marketplace with branded non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Investors from the private round include LD Capital, Signum, DAO Maker, Roger Ver, OKex, and Animoca Brands. EpikGG was fully self-funded prior to this investment round.

💰Hashflow Announces $3.2M Seed Round To Bring Professional Market Makers to DeFi, Backed By Dragonfly Capital and Electric Capital

SANTA MONICA, Calif., April 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Hashflow, a decentralized exchange connecting DeFi traders with top crypto market makers, has closed a seed funding round of $3.2 million from leading venture capital firms and angel investors. The round was led by Dragonfly Capital and Electric Capital, and joined by IDEO Ventures, Alameda Research, Metastable, Galaxy Digital, Unanimous Capital, and angels including Balaji Srinivasan, Kain Warwick, & Ryan Sean Adams.

💰 DeFi Fixed-Lending Protocol Notional Finance Closes $10M Round Led by Pantera

Notional Finance, a decentralized fixed-rate lending protocol built on Ethereum, closed a $10M Series A funding round led by Pantera with participation from ParaFi, 1confirmation, Spartan Group, Nascent, Nima Capital, and others.

💰 ‘AWS for Blockchains’ Alchemy Closes $80M Funding Round at $505M Valuation

Alchemy, which is fast becoming the blockchain world’s version of Amazon Web Services (AWS), has raised $80 million. Alchemy’s ubiquitous infrastructure and developer platform has grown since its public launch eight months ago to reach a $505 million valuation, CEO Nikil Viswanathan said in an interview.

💰 Jigstack Raised $3M in Funds To Create The DAO of DeFi

On Thursday, Jigstack completed its private and public funding rounds. The fund has raised a total of 3 million US dollars. This overwhelming interest from the private round shows Jigstack’s capability to transform the decentralized finance (DeFi) world. More so, it included many prominent investors such as Block Films, Moonwhale Ventures, Exnetwork, DHC capital, Blocksync Ventures, Gains, CSP DAO, and X21 Digital.

💰 BENQI Completes $6 Million Funding Round Led by Ascensive

The BENQI team successfully completed a $6 million funding round from various external investors and advisors, led by Ascensive. Participants include Dragonfly Capital, Arrington XRP Capital, Mechanism Capital, Spartan Group, Rarestone, Woodstock, Ava Labs, MarketAcross, Morningstar Ventures and many other reputable industry names. The team’s vision of launching a lending and borrowing protocol to service Avalanche users and bridging it to other blockchains will bring more prominent attention to the decentralized finance space.

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

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The Defiant is a daily newsletter focusing on decentralized finance, a new financial system that’s being built on top of open blockchains. The space is evolving at breakneck speed and revolutionizing tech and money. Spread the word and share!