📬 Inbox Dump #7

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 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!

✉️ LOCGame & Ferrum Launch Legendary Staking Program

AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS / ACCESSWIRE / May 6, 2021 / The revolutionary blockchain gaming platform, LegendsOfCrypto (LOCGame) is launching its Legendary Staking Program in partnership with Ferrum Network. The program will officially begin on May 7, 1600 UTC giving $LOCG token holders the opportunity to earn amazing rewards of up to 215% APY in 60 days. The second pool will reward users with unique NFT cards and decks from Genesis Edition. This announcement comes as the latest in a series of exciting new developments that have seen LOCGame become more lucrative for its players and investors alike.

✉️ Launching BAL x PRIME: The first DAO2DAO pool

Today marks the launch of BAL x PRIME, the first DAO2DAO pool that tokenizes a collaborative relationship between Balancer and PrimeDAO. This blog outlines the potential of DAO2DAO pools to align cryptonetworks, introduces the Prime Pool Beta, and shows how to participate in BAL x PRIME — the first DAO2DAO pool (Spoiler: There is yield involved 🌱).

✉️ SOTHEBY’S TO PRESENT NATIVELY DIGITAL: A CURATED NFT SALE

NEW YORK, 6 May 2021 – Sotheby’s is pleased to announce Natively Digital: A Curated NFT Sale, representing the first time a major auction house will bring together a group survey of the leading NFT artists to auction. Hosted directly through Sotheby’s online auction platform, Natively Digital will feature some of the most sought after works made throughout the seven-year history of the medium; the curated auction will be highlighted by Kevin McCoy’s Quantum, the first NFT ever minted, the only existing masked “Alien” Cryptopunk by Larva Labs, and The Shell Record by leading generative artist, Anna Ridler. The additional NFT artists and artworks included in the auction will be unveiled in the lead up to the sale, which will be open for bidding from June 3 - 10.

✉️ New Power Usage Report Shows the Casper Network’s Impressive Energy Efficiency Relative to Other Blockchain

The Casper Network is up to 136000% more energy efficient when compared to other networks. The environmental impact of mining has become an important topic as mainstream interest in blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies continues to expand globally. Blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum rely on Proof of Work algorithms to complete the cryptographic calculations required to mine, and thus result in high energy costs. Research from the University of Cambridge’s recent bitcoin electricity consumption index showed that bitcoin mining alone is utilizing around 0.6% of the global electricity consumption. Nobody doubts that blockchain is a powerful and transformative technology being used across an ever-growing range of sectors, but its energy footprint as an industry is unsustainable at the current pace.

✉️ Pandora: Unlocking real-world assets to the decentralized economy

New York, April 30, 2021 – Pandora Finance has announced its official launch this week. Pandora is a new project dedicated to connecting digital and real-world assets in a way not seen before. By creating liquidity enabled NFTs (non-fungible tokens) to tokenize offline assets, then powering these with Pandora technology, huge volumes of real-world assets will become available to trade on-chain. Not only will this open the door to frictionless trade and liquidity to currently locked asset classes, but the very nature of liquid NFT technology will enable decentralized, secure data augmentation.

✉️ TradeStars Announces IDO Launching May 4th

May 3, 2021, New York – TradeStars, the innovative Blockchain powered fantasy sports trading game, is pleased to announce the launch of their IDO (Initial DEX Offering) on May 4th, 2021. The IDO is now open for whitelisting, and will allow users to purchase TradeStars’ $TSX Token across BSC Pad and Zeroswap from today.

TradeStars takes Fantasy Sports to a next level by providing players with an exciting alternative to traditional Fantasy Sports / Sports Betting markets. By allowing users to trade and monetize fractional NFTs which represent real-life athletes, fans can use their knowledge to invest in specific sports stars, and see their value go up or down based on actual performance.

✉️ The Internet Computer Launches, Turning the Public Internet Into a Decentralized Global Computer

Zurich, Switzerland, May, 7, 2021 – Today, the DFINITY Foundation, a not-for-profit organization based in Zurich, Switzerland, is launching the Internet Computer, turning the public internet into a decentralized global computer. The Internet Computer extends the functionality of the internet, upgrading it from a network connecting billions of people to one that also provides millions of developers and entrepreneurs worldwide with a revolutionary public compute platform for crypto-based startups and blockchain-ready enterprises.

✉️ Record-Breaking Thai Rapper Youngohm & NFT1 Production Studio to Unlock NFT Art & Music Market in Southeast Asia

Bangkok, 6th of May — Acclaimed Thailand-based rapper, Youngohm, who has over 7 million followers across platforms has teamed up with a Singapore-based producer NFT1 to create a first major drop in Southeast Asia. The NFT is an MP4 video file featuring a custom graphic art of Youngohm with bitcoins in his eyes and a special audio recording of his most well-known tagline.

✉️ EmiSwap Combines Best of Gaming and DeFi: NFT Farming on DEX

Dubai, UAE -- May 5, 2021 --EmiSwap (https://emiswap.com), the first community-governed decentralized exchange (DEX) to provide high rewards for liquidity providers (LPs), today announced their plans to launch gamified NFT farming mechanics on its DEX protocol in Q3 2021. EmiSwap’s NFT farming will feature a new approach to liquidity mining by rewarding users with Ordinary, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary, or Mythic NFT cards depending on how long and how many assets they stake. Liquidity providers can vest for longer periods to receive significantly larger mining benefits compared to other protocols in the sector.

✉️ Trading Volumes on EQUOS Grow 300% Over Last 30 Days

May 4, 2021, Singapore: Diginex Limited (Nasdaq: EQOS), a digital assets financial services company, today announced that combined spot and derivative volumes on its crypto exchange, EQUOS, exceeded US$2 billion for the last 30 days. This represents an increase of 300% compared to the prior 30 days. The rapid growth trajectory the exchange has seen over recent weeks is driven by a strong and growing interest in the EQO Token as well as an increase in onboarding and trading volumes from both retail and institutional traders.

✉️ EQIFI and Sheesha Finance Partner to Increase DeFi Accessibility and Global Banking

United Arab Emirates -- May 3, 2021 -- EQIFI (https://eqifi.com) a decentralized protocol for pooled lending, borrowing, and investing for ERC-20 tokens, today announced a partnership with 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. With a shared goal of democratizing financial products, the partnership will improve investor accessibility to various projects in Ethereum’s thriving DeFi ecosystem.

Funding

💰 Digital Currency Group Makes Strategic Investment in Streami, the Leading South Korean Cryptocurrency Exchange Operator

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As investment interest in cryptocurrency continues to grow globally, South Korean blockchain company Streami Inc. (“Streami”) today announced that Digital Currency Group (“DCG”) has made a strategic investment in the company, becoming its second-largest shareholder. DCG previously participated in Streami’s pre-series A round in 2016.

💰 Drops Closes In $1M Private Funding Round to Create New Value for NFTs

VILNIUS, LITHUANIA – 4th May 2020 – Drops, a groundbreaking project that unlocks additional value for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), announces the closure of around US $1 million from private investors. This funding round was led by Axia8 Ventures, Bitscale Capital, Blocksync, AU21, x21, D64, Genblock, and Drops Ventures. The successful round of funding builds on Drops’ network of strategic partners which include Polkastarter, Quantstamp, 0xb1, Kyros Ventures, Zokyo, Petrock Capital and Blockstar Technologies. Drops will use the raised capital for development, marketing, operational expenses, and liquidity provision.

💰 Multicoin Capital announces new $100 million fund to invest in DeFi, NFT and other projects

Crypto investment firm Multicoin Capital has launched a new fund worth $100 million, according to a Tuesday announcement. The Venture Fund II would invest in several crypto sectors, including decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), Web3 applications, and crypto infrastructure projects, said Multicoin.

💰 Defi Platform Formation Fi Attracts $3.3M Investment for Smart Farming 2.0

A Polish startup aiming to bring risk parity portfolio management strategies to defi has raised $3.3 million in its latest funding round. A medley of top-tier VC funds participated in the round to bootstrap the chain-agnostic, algorithmic yield-management platform. The private funding round attracted interest from the likes of Bancor, Huobi, Polygon, Kenetic, Kosmos, Spark Capital, and AU21, as well as X21 Digital, Momentum 6, GenBlock, GBV Capital, and Lotus Capital.

💰 Moma Protocol Announces $2.25M Funding Round to Create Infinite Liquidity for DeFi Lending Markets

Moma Protocol, a proprietary solution designed to meet the growing demand for speculation in Defi lending markets and liquidity scalability, has announced the completion of a $2.25 million round of funding led by Fundamental Labs and SevenX Ventures. According to the firm, other investors that took part in the round of funding include Waterdrip Capital, AU21 Capital, BuildingBlocks, Consensus Investment, Blocksync Ventures, Magnus Capital, FBG Capital, Coins Group, Spark Digital Capital, Zee Prime Capital, Lotus Capital, Moonwhale Ventures, DFG Capital, Finlink Capital, Moonrock Capital, Oasis Capital, and X21 Digital.

💰 Plutus Raises $5 Million in Another Win for DeFi Space

One of the latest of these comes from Plutus, a London-based DeFi startup that recently raised an impressive $5 million in a new funding round from Alphabit in its native token Pluton (PLU). The platform has announced that the funds raised will be used to grow its current DeFi Visa card, a new browser extension, and an all-in-one non-custodial wallet that will be compatible with both Bitcoin and Ethereum.

💰 DappRadar Raises $5 Million in Series A Funding

LONDON & VILNIUS, FRIDAY 7 MAY 2021 – DappRadar (www.dappradar.com) is the Lithuania-founded, global app store for decentralized applications “dapps” which makes it easy for users to track dapp activity online via its increasingly popular platform. Key investors include Prosus Ventures, the venture arm of Prosus, one of the largest technology investors in the world, Blockchain.com Ventures, a fund anchored by Lightspeed Venture Partners and the venture arm of the world’s largest non-custodial crypto wallet, and NordicNinja VC, a deeptech-focused venture capital fund based in the Nordics & Baltics.

💰 BENQI Completes $6 Million Funding Round Led by Ascensive

BENQI, an algorithmic liquidity protocol on Avalanche, is proud to announce the raising of $6 million in funding from external investors and advisors. Thanks to this funding round, the lending and borrowing protocol on Avalanche will continue developing its services and features. 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.

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

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