CFTC Sees ‘Significant Risks’ From Digital Assets 

Rocket Pool Launches rETH On zkSync Era

Deloitte Integrates Polkadot’s KILT Identity Blockchain for KYC/KYB 

GERMANY, 4 May – BOTLabs GmbH, developer of KILT Protocol, and Deloitte Consulting AG today announced the integration of KILT blockchain technology for issuing reusable digital credentials to support KYC and KYB processes.

Filecoin Green Commits $1 Million USD to Support Climate-Positive Regenerative Finance

Palo Alto, California, 2nd May 2023 – Today, Filecoin Green, a Protocol Labs initiative to make Filecoin verifiably sustainable while building the world’s best tools to measure and reduce environmental impacts, in conjunction with the Filecoin Foundation, announced results from the joint $1 million USD Green Grants Program.

ConsenSys & Sport Illustrated Tickets Partnership

New York – May 2 – SI Tickets, the fan-first ticketing site from Sports Illustrated, today announced the launch of “Box Office by SI Tickets,” an innovative, self-service event management and primary ticketing solution built in partnership with web3 leader ConsenSys, and powered by Polygon’s blockchain technology.

Istanbul will be hosting Eurasia’s largest blockchain event once again on May 10–11

Teklip, an innovative tech-advertising and media company, is proud to present the Blockchain Economy Istanbul Summit, Eurasia’s largest blockchain event. Istanbul is one of the world’s oldest, most historically and culturally rich cities. According to current estimates, 16% of Turkey’s population, or 13.6 million people, own cryptocurrency, making it one of the world’s largest crypto-owning nations.

AI Meets Crypto: ATPBot Offers Advanced Quantitative Trading on Binance via API

ATPBot has recently announced that it can now connect to Binance API for transactions, providing all Binance users with more opportunities to trade cryptocurrencies. By registering with ATPBot and connecting to Binance Exchange, users can experience a unique trading experience, delivering results through mature trading strategies and professional investment management.

BingX Supports $GALA Coin Upgrade on 15th May 2023

SINGAPORE – 4 May 2023 – BingX, the cryptocurrency exchange, has announced its support for the upcoming token upgrade and drop by Gala Games. The Gala Games ecosystem will soon release its updated token, GALA(v2), which is expected to improve the security, scalability, and sustainability of their platform.

Aztec’s New Hybrid ZK Rollup Is Focused on Privacy and Compliance

Aztec Labs is creating a hybrid zero-knowledge rollup designed to execute smart contracts in a private, trustless, and scalable manner. Aztec intends to combine private and public execution in one single ZK rollup. This is one of the fundamental differences between it and other Ethereum ZK rollups.

Cosmos-Based Defi Protocol Nolus Raises 2.5M to Build the First Cross-Chain Defi Lease

George Town, May 2nd – The Nolus DeFi Lease provides up to 150% financing on the initial investment with a lowered margin call risk and access to the underlying leveraged assets. Nolus, an interoperable application on Cosmos, has secured $2.5 million in pre-seed and seed funding to tackle inefficiencies in DeFi money markets.

Bitget Launches Blockchain4Youth Project, Plans to Invest $10 Million to Support Young Talents

Seychelles, May 4 — Bitget, top crypto derivatives, and copy trading platform, has announced the launch of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) project — Blockchain4Youth. The project aims to create a blockchain future by empowering and inspiring younger generations to use Web3 and сrypto tools to create and engage in a decentralized space.

LBank joins forces with zkSync to foster Layer-2 Ethereum scaling solutions and empower a new generation of decentralized applications

British Virgin Islands, May 1st — LBank, the leading cryptocurrency exchange, announces its collaboration with zkSync, a Layer-2 protocol that scales Ethereum using cutting-edge zero-knowledge (ZK) technology. LBank is among the first exchanges to publicly support zkSync, embracing its mission to scale Ethereum while preserving its core values – freedom, self-sovereignty, and decentralization.

Quadency Unveils Cody, the AI Assistant Revolutionizing Trading

British Virgin Islands, May 5. Quadency, a crypto trading platform and leading provider of advanced automation tech, today announced the launch of Cody, a personal AI trading assistant that converts your simple, natural language directions into executable code. Want to buy Bitcoin if US inflation increases 5%? Just tell Cody!

Cronos Labs Announced as Partner of Newly-Launched Spielworks Web3 Gaming Accelerator, Wombat X

Berlin, May 4th, 2023 — Spielworks, a leading blockchain startup specializing in gaming and decentralized finance (DeFi) solutions, launches its Web3 gaming accelerator, Wombat X to empower Web3 gaming projects to enhance their gaming experience and grow their audiences with the Wombat ecosystem.

The Hashgraph Association Appoints New Executive Director

[Schwyz] The Hashgraph Association, a non-profit accelerating the adoption of the Hedera network globally and supporting enterprises to build Web3 use cases and institutional-grade solutions on the Hedera network, announced the appointment of Heran Shah as new Executive Director, Global Business Development, as a former Global Sales Leader at IBM, Heran will lead the growth of Hedera solutions across markets worldwide.

Portkey shows how social recovery improves wallet usability and security

At the Consensus 2023 conference, Portkey, the first contract account (CA) wallet with a decentralized identity (DID) solution coming from the ecosystem of layer-1 network aelf, elaborated on how it managed to provide easy usability, security, and self-custody to users without having to charge them a list of fees.

📥 Inbox

Goals raises US$20m to continue development of NFT soccer video game

The round was led by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six venture capital firm, with participation from Northzone, Moonfire, and Cassius. The company has now raised US$39 million, including US$15 million in a seed round last year.

FEDI RAISES $17 MILLION IN FUNDRAISING ROUND LED BY EGO DEATH CAPITAL

The financing round was led by Ego Death Capital, with participation from Block, Kingsway, Trammell Venture Partners and Timechain, among others.

NFT Marketplace AlienSwap Secured $12M in Funding to Build the Leading NFT Trading Layer

NEXT Leader Capital and Csquared VC led this round, and OKX Ventures added strategic investment.

Coinbase Ventures Backs $10M ZkLink Raise Ahead of Mainnet Launch

ZkLink, an infrastructure layer that makes it easier to trade assets across blockchains, raised $10 million in a strategic funding round from a lineup of investors that included the venture capital arm of crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN). The fundraise will help drive zkLink towards its mainnet launch in the third quarter.

Tangem Successfully Closes Investment Round, Fueled by Shima Capital

The round came in at $8 million and was led by Web3 venture capital firm Shima Capital, with contributions from additional investors.

Crypto Firm FARE Protocol Raises $6.2M Ahead of Token Launch

The fundraise was led by C Squared Ventures and Goat Capital, the firm co-founded by Twitch founder Justin Kan.

Tristero, a San Francisco, CA-based company developer of decentralized dark pool technology, raised $4.8M in Seed funding. The round was led by General Catalyst and Steel Perlot.

Entendre Finance Raises $4M in Seed Funding

The round was led by Basis Set with participation from Valhalla, Caffeinated, Moonpay, Alumni, MDig, and Alpine.

💰 Funding

 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!

📬 Inbox Dump #101

Inbox

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