📬 Inbox Dump #19
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!
✉️FIGURE ANNOUNCES MERGER WITH TOP MORTGAGE LENDER HOMEBRIDGE FINANCIAL SERVICES
Merger Pairs Blockchain Tech, Brand Loyalty, Multiple Product Lines with
$25 Billion plus Mortgage Originator Homebridge and 150,000 Customers
SAN FRANCISCO - August 3, 2021 - Figure Technologies, Inc. (Figure™), a leader in transforming financial services through the power of blockchain technology, today announced it has signed an agreement to merge with Homebridge Financial Services in a landmark deal that will reshape the technology landscape of the nation’s mortgage industry.
✉️ PHANTOM WALLET ADDS STAKING SUPPORT FOR SOLANA (SOL)
SAN FRANCISCO — Phantom (https://phantom.app/), a multi-chain crypto wallet and browser extension for managing digital assets and accessing Web3 dApps, announced today the launch of staking for Solana’s native token, SOL, one of the top 15 cryptocurrencies by market cap.
✉️ EQIFI Launches Suite of Decentralized Financial Products Powered by a Global, Licenced Bank
Powered by EQIBank, EQIFI’s highly anticipated launch provides a single uniform platform for DeFi products, including fixed- and variable-rate products, interest rate swaps, and a yield aggregator
British Virgin Islands — 6th August, 2021 — EQIFI, a decentralized protocol for pooled lending, borrowing and investing Ethereum-based cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and select fiat currencies, has today launched its DeFi platform, including newly introduced fixed- and variable-rate lending products, as well as the advanced yield aggregator and interest rate swaps.
✉️ Karura token holders vote to enable the Karura Dollar (kUSD), the first stablecoin on Kusama | KAR liquidity program imminent
TL/DR: The Karura community has passed a vote to enable a network upgrade that enables minting of the Karura Dollar (kUSD), enables the KSM/kUSD pair on Karura Swap, and enables the liquidity provider KAR rewards program. LPs for KSM/KAR can now begin earning liquidity mining rewards, and KSM/kUSD liquidity mining starts immediately following the KSM/kUSD Bootstrap period.
✉️ ImToken launches full support for Polygon
imToken, one of the largest crypto wallets, now offers full support of Polygon, enabling users to easily and securely access their digital assets together with Polygon’s decentralized apps (Dapps) in a non-custodial fashion, allowing control without sacrificing security
August 2, 2021 – Polygon, an Ethereum-based full-stack scaling solution bringing mass adoption to the Ethereum platform, today announced that imToken’s feature-rich iOS and Android wallet now fully supports Polygon — making it easier to build on, and connect to the Polygon DeFi Ecosystem.
✉️ DeversiFi launches instant withdrawal bridge with Polygon for stablecoins
Fueling the speedy movement of assets between layer 2’s and sidechains, users will be able to seamlessly and quickly transfer funds between ecosystems without paying gas fees
3 August 2021, BVI —DeversiFi, a Layer 2 Decentralized Finance (DeFi) trading platform powered by StarkWare’s scalable technology, launches the first L2 bridge for Ethereum scaling project Polygon, to enable instant, free and frictionless deposits and withdrawals between the two platforms while increasing liquidity across chains.
✉️ Affiniti Ventures| AV(M) Announces Mavenarte NFT Virtual Art Event
NFT art event launches in collaborative effort with artist John Law, co-founder of Burning Man, to empower artists through NFTs San Francisco, CA, August 2, 2021— Affiniti Ventures | AV(M), a venture capitalist firm focused on media, mobile, and blockchain announces they will host “Dare to Differ?! -- Mavenarte NFT art event and auction”, the first ever venture-backed virtual NFT art show on August 6th from 11:00am PST- 3:00 PST.
✉️ Outlier Ventures Announces Polkadot x Base Camp Program to Accelerate the Polkadot Startup Ecosystem
Outlier Ventures is pleased to announce applications are open for thePolkadot x Base Camp Accelerator, its second collaboration cohort following the successful launch of the Filecoin Base Camp Accelerator.
Outlier Ventures is scaling the largest multichain network of founders, investors, and experts in Web3. To date, Outlier Ventures has accelerated 70+ Web3 startups since 2014 and has grown a network of thousands of blockchain founders through its Ascent advisory program and quarterly Diffusion community event. Outlier Ventures is uniquely positioned to stimulate developer activity and growth on the Polkadot network by collaborating with mentors from Parity, the Web3 Foundation, Substrate Builders, and other Polkadot ecosystem players to host this rigorous 5-month accelerator program.
✉️ Eden Network Launches A Priority Transaction Network To Protect Ethereum Traders From Frontrunning and Malicious MEV Attacks
New Optional, Non-Consensus Breaking Ordering Protocol Launches in Partnership with Sushi, Alpha Finance Labs and BAND
NEW YORK, AUGUST 2, 2021 — Eden Network, a new priority transaction network for Ethereum, today launched in advance of the highly anticipated London Hardfork and EIP-1559. The Eden Network protects traders from frontrunning, creates new incentives for block producers following the implementation of EIP-1559, and redistributes miner extractable value (MEV) in a more equitable way. The network partnered with Alpha Finance Labs and Band Protocol at launch and will be available to users, traders, and block producers for free on the Sushi platform at https://sushi.com/after the Ethereum upgrade.
Funding
💰 DeFi platform Krystal raises $6.6 million in seed funding
Krystal, a crypto platform that offers access to various decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, has raised $6.6 million in a seed funding round. The round was led by crypto venture firm Hashed, with participation from Signum Capital, BlockTower, Crypto.com, Arrington Capital, DeFi Alliance, Coin98, and others.
💰 Sense Finance Raises $5.2M to Bring Yield Trading to DeFi
Sense Finance, the company behind the upcoming Sense protocol, raised $5.2 million in a seed funding round led by Dragonfly Capital with participation from Robot Ventures and Bain Capital, among others.
💰 Hedge Fund Giant Steven Cohen Dives into Crypto with $21M Funding Round in Messari
In the latest sign that Wall Street big shots love crypto, Point72 Ventures, the early-stage investment firm founded by hedge fund billionaire Steven Cohen, has led a $21M funding round in Messari, the crypto market intelligence provider. It is Point72’s first foray into crypto.
💰 DeFi Platform TrustToken Raises $12.5M in VC Token Sale
Decentralized finance (DeFi) lending and stablecoin platform TrustToken has secured a large seed round backed by big names in venture capital investing. The platform behind the TrueFi DeFi lending protocol has raised $12.5 million in a funding round led by Blocktower Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), and Alameda Research.
💰 NearPad Closes $2m Seed Funding Round
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - We are proud to announce the close of our $2.5m seed round for the development of our DAO-led DeFi hub on Aurora. With participation from NGC, NEAR Foundation, OWC, Ellipti, LD Capital, Flow Ventures, SuperNova Fund, Genblock Capital, Arkn and several other parties, the raise crystallises the alignment of goals between NearPad and leading players in the industry to catalyse growth on NEAR blockchain.
💰 Blockchain Startup Tenderly Raises $15+ mln to Boost Blockchain Development
Tenderly, a blockchain startup has raised $15.3 million in a Series A funding round led by Accel to accelerate the development of the blockchain ecosystem. Led by Accel, the Series A round also counted with the participation of Helloworld, Version One Ventures, and Point Nine. Angel investors like Nicolas Dessaigne (Co-founder of Algolia), Mirko Novakovic (Co-founder of Instana), and Guillermo Rauch (CEO of Vercel) also participated, bringing the total funding raised by the startup to $18.6 Million.
💰Grayscale Reveals New DeFi Fund
One of the largest crypto investment managers in the industry, Grayscale, is partnering with TradeBlock on a new decentralized finance (DeFi) fund, TradeBlock said in a press release on 19 July. According to the announcement, the Grayscale DeFi Fund will provide investors with exposure to “a selection of industry-leading DeFi protocols”, such as Uniswap (UNI) and Aave (AAVE). Through the new fund, institutional investors will be able to allocate money towards DeFi, without the need of buying tokens. The CEO of Grayscale Investments, Michael Sonnenshein, said in a statement:
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