GM Digest #425 — Crypto VC Fundraising
GM Digest #425 — Crypto VC Fundraising
Good Morning with Valuable Alpha / News
Crypto VC Fundraising Spree
• Crypto VCs have raised over $2.2 billion in new capital through closed funds this year as of August, according to PitchBook
• ParaFi’s $120m fundraise, Borderless Capital $100m fund, Hack VC $77m fund, and Robot Ventures $75m fund
• DePIN seems to be the focus of new funds as it’s very “bear market resistant”. DePIN derives value from traditional sectors, building solid business fundamentals while bringing value to Web3 / Tokens (Source: The Block)
Pyth’s OIS
• Oracle Integrity Staking (OIS) is a new feature from @PythNetwork that introduces on-chain staking rewards and penalties (slashing) to improve accountability and security
• It allows developers and users to help secure Pyth by staking $PYTH tokens. Publishers who stake and provide high-quality data are rewarded, while those providing faulty data face penalties. OIS supports all 500+ Pyth price feeds
• The Pyth DAO oversees the system, managing updates and deciding how slashed amounts are used
Drift Series B
• @DriftProtocol has raised $25M in a Series B round, bringing total funding to $52.5M. The funds will help Drift scale its DeFi platform across three main areas:
• Enhancing PERPS + EARN products with new liquidity mechanisms, collateral types, and yield sources
• Launching new products, such as BET, and focusing on improved mobile experiences
• Growing the Drift ecosystem by supporting community projects, like launchpads and tokenized vaults, through Drift Foundation
Amnis Raise
• @AmnisFinance raised $2M in seed funding, led by @OKX_Ventures & @borderless_cap, with additional backing from Aptos Labs, Gate Ventures, and others
• The funds will help Amnis enhance its role as a liquid staking protocol on the Aptos blockchain and integrate deeper into Aptos' DeFi
Honey Jar Gen 4
• The @0xhoneyjar Generation 4 NFT mint will take place on Sept 23 on the Optimism blockchain
• The collection has 8,677 NFTs, with 3,232 reserved for ApDAO seats and 5,395 available for public mint at $150 in ETH
• Honey Jar NFTs grant access to ApiologyDAO and are part of a jar game where holders can win valuable NFTs
• Raffle winners and Honeycomb holders, are eligible for free mints or discounts. The mint has no priority window, and free mints are on a first-come, first-serve basis
Introducing Ranger
• @ranger_finance introduced Ranger, Solana’s perp DEX aggregator. It unifies and gives access to liquidity across multiple perp DEXes and allow users to open positions of up to $4.5m with their smart order router
• Ranger also has an integrated data dashboard allowing users to easily compare OI/ Funding/ Liquidation across the various perp dexes on Solana. The team also announced their partnership with Asgard for spot margin and offering up to 10x leverage
• The beta will start this week
Introducing Stablecoin Maxi
• @eulerfinance introduces Stablecoin Maxi, a lending product which unlocks better capital efficiency for trading stable assets
• It features a mix of tokenized, yield-bearing, synthetic and fiat stablecoins namely USDC, USDe, sUSDe, stUSD, USD0 and USDY which are also cross-collateralized with high pairwise LTVs for maximum capital efficiency
• Users can now:
⇢ Collateralize sUSDe and USDe to get @ethena_labs sats
⇢ Lend or borrow with USD0 to get @usualmoney Pills
⇢ Collateralize stUSD to get @AngleProtocol’s $ANGLE tokens
⇢ Lend USDC to get Euler XP
• The vaults are managed by @K3_capital, @MEVCapital and @Re7Capital
Misc News
• VP Harris says she’ll “encourage innovative technologies like AI and digital assets while protecting our consumers and investors” • Ethereum transaction fees have spiked over the past week in a recovery from lows earlier this month, when the network’s average transaction fee hit its lowest value since 2020.