Venture capitalists are doing fewer deals and the average deal size is getting much smaller, according to researchers.
Startup funding in the crypto industry has fallen back to Q4 2020 levels amid the ongoing cryptocurrency bear market.
According to an October 5 report by blockchain analytics firm Messari, a total of $2.1 billion across 297 deals were raised by crypto startups in Q3 2023, down 36% from the previous quarter and nearly 70% from Q3 2022.
Seed funding accounted for the largest fundraising category, with $488 million raised over 98 deals. "Trends in deal counts show a significant shift away from later-stage projects and into early-stage projects over the last three years," researchers wrote. Less than 1.4% of deals involved companies at the Series B round or later.
Crypto VC funding has been on a decline since Q2 2022
Meanwhile, strategic financing rounds rose sharply from 0.2% of total deal share in Q4 2021 to over 22% as of now. The highest private equity round during the quarter was a $200 million investment into UAE-based Islamic Coin from family office Alpha Blue Ocean’s ABO Digital. Messari stated:
"Harsh market conditions are forcing projects to raise short-term bridge rounds or ultimately get acquired by larger projects."
Despite regulatory uncertainty, 54% of all active venture capital investors were from the U.S., more than the rest of the world combined. Investors' appetites have also shifted from user-facing applications to blockchain infrastructure, with the latter consistently outperforming the former in funding for the past three months.
"However, this trend may not last for long as more investors are beginning to realize that without successful user-facing crypto applications, infrastructure investments are less likely to generate their desired returns," researchers wrote.
The 3AC co-founder purchased the Singaporean bungalow in March 2022, shortly before the hedge fund collapsed.
Crypto businessman and fugitive Su Zhu's $36 million luxury real estate in Singapore has been converted into an eco-farm.
According to recent local media reports, Zhu's residential property in the city-state's upscale Yarwood Avenue has been rebranded as "Yarwood Homestead" and operated by Abundant Cities, a company his wife, Evelyn Tao, co-founded.
Through ecological design and agroecology, the firm transformed the mansion's gardens into a mini farmland, producing vegetables, herbs, fruits, fish, and poultry. In addition, the bungalow's front lawn has been reworked into 36 vegetable gardens, growing okra, spinach, beans, kale, sesame seeds, and radishes. As for the swimming pool, it is now a natural pond containing aquatic plants, streams, and various fish and shrimp. The farm hosts a variety of on-site private gatherings.
Zhu and his spouse purchased the property in March 2022 for $36 million, shortly before his Singaporean hedge fund, Three Arrows Capital (3AC), collapsed. During the height of the crypto bull market, 3AC reportedly managed over $10 billion in digital assets. The firm filed for bankruptcy in July 2022 following a series of failed leveraged bets on the Terra Luna ecosystem and faces up to $3.5 billion in creditor claims.
On September 29, Cointelegraph reported that Su Zhu was arrested at Singapore's Changyi International Airport while attempting to leave the country after a court granted a committal order. A few days prior, Teneo, 3AC's liquidator was granted its committal request in Singapore, claiming Zhu failed to comply with a court order relating to the recovery of corporate assets. Zhu was sentenced to four months in prison for the violation.
His co-founder, Kyle Davies, a former U.S. citizen who is now a Singaporean national, was also committed to four months in prison. However, Davies' whereabouts remain unknown. Earlier this year, Davies publicly boasted that there were no "pending lawsuits or regulatory action" against him at the time.
The Yarwood Homestead "Tropical R&D Site". Source: Abundant Cities
Decentralization could help bring scientists in underfunded fields and locations to the table without requiring relocation or reemployment
The Nature science journal recently published an editorial in its Nature Bioscience section lauding the use of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) as a revolutionary new method by which researchers working in underfunded scientific fields can create communities around their work and raise funding which, otherwise, might not be available.
In a DAO-based research scheme, a project’s organization, fundraising, feedback, and pipeline from discovery to product/industry can all be handled by the same decentralized governing body.
Per the Nature article, the general workflow would also be streamlined compared to the status quo:
“Project proposals are sent to the DAO, and each DAO member is able to vote on whether a particular project should be funded. Members have tokens … to provide support and feedback to new project proposals. Research results are also provided to the DAO as projects continue, leading to further feedback and engagement. Eventually, the project will (hopefully) end up in an IP-NFT (intellectual property non-fungible token) — something like a patent, which is owned by the DAO and governed by all token holders.”
Funding can vary wildly from one scientific endeavor to another. During boom and bust periods, research into areas such as AI and quantum computing might receive huge boons from big tech, government, and follow-on investors while sectors which may have been well-funded previously, such as longevity, or those that have been traditionally underfunded, women’s health issues for example, may find funding increasingly difficult to secure.
DAOs are built on blockchain technology. This allows them to function on a digital ledger that is transparent and decentralized – meaning it isn't controlled by a single entity or institution. In the science world, this means that project funding and community interaction can be democratized.
Traditionally, those scientists working at or with the most prestigious institutions — major universities in countries with high GDPs, government institutions and contractors, big tech and big pharma companies — not only receive the most funding, but also have access to the most potential funding.
The distinction is important because, as scientists leave geographical areas with less funding to pursue research in wealthier areas, the “brain drain” associated with emigration is compounded.
And, because DAOs don’t necessarily have to respect borders (though the legalities surrounding their operation can vary by location), they can be governed by the needs and wishes of the scientists performing the research, not the country, university, or company sponsoring it.
Ultimately, the Nature editorial staff concludes that DAOs could become a crucial platform for underfunded researchers, but adoption will require further education.
“Part of this challenge is helping possible members realize that the DAO is not just a funding body,” the staff writes, “but also a community of people who care strongly about supporting a particular scientific cause.”
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Jaynti Kanani said he had stepped back “from the day-to-day grind” at Polygon roughly six months ago.
Jaynti Kanani, the co-founder of Polygon, announced that he has stepped back “from the day-to-day grind” on the project for the first time in six years.
In an Oct. 4 X (formerly Twitter) thread, Kanani said he planned to focus “on new adventures” while contributing to Polygon “from the sidelines.” Along with software engineers including Sandeep Nailwal, Anurag Arjun, and Mihailo Bjelic, Kanani helped found the Matic network in 2017, which was later rebranded to Polygon.
“Man this makes me emotional,” said Nailwal in response to the announcement. “What a ride we’ve had together brother. But its just the start for Polygon, i wish we could’ve done more for longer together in this crazy journey that is Polygon. But hey, you got to do what you got to do.”
After kickstarting Polygon in 2017, around 6 months back, I decided to step back from the day-to-day grind.
I'm more confident in Polygon's bright future and passionate community. I'll be focusing on new adventures while still cheering and contributing to Polygon from the…
Polygon’s website listed 10 co-founders of the protocol, some of whom are still involved in various side projects on the platform. Arjun departed Polygon in March with the spin-off of blockchain data availability protocol Avail.
Polygon Labs has begun accepting improvement proposals aimed at transitioning the network to Polygon 2.0 since plans were announced in June. The new ecosystem will use zero-knowledge proofs and be made up of four protocol layers focused on staking, interop, execution and proving. At the time of publication, developers were still working on “bringing Polygon 2.0 to life”.
XRP price pumped after U.S. Judge Analisa Torres rejected the SEC’s appeal, and Ripple was approved for a Singapore payments license.
XRP (XRP) price is up today following news that Federal District Judge Analisa Torres of the Southern District of New York ruled against the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) contention that XRP is a security.
XRP immediately reached $0.55, but subsequently gave away part of the gains on Oct. 4.
XRP token 4-hour index price, USD. Source: TradingView
Ripple’s favorable court decision spurred mixed opinions from experts
In an Oct. 3 court order, Judge Torres claimed that the matter did not require an order that "involved a controlling question of law," which is an essential condition for approving an interlocutory appeal. This decision sparked a debate among crypto law experts in the community.
Bill Hughes, a lawyer at blockchain firm ConsenSys, told Cointelegraph that the rejection of the SEC's appeal was fairly expected, given that appeals of this nature are not usual during this part of a trial.
Similarly, Gabriel Shapiro, general counsel at Delphi Labs, warned XRP bulls to temper their enthusiasm, as the SEC could still appeal the case later. This means that the regulator needs to wait until after the trial's conclusion, which is scheduled to begin on April 23, 2024.
Ripple gets approval for a Singapore digital payments license
In an Oct. 4 statement, Ripple announced that its local entity, Ripple Markets Asia Pacific, was granted a "Major Payment Institution (MPI) license" for digital payment token services in Singapore. This decision will allow the company to continue operations in the city-state after receiving in-principle approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in June.
According to Ripple, the license allows its subsidiary to further scale its On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service offering, an enterprise solution that uses XRP as a bridge between two currencies. This eliminates the need for pre-funding of destination accounts and reduces operational costs.
Ripple picked as a contender for Georgia’s CBDC pilot
On Sept. 28, the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) announced that nine companies, including Ripple, would take part in the research of their central bank digital currency (CBDC). Known as the digital lari, or GEL, the project aims to be programmable and support asset tokenization.
The Eastern European country, with a population of 3.7 million, intends to launch a limited-access live pilot environment, where only one of the participating companies will be selected to move forward. The NBG announced that it was considering issuing a CBDC in May 2021, without providing a timeline for it.
There was modest impact on XRP derivatives’ demand
The demand for XRP futures did not present meaningful changes as the open interest, which measures the aggregate notional of contracts still in play, increased by 13% versus the previous day. Furthermore, the current $590 million open interest falls short to the $794 million from one month prior.
Notice that the XRP futures funding rate has consistently stayed below 0.01% every 8 hours, which is equivalent to 0.20% per week. Positive values indicate that long positions are covering the cost of leverage, but a funding rate below 1% per week is generally not considered expensive.
Considering the inability to surpass the $0.54 mark, which would have been the highest level in six weeks, and the lack of demand for leverage through futures contracts, it's reasonable to doubt whether the recent positive news flow has convinced investors that XRP is about to enter a bull run.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
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nBTC will be usable across more than 50 app-chains connected to Cosmos IBC.
Osmosis, the largest decentralized exchange (DEX) on Cosmos, will be bringing Bitcoin (BTC) to the namesake inter-blockchain communications (IBC) protocol together with Nomic and Kujira.
According to an October 3 announcement during the Cosmoverse 2023 Conference, users can transfer Bitcoin to the Cosmos network via Osmosis' Nomic bridge for 1.5% of the transaction value. Users then receive Nomic Bitcoin (nBTC), an IBC-compatible token issued by Nomic Chain, on a one-to-one basis. The nBTC can be bought, sold, and used to provide liquidity on Osmosis. They are also usable across more than 50 Cosmos-linked app chains.
The nBTC Interchain Upgrade will be released on October 27 and is expected to activate on October 30. Through a separate partnership with decentralized finance protocol Kujira, users can send BTC to the latter's Sonar wallet address and self-custody their nBTC. The same seed phrases can restore users' BTC and nBTC wallets. The nBTC can also be used as collateral to mint Kujira's native stablecoin USK and for borrowing and lending within the ecosystem. In addition, users can bid for liquidated nBTC collaterals.
Nomic developers say that during the early stages of nBTC's launch, there will be a hard cap of 21 BTCs for the cross-chain bridge. "When the bridge reaches its capacity limit, applications will not be able to generate deposit addresses and users will not be able to deposit more BTC. This parameter will be controlled by Nomic DAO governance in an upcoming upgrade," developers wrote.
#Bitcoin is coming to the Cosmos via @nomicbtc at the end of October
We want to let all you good people know the various use cases that will be immediately available on the Kujira network, so you can put your $nBTC to work when it arrives.
Here’s how the former FTX CEO may have spent his time behind bars since a judge revoked his bail in August.
Reflection of guilt? SBF faces the man in the mirror.
Here’s how the former FTX CEO may have spent his time behind bars since a judge revoked his bail in August.
Legal weights on his conscience and now in his makeshift gym.
WiFi connection lost, much like his credibility.
Jailhouse vegan woes: SBF resorts to peanut butter sandwiches.
SBF’s desperate texts to Caroline fall on deaf ears.
SBF misses his WiFi more than ethical business practices.
A clean shave for a dirty game. Too little, too late?
Suited up but nowhere to hide.
Unlike in League of Legends, there’s no respawning here.
This article is for general information purposes and should not be taken literally. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed are a work of fiction and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
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