February 19: Trust portfolioLaunched a self-managed wallet SWIFT, a smart contract wallet, in collaboration with Biconomy. According to the team, the launch “represents a major shift in the industry by redefining Web3 accessibility for 80 million users. SWIFT integration of Account Abstraction technology simplifies setup, enhances security with biometric passkeys, and ensures seamless management of gas fees. With features like click “Single transaction and support for over 200 tokens, SWIFT sets a new standard for user-centric web3 wallets.” The collaboration “leverages Biconomy’s innovative Paymaster and Bundler infrastructure.”
ZkSync's ZeroLend launches native governance token ZERO
February 19: Zero Lind, the second largest protocol on zkSync, is set to launch its native governance token ZERO in the first quarter of 2024. This comes on the back of a $3 million seed round. The DeFi protocol observed a 1,000% growth in TVL from $3 million to $40 million in the past few months as users searched for new potential airdrops and interacted with zkSync-based platforms.
AltLayer, a platform that launches Rollups, raises $14.4 million from Polychain and Hack VC
February 19: Alternative classan open and decentralized protocol for launching local and repackaged pools using Optimistic and ZK pools, has raised $14.4 million in a strategic fundraising round led by Polychain Capital and Hack VC, according to the team: “The company is looking to expand the global team amid a growing number of strategic partnerships and projects.” “Our major development focus is centered around innovating our infrastructure from the combined collections.”
Y Combinator, the startup incubator behind Airbnb, Coinbase and Stripe, is looking to invest in stablecoin financing.
February 19: Y consolidatedThe Silicon Valley incubator has included stablecoin financing as a category in its new and updated list of areas in which it wants to deploy funds, according to a startup request list (RFS) released last week.
BNB Chain issues a report on its history
February 19: BNP Series It has released a brand story report, “BNB Chain & the Web3 Blueprint,” which analyzes “the progress, use cases, and impact across the three community-led blockchains,” according to the team: “It also delves into their history and journey since BSC’s inception in 2017 under the name Binance Chain, and its evolution.” To Binance Smart Chain and its eventual emergence as BNB Smart Chain, it is one of the most popular layer-one (L1) ecosystems in the world, averaging over 1 million DAU, and opBNB.
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Wormhole collaborates with Succint on “ZK Light Client”
February 18: Wormhole Foundation, which supports teams building products for the Wormhole cross-chain messaging protocol, said in a blog post that it is “collaborating with the team at Succint to build an Ethereum ZK light client as part of an ongoing effort to advance the decentralization of message verification within Wormhole.” Wormhole ZK is leveraged by developers to reduce trust in the Wormhole platform, improve cross-chain composability and increase network security. Read more about Wormhole ZK's vision in the recently announced trailer ZK road map“.
Justin Sun Tweets Tron DAO Roadmap for Bitcoin Layer-2
February 16: Tron daoThe Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) behind the TRON network, which has more than 210 million user accounts, has revealed its roadmap for building an innovative layer 2 solution for Bitcoin, according to… Tweet from Tron founder Justin Sun. “This solution will revolutionize the way we think about blockchain interoperability and the use of stablecoins within the Bitcoin ecosystem,” according to a message from the team. “Let's make #Bitcoin fun again!” Sun Books. (TRX)
Silencio, the decentralized network for using smartphones as noise pollution sensors, raises $1 million
February 16: Silence, a decentralized network of smartphones that act as noise pollution sensors, has closed a $1 million funding round led by Borderless Capital, a leading investor in the DePIN space, according to the team: “Together with Borderless Capital, funding from Moonrock Capital, Master will be used to Ventures and others to expand and enhance our community-led noise pollution sensor network, improve data integrity for well-being, and support strategic initiatives.This investment represents an important milestone for Silencio as it seeks to redefine data coverage by integrating Peaq, the first layer of blockchain for applications The real world.” Silencio chose the Peaq network last year as a tier-1 blockchain.
Subsquid joins Google BigQuery for multi-threaded projects
February 16: Squida peer-to-peer network for bulk query and aggregated data, has joined forces with Google's BigQuery for multi-chain projects to leverage Subsquid with BigQuery to quickly analyze its usage on different threads and gain insights into fees, running costs, and trends, according to the team: “It has supported sub-indexing more of $11 billion in dapps and L1/L2 value, with 30,000 participants, including tens of thousands of developers, and over 40,000 indexers deployed.”
RW3, a Blockchain-focused venture capital led by Pete Najarian, raises $80 million
February 15: RW3 projects $60 million raised for RW3 Ventures Fund I LP, according to the team: “The fund will target investments in early-stage blockchain and Web3 companies, with a focus on teams seeking to leverage blockchain technology to disrupt real-world industries and business models.” With large markets to address. The round was led by Raptor Group and Mubadala Capital, an asset management company wholly owned by Mubadala Investment Company, a global sovereign investor based in Abu Dhabi. RW3 is led by Pete Najarian and Joe Bruzzese, two well-known figures in the digital asset space.”
Funding of the schemes appears with $7.5 million in funding and a concrete protocol
February 15: Financing scheme It announced that it has come out of the dark with $7.5 million in funding from local crypto investors including Tribe Capital, Hashed, Portal Ventures, SALT and others – to solve the problem of crypto liquidations. According to the team: Blueprint's flagship product is Concrete Protocol, an application chain specifically designed for on-chain debit and credit. Concrete increases returns, liquidation protection, and advanced predictions across all types of DeFi, starting with money markets.”
QuickNode adds support for ZkSync Hyperchains
February 15: Fast knot,Web3 development platform, now supports zkSync Super Chains“Enhancing our custom blockchain offerings for customers looking for fast, scalable ZK technology,” according to the team: “Hyperchains, powered by ZK Stack, ensure robust data privacy, ideal for enterprise use cases while maintaining compliance. It runs in parallel with the zkSync mainnet, “enabling seamless asset connectivity and liquidity flow. And with QuickNode's interfacing infrastructure, companies can focus on building plug-and-play blockchain applications.”
Lava, Cosmos-based Appchain, raises $15M, plans to launch mainnet
February 15: Lavaa proof-of-stake blockchain built using the Cosmos SDK, has raised a $15 million seed round, led by Tribe, Jump, and Hashkey Capital, according to the team: “Mainnet is launching at the end of Q1/early Q2. The vision is to build a layer “Modular data access for Web3, allowing developers to easily build applications on any chain or cluster. Lava is uniquely designed for both technical and non-technical users to contribute to scaling the network and launches a points system to reward users.”
Injective adds mainnet support for associating a Solana domain name with a wormhole
February 15: Injectiona blockchain designed for finance built with the Cosmos SDK, now supports “interoperable Domain Name Service (DNS) on the mainnet: Solana Domain Name Bridge with Wormhole (previously available on testnet). The cross-chain integration further converges the Web3 and Web2 experience by allowing users to leverage individual domain names like Web2 when making transactions, and represents a major breakthrough in ecosystem collaboration, including Bonfida and Wormhole. More details from Injective and Bonfida. The Injective infrastructure features a unique two-way cross-chain interaction facilitated by Wormhole. This results in a more efficient and streamlined domain service experience when initiating SNS transactions. Adoption is simple: users can purchase .sol domains as well as use .sol and .inj domains via Injective dApps, further expanding the domain experience across the chain.” (INJ)
Helica, data analytics provider for Web3 games, raises $8M from Pantera, Animoca, Diagram, Sfermion
February 15: IUD, a data analytics and infrastructure company for traditional and Web3 gaming with clients such as Animoca Brands and Yoga Labs, announces the completion of its $8 million Series A fundraising from Pantera, Animoca, Diogram and Sfermion. According to the team: “This funding will help Helika grow its suite of AI-powered products and services, which currently collect data across multiple chains, social media and gaming platforms and aggregate that data into actionable insights for game studios to leverage in user acquisition, retention and engagement to drive revenue in end of the day.”
