A “universal exchange” and derivatives protocol brings tokenized real-world assets (RWA) on-chain. ProsperEx raised an undisclosed amount in a strategic round from EMURGO Ventures, the venture capital offshoot of Cardano’s developer. The on-chain derivative protocol supports perpetual contracts, options, spot trading, DeFi mining, staking, and more. Regarding tradeable assets, the protocol supports both cryptocurrencies as well as tokenized TradFi assets like futures, stocks, and gold.
ProsperEx is taking applications for their “Early Bird Plan” which will involve purchasing 10 nodes for 10,000 USDT. Early Bird adopters will receive a vested airdrop of 500,000 PPE tokens along with other benefits including participation in DAO governance, and a 50% discount on exchange transaction fees.
A new decentralized GPU network can be used for AI model training, Web3 metaverses, high-end graphics rendering, and cryptocurrency mining. GPU.Net raised $500,000 in a round led by Momentum 6 and Alphablockz. This is an on-chain market for the rental of GPU compute, and is operating in a space that Ruceto has heavily researched (see our free report on ChainML here, and both of our Web3 / AI reports here and here).
As the explosive growth of investment into AI really picked up after the launch of ChatGPT, GPU became a precious commodity and Nvidia’s market cap crossed $1 Trillion. A number of Web3 projects are addressing the current GPU shortage by enabling individuals or institutions to rent out their idle GPU compute in return for yield. We have spent so much time on this topic because it could potentially turn out to be one of the most important blockchain use cases. If Web3 companies can support startups that don’t necessarily have the resources to invest in massive amounts of expensive hardware (GPU chips), or to pay inflated prices to rent GPU from Big Tech (AWS/GCP/Azure), a lot of new capital, adoption, and credibility will move into Web3.
The native toke of GPU.Net is GPU. A testnet is scheduled for September 2023.
A new protocol is working to increase content recommendation and distribution for Web 3 social networks. Tako Protocol, a builder of a peer-to-peer social recommendation protocol, raised $2 million in a pre-seed round. Tako helps content creators reach their intended audience with a model it calls “User as a Curator,” where “User” includes content creators, curators, and consumers. Users who want to boost the visibility of their content can offer bids on specific profiles whose followers they wish to engage. This increases the chances of high-quality niche content to be discovered, and it also provides content creators with an additional tool to monetize their existing followings. Governance will be handled by a DAO. Ecosystem partners include Lens Protocol, CyberConnect (we just wrote a deep dive on them that you can see here), Optimism, Polygon, and more.
List of VC Investments into Crypto Projects
The full list of the institutional investments that Ruceto tracked last week is below. Links to the target company website, investment announcement, and token info are provided via hyperlinks on the Target Name, $ Raised, and Token columns respectively.
| Target Name | $ Raised | Lead Investors | Description | Token |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Kindred Ventures |
Platform that enables marketers to create custom marketing plans based on users' wallet data |
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Dragonfly Capital |
Enables NFT creators to build digital marketplaces and pull in orders from Opensea, LooksRare, x2y2, Foundation and more |
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Greenfield |
Enables the liquid staking of Bitcoin in Lightening Network. BTC can be locked in a smart contract that Shroom Network built in return for lnBTC. lnBTC can be exchanged 1:1 for BTC at any moment. |
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gumi Cryptos Capital |
Built infrastructure to help developers who want to integrate zero knowledge technology into new apps |
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Mask Network, DWF Ventures, UOB Venture, Signum Capital, AC capital, SmrtiLab, HashBrown Research, RSS3 and others |
Building an open social recommendation infrastructure layer for Web3 social networks |
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Sequoia China, SevenX Ventures |
Web3 project incubator |
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EMURGO Ventures |
A universal DEX that is making inroads to real world asset tokenization |
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Cypher Capital |
Enables content creators, freelancers, and self-employed entrepreneurs to monetize their content |
TBD |
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Momentum 6, Alphablockz |
A decentralized GPU resource network to support generative AI, Web3 metaverses, high-end graphics rendering, and cryptocurrency mining |
What is Going on at Ruceto?
On 9/1 we published our deep dive report on CyberConnect that you can view here! This Web 3 social platform’s token, CYBER, was just listed on Binance on August 15th and spent two weeks trading in a range between $3.50 and $5. On August 29th the token’s price began to rocket to the moon and shot up from $3.60 to over $15 in a mere 3 days. In our report we shared if we think that it really makes sense for this project to have a fully diluted market cap of over $1 billion, or if this was an unsustainable speculative pump similar to what Gamestop went through last year.
Disclaimer: The content presented is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, tax, legal, or professional advice. Nothing contained in this report is a direct or indirect recommendation or suggestion to buy, sell, make, or hold any investment, loan, commodity, security, or token, or to undertake any investment or trading strategy with respect to any investment, loan, commodity, security, token, or any issuer. Ruceto does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, sequence, or timeliness of any of this content. Please see our Terms of Service for more information.