Venture Trotter Weekly Review: Week Ending 3/3/23

Ruceto tracked over $85 million in institutional investments into crypto or web3 companies last week. 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
Bitkraft Ventures, Hashed, Delphi Digital, Mechanism Capital
Metaverse project founded by developers of EverQuest, Call of Duty, Diablo, God of War, Assassin’s Creed and Elden Ring
Pantera Capital
Web3 platform for digital collectibles
FAR
Shanda Group
Singapore-based decentralised digital asset exchange
DWF Labs
PoW/PoS hybrid blockchain that can achieve the same level of decentralization and security as Bitcoin and Ethereum, but with much higher transaction throughput and finality latency
CFX
HV Capital, 1kx
Enterprise-grade cloud storage solution based on web3 technology
Cumberland, Greenfield Capital
Order book-based decentralised exchange protocol
Slow Ventures, Haun Ventures, and others
Software infrastructure for wallets and Web3 navigation
North Island Ventures, Chapter One, and Node Capital
A decentralized, non-custodial delegated staking protocol with a Liquid Staking Derivative token
Cumberland Labs
Fully regulated, institutional-grade investment management platform for DeFi
Diagram Ventures
Web3 analytics to help you understand your users, increase engagement, and drive growth
Sora Ventures
Web3 social content platform
Electric Capital
DeFi lending protocol
Hashkey Capital, Infinite Capital
Protocol for accessing returns from NFTs
Middlegame Ventures
Crypto custodian designed for institutional investors

Conflux is a PoW/PoS hybrid L1 blockchain that uses its “Tree-graph” algorithm to complete 3,000 transactions per second with a confirmation time of 23 seconds. It is the only permissionless blockchain network endorsed by the Chinese government, and Conflux is actively expanding their ecosystem in China (i.e. China Telecom, the 2nd largest wireless carrier in China, and Little Red Book, a Chinese version of Instagram). Conflux is positioning itself to specifically benefit from increased adoption in Asia, and this narrative will likely be a primary driver of future price action. The token, CFX, is currently available for trading.

Few and Far is a NFT + DeFi marketplace on NEAR Protocol. The future of the platform will be largely dependent on adoption by web3 developers and IP owners. The company’s infrastructure and ability to assist developers to launch programmable NFTs on NEAR with only a few lines of code can lower the barrier on entry for developers, while protecting royalties for IP owners. The company’s native token is FAR, which will offer rewards for stakers. FAR will be listed on major exchanges and NEAR DEXs.

ether.fi is an ETH staking protocol where users delegate staking to node operators while keeping their own keys. The company is attempting to address issues around custody and risk related to existing liquid staking derivatives. When a staker depots 32 ETH and mints a new withdrawal safe and 2 NFTs created (T-NFT, B-NFT) which represent ownership of the safe. The T-NFT is transferable and represents the ownership of 30 ETH, while the B-NFT cannot be transferred and represent ownership of 2 ETH. Stakers who wish to deposit less than 32 ETH can deposit any amount into liquidity pools to mint eETH, accrue rewards, and can swap back to ETH any time. ether.fi launched on 3/1/23.

insrt finance allows NFT holders (traders, collectors, or treasuries) to earn passive income by depositing assets into vaults which represent sets of programmatically managed strategies. Current strategies focus on either exposure to the value appreciation of an NFT collection, capture of liquidity protocol trading fees, or yield farming via collateralization. The project’s in-house series of utility NFTs is INSRT (available here). Holders of INSRT will have access to staking income, reduced fees, and governance rights.

REPUBLIK is a web3 content creation platform for content creators. Powered by smart contracts, the platform allows creators of all sizes to interact with fans at different levels via streaming or selling digital and physical merchandise. Creators will be able to bring visibility to themselves by joining viral challenges where both creators and fans can earn rewards. Creators will have the ability to stream to a large audience, or connect one-on-one with fans while collecting tips and donations.

Term Finance enables fixed-term loans issued through on-chain auctions. Users can search for auctions by the token being borrowed or lent, and borrowers and lenders submit both bids and asking rates. A contract algorithm selects a fixed clearing rate which is applied to lenders who asked for less than that rate, and borrowers who bid more than that rate. Principal and interest are both paid at maturity.

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Disclaimer: The content presented is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, tax, legal, or professional advice. The content is provided ‘as is’ without any representations or warranties, express or implied.

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