Venture Trotter Weekly Review: Week Ending 9/9/22

Last Week’s Crypto Investment Highlights

Links to the recipient website, investment announcement, and token info are provided via hyperlinks on the Recipient Name, $ Raised, and Token columns respectively.

Recipient	$ Raised	Lead Investors	Description	Token
Mysten Labs	$300,000,000	FTX Ventures	Developer of Sui, a decentralized, proof of stake blockchain with horizontally scalable throughput and storage	SUI
Fuel Labs	$80,000,000	Blockchain Capital, Stratos Technologies	The world's fastest modular execution layer
Community Labs	$30,000,000	Lightspeed Venture Partners	Native software development company and venture studio focused on accelerating developer tools, use cases, and adoption of Arweave
21.co	$25,000,000	Marshall Wace	Providing access to crypto through simple, easy to use products	Various
Spice AI	$13,500,000	Madrona	Helping developers build the next-generation of AI-driven applications
Gameplay Galaxy	$12,800,000	Blockchain Capital	Building a web3 competitive games decentralized ecosystem	TBD
Slide	$12,300,000	Polychain Capital, Framework Ventures	Enables dApps to serve effortless web3 experiences to their users – no crypto background necessary
Credix	$11,250,000	Motive Partners, ParaFi Capital	Connecting institutional investors globally with credit opportunities	Various
Omni	$11,000,000	Spartan Group, GSR Ventures, and Eden Block, OP Crypto, Shima Capital, Kosmos Ventures, Daedalus Angels, PrimeBlock Ventures, Figment Capital, Lattice Capital, Chorus One	Noncustodial web3 wallet
B+J Studios	$10,000,000	Brevan Howard Digital, Big Brain Holdings, Foundation Capital, Starting Line, Republic Capital	0 to 1 builder studio developing world class blockchain-based solutions for mainstream consumer and institutional-grade use cases
Dust Labs	$7,000,000	Foundation Capital, Solana Ventures, Metaplex, Jump, FTX Ventures, Chapter One	Building software that helps NFT communities bring more value to their holders	DUST
Hubble Protocol	$5,000,000	Multicoin Capital	Stablecoin protocol	USDH, HBB
VerifyVASP	$5,000,000	FTX Ventures	Travel rule solution for virtual asset service providers to facilitate their compliance with the travel rule requirements across jurisdictions
Metaverse Magna	$3,200,000	Wemade, Gumi Cryptos Capital, HashKey, Tess Ventures, LD Capital, Taureon, AFF, Polygon Studios, Casper Johansen, IndiGG	Gaming DAO
Stack	$2,700,000	Madrona, The Venture Collective, Santa Clara Ventures	Web 3 access & education for teens and their parents
Rated Labs	$2,500,000	1confirmation	Developer of an eth2 validator rating model
Sentiment	$2,400,000	Archetype Ventures	Permissionless DeFi protocol that enables borrowing of up to 500% LTV through unique delegated ownership accounts	Ltoken; Lether
Total Invested	$533,650,000

21.co is the parent company of 21Shares, the largest issuer of crypto Exchange Traded Products (ETPs), and Amun, a DeFi token provider. 21Shares two products are the 21Shares Crypto Basket 10 Index Fund and the 21Shares Crypto Basket 10 Index Fund. As for Amun, in order to purchase their tokens, you will need to confirm that you don’t live in a restricted country.

Credix is private credit platform where institutional lenders (hedge funds, family offices, and alternative asset managers) can connect with fintechs and non-bank lenders in emerging markets. If successful, this would be a massive web 3 use case for institutional capital.

Dust Labs created the utility token DUST, the official currency for the DeGods Solana-based NFT collection. They also created the y00ts minting website. The $7 million raise is a 50/50 split between company equity and the DUST token, so it locks a significant portion of DUST from the market.

Hubble Protocol created the Solana-native stablecoin USDH. Users can deposit crypto assets to mint USDH, which can then be used to earn yield across Solana, used as a means of payment, or earn native rewards on Hubble. HBB is Hubble’s ecosystem token, and it will become their governance token when Hubble transitions into a DAO.

Metaverse Magna is an African gaming DAO by Nestcoin. In this DAO, users can join communities and play games like Axie Infinity and Candy Crush and earn crypto rewards from competitions and tournaments.

Mysten Labs creator of SUI, the token for an upcoming permissionless Layer 1 blockchain, raised a $300 million Series B round. Similar to Aptos Labs, whose recent $150 million raise was previously covered in the week ending 7/29 Venture Trotter newsletter, Mysten Labs’ founding team includes former employees of Meta who worked on the defunct Diem project. Sui will compete against Aptos and Solana. Aptos raised a total of about $350 million so far, compared to Mysten Labs’ $336 million in total funding to date.

Sentiment is a DeFi protocol that enables users to borrow up to 500% LTV. Lenders provide liquidity which is lent as undercollateralized debt in return for yield. Lenders receive LTokens which can be burned later to receive initial principal and accrued interest. Alternatively, LEther serves as a version of LTokens that allow deposits and withdrawals in ETH.

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