Aptos Labs has raised $150 million in a Series A funding round led by FTX Ventures. The company, staffed by former Meta employees, aims to bring Meta's Diem blockchain back to life. It plans to create the safest and most production-ready blockchain in the world. Aptos Labs has raised $350 million this year.
Voyager Digital has rejected an offer from Alameda Ventures to buy out its digital assets. Alameda had offered to buy out all of Voyager's assets and outstanding loans except for the defaulted loan to Three Arrows Capital. Voyager claims that the deal could potentially harm customers by subverting a coordinated, confidential, and competitive bidding process. It claims the proposal is essentially just a liquidation of Voyager's assets. Voyager's bankruptcy proceedings could take years.
Moonbeam to Osmosis cross-chain integration is now live via the Axelar Network. Users will now be able to swap tokens with just one click. The integration brings together the Polkadot and Cosmos ecosystems. The first token that can move between the ecosystems is DOT, which is now available on Osmosis. Moonbeam will eventually serve as a gateway for Substrate-based tokens from other chains to access the Cosmos ecosystem through Osmosis.
Tether, Bitfinex, and Hypercore have launched a peer-to-peer platform for developers to build web3 applications. Holepunch is a fully encrypted protocol for peer-to-peer applications. Keet, an app that facilitates communications using distributed technology, will be the first project to be built and launched on Holepunch. The Holepunch platform will support USDT tokens and the Lightning Network for in-app payments.
This Twitter thread summarizes findings from Chainalysis' 109-page State of Web3 report. The report covers institutional investment in web3, DeFi usage, DAO statistics, and web3 and privacy. web3 is far more established now than in past cycles. Crypto is still risky, but it is not going to tank or go away overnight. It will still likely take some time before the market will bounce back.
The traditional bankruptcy process can take years and cost customers hundreds of millions of dollars. FTX's offer to Voyager would allow customers to receive their share of remaining funds as soon as possible while retaining their claim of whatever can be recovered from Three Arrows Capital. Customers could choose not to claim their funds through the deal. Bankruptcy consultant fees could end up costing customers more as the process continues.
Sam Kazemian, the founder of Frax Finance, says that stablecoins need to be more collaborative and grow each other's liquidity and the ecosystem as a whole. There won't ever be true competition between stablecoins as long as stablecoin liquidity is growing proportionally. Each token is increasingly intertwined and reliant on other tokens' performance. USDC's proliferation across the industry and its transparency about its reserves should make it the most valuable stablecoin for collaboration within the ecosystem.
This article presents reflections from people who have jumped to web3 from web2. Those who make the leap are usually frustrated with red tape, want the autonomy to call the shots and work remotely, and are future-forward. The incentives in web3 are aligned differently than in other industries and workers are more invested. There are tax implications for working in web3 that many are not aware of.