NFT software company Dust Labs raised $7 million in a funding round during its Solana-based y00ts release on Monday. Participants in the funding round received a 50/50 split between company equity and DUST tokens. DUST is a Solana-based token and the official currency of the DeGods ecosystem. DeGods is the highest valued NFT collection on Solana. Dust Labs was created by the founders of the DeGods NFT collective.
Sales of Reddit's blockchain-based avatars on OpenSea are outperforming sales on Reddit's proprietary store. The avatars, which were released to users in August, are already generating thousands of dollars in sales for artists. Avatars that were listed for $50 or more on Reddit's store are now sold out, but they are available for a premium on OpenSea. Reddit Avatars are created by independent artists and minted on the Polygon blockchain.
Ethereum's Bellatrix upgrade kicked off on early Tuesday morning. The upgrade initiates the Merge on the beacon chain's consensus layer. Another upgrade next week will transition the network's execution layer. There was a huge spike in Ethereum's missed block rate after the upgrade. Ethereum developers claim the increase in the missed block rate is due to operators who have yet to perform software upgrades.
dAMM Finance is an uncollateralized lending platform for any token. It uses algorithmically determined interest rates. Only trusted institutions are able to participate as borrowers. Loans can be instantly claimed and borrowed. dAMM is now live on Ethereum with 25 tokens, and it aims to offer 200 tokens within its first year. It will eventually launch on Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Avalanche, and other EVM-compatible chains.
1inch users will be receiving an airdrop of Optimism tokens for their participation on the network. 300,000 OP tokens will be distributed among 1inch's most active wallets and regular users through a retrospective Merkle drop. 3,782 wallets have been selected for the airdrop. Optimism's total value locked currently stands at $892.9 million.
Sei aims to be the base layer for financial apps and institutions. The protocol plans to achieve this by building an order matching engine into the chain itself. Sei offers customization, scalability, and interoperability. It recently raised $5 million in a funding round. Sei plans to launch on mainnet in Q4.
Russia is working with several countries to create platforms for cross-border stablecoin transactions. The country recently came to the conclusion that it needs cross-border settlements in cryptocurrency. It has not named which countries it is working with. The Finance Ministry hopes to resolve issues related to cross-border payments during its autumn State Duma session.
Nigeria is in discussions to create the first economic free zone for cryptocurrencies in West Africa. The country is in talks with Binance and Talent City to create virtual free zones. It aims to create a mirror of the Dubai Virtual Free Zone. The Central Bank of Nigeria last year issued a ban on regulated institutions from dealing with cryptocurrencies. Despite the ban, Nigeria is in the top 10 countries worldwide for its bitcoin adoption.