Web3 Financial News

Decentralized finance (DeFi) first took the world by storm in 2020. Now, two years later, the world has grown to know several successful DeFi projects. Despite these successes, like any new field, several problems have also arisen. 

Cryptocurrency exchange Okcoin, along with the Stacks Accelerator and Stacks Foundation, announced on Thursday the start of the “Bitcoin Odyssey,” a one-year commitment among investment firms to invest $165 million in inventive solutions to help drive Bitcoin (BTC) adoption.

Despite extreme volatility in the price of crypto assets, venture funds continue to make strategic investments in the industry. In recent weeks, the focus has shifted to infrastructure developers in Web3, play-to-earn and GameFi — nascent industries that still have significant upside ahead.

In 2018, the two main ways video game players can earn a living were through e-sports and live streaming — or perhaps a successful YouTube channel. But, thanks to the rise of blockchain technology, the financial aspect has never been more interwoven with the gaming industry. While most users are acquainted with one or two facets of financialization in gaming such as earning and cashing out rewards from completing game quests a la Axie Infinity, there are several other methods exist that have yet to be explored by most users in the cryptocurrency market’s flourishing new vertical called GameFi.

A handful of venture capital firms own most of the web3 market

Will emojis become the Web3 version of a username? That’s what Nashville-based tech startup Yat believes and with 160,000 sold worth a combined $20 million, it seems plenty of ordinary people agree.

Dune Analytics, a leading data analytics platform, has announced a capital raise of $69,420,000, in addition to a $1 billion-dollar valuation, the latter of which means that the company attained "unicorn" status, which describes privately-held startups that have attained a valuation of $1 billion or more. 

According to the founder and CEO of virtual party platform Party.Space, niche “Microverse experiences” will be the future of the Metaverse.

YouTube's CEO, Susan Wojcicki, addressed YouTube's priorities for 2022 in a letter published Tuesday on the company blog. Among those priorities is the possibility of adding nonfungible token, or NFT, features for the platform's video creators.

New research suggests that during the height of COVID-19, the number of people searching for a furry friend to keep them company hit new highs – not only physically but also in the Metaverse.

web3.' The VCs and their LPs do.,Jack Dorsey tweeted this esoteric salvo in late December, not long after he stepped down as the head of Twitter to focus on advancing his Bitcoin ambitions. The post, swiping at the power held by venture capitalists and their limited partners as they try to reorganize the internet around blockchain technology, an effort known as web3, soon set off a public feud among members of the Silicon Valley ruling class. The dispute over what many herald as the next arena of technological revolution has drawn increasingly hard lines. Elon Musk is with Dorsey; Marc Andreessen is his enemy. The web3 revolution, backers say, promises the democratization of commerce and information by building a better internet on blockchain networks — distributed ledger systems that form the basis of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. It theoretically would cut out traditional middlemen and gatekeepers, letting users transact directly and have a greater stake in the programs they use.

Web3, the still hazy term for blockchain-based, decentralized systems

Polygon has partnered with technology management firm Lumos Labs to launch PolygonLEAP 2021 Accelerator. This partnership will support Indian startups that want to start their Web3 journey, build innovative token economies, and get access to mentorship, ecosystem and marketing support.

Bitcoin was worth just over $7,000. Today, it’s trading at about $50,000, and the value of all cryptocurrencies, of which Bitcoin is one among many, is some $2.3 trillion.

“My mom cried when I got the job as valet at the Bored Ape Yacht Club, one of the preeminent social clubs for apes. She hooted and grunted and peeled open one of our finest bananas. ‘Jenkins,’ she said, ‘you’re going to rub shoulders with some of the finest apes from around the world.’ I rolled my eyes. She had a knack for embellishment, and I was only going to be a valet after all.”

If you follow technology, it would be impossible not to get dragged into the Web3 blackhole – right from WhatsApp chats to Twitter circles. For tech founders, some of it has become a key discussion point and they are keeping tabs on what’s being done in this space. A few have already taken the plunge.

Multichain transaction network Biconomy has concluded a public token sale of its BICO cryptocurrency, onboarding more than 12,500 new tokenholders in the process, the company announced Thursday.