Cryptoday 1.20 | Aleph.im, a decentralized storage network, raises $10 million in funding led by Stratos Technologies
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Cryptoday 1.20 | Aleph.im, a decentralized storage network, raises $10 million in funding led by Stratos Technologies
Life is like a book; fools flip through it hastily, while the wise read it carefully. Why is this so? Because they can read it only once.
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Cryptoday is a daily news column under TechFlow, focusing not on "news," but on asset movements.
Life is like a book; fools rush through it, while the wise read it carefully. Why so? Because they can only read it once.
——Paul
Funding Updates
Decentralized storage network Aleph.im raises $10 million led by Stratos Technologies
According to Cointelegraph, decentralized storage and computing network Aleph.im has raised $10 million in funding, led by Stratos Technologies, with participation from Zeeprime, NOIA Capital, Theia, Bitfwd Capital, and others. The cross-chain network aims to provide fully decentralized computing power and censorship-resistant data storage. Aleph.im plans to launch its first compute resource node in January, which will eventually serve as the primary processing engine of the network.
Canadian crypto exchange Shakepay raises $35 million in Series A round led by QED Investors
According to Cointelegraph, Canadian cryptocurrency exchange Shakepay has raised $35 million in a Series A round at a valuation of $251 million, led by QED Investors, with participation from Golden Ventures, Broadhaven, entrepreneurs Henri Machalani and Mike Murchison, and Shopify's head of digital products. As part of the financing agreement, Matt Burton, partner at QED Investors, will join Shakepay’s board of directors.
Staking management platform Stader Labs raises $12.5 million in private sale led by Three Arrows Capital
According to Cointelegraph, cryptocurrency staking management platform Stader Labs announced on Thursday a $12.5 million private placement at a $450 million valuation, led by Three Arrows Capital, with participation from Blockchain.com, Accomplice, DACM, GoldenTree Asset Management, Accel, Amber, 4RC, Figment, and several angel investors. The new funds will be used to accelerate Stader Labs’ cross-chain expansion and develop its third-party ecosystem for building staking applications using Stader’s decentralized infrastructure. According to Three Arrows Capital co-founder Kyle Davies, there are currently over 15,000 unique wallets on Stader Labs, with a TVL of approximately $500 million. The protocol launched in November last year. Currently, Stader Labs only supports staking on the Terra blockchain, but plans to expand to Solana, Ethereum, Fantom, Hedera, and Polygon. In October last year, Stader Labs announced a $4 million seed round led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, True Ventures, Jump Capital, and Proof Group.
Move-to-earn game STEPN raises $5 million in seed round led by Sequoia India and Folius Ventures
According to The Block, STEPN, a Move-to-Earn NFT game built on Solana, announced a $5 million seed funding round led by Sequoia Capital India and Folius Ventures, with participation from Solana Ventures, Alameda Research, 6th Man Ventures, Sfermion, Santiago Santos (former partner at ParaFi Capital), and Zhen Cao (Republic Asia Pacific Partner). The funding was completed via SAFT and will be used for team expansion and product optimization. STEPN is a Solana-based "Move to Earn" NFT game whose development team previously won the Solana Ignition Hackathon Gaming Track. Players can equip NFT sneakers and earn tokens by walking or running outdoors.
Digital asset trading firm BlockFills raises $37 million in Series A led by CME Ventures
According to Cointelegraph, digital asset trading company BlockFills announced a $37 million Series A funding round led by Susquehanna Private Equity Investments LLLP, CME Ventures, Simplex Ventures, C6E Ventures, and Nexo Inc. According to the official statement, the new funding will support BlockFills' global expansion and the development of new technologies aimed at attracting Fortune 500 companies, hedge funds/asset managers, banks, and other institutions into the digital asset space and mining hardware development. Since its founding in 2018, the company has raised a total of $44 million across two funding rounds.
Algorand-based prediction protocol Venue One raises $3.4 million in seed and private sale led by Borderless Capital
Algorand-based decentralized prediction protocol Venue One announced a $3.4 million seed and private funding round led by Borderless Capital, with participation from Algorand and 0x. Venue One aims to revolutionize decentralized prediction markets on Algorand, serving as a non-custodial, decentralized, fast, and global prediction protocol. Its testnet is expected to launch on February 22.
NFT card game Spellfire raises $3.8 million in private sale led by DAO Maker and Shima Capital
NFT card game Spellfire announced a $3.8 million private funding round co-led by DAO Maker and Shima Capital, with participation from Genblock and IBC Group. Previously reported, Spellfire completed a $360,000 seed round in October last year, led by Terranova, x21, and Autonomy Capital. Spellfire’s NFTs exist in both digital and physical forms, allowing holders to physically touch them. Some special NFTs feature augmented reality (AR) capabilities, enabling users to interact with their NFTs through hand gestures. The game includes a play-to-earn (P2E) mechanism where holders can earn income via NFTs and gameplay. Additionally, Spellfire’s NFTs have upgrade functionality, allowing players to create NFTs with unique traits.
DeFi
Cardano-based DEX SundaeSwap launches today alongside ISO
SundaeSwap, a DEX platform in the Cardano ecosystem, announced via official Twitter that it will go live today and simultaneously launch its Initial Stake Offering (ISO). This ISO will span five Cardano epochs, each lasting five days, with the final payment date set for February 14. Previous reports indicated that Runtime Verification completed a code audit of SundaeSwap in December last year. Pi Lanningham, Chief Information Officer of SundaeSwap, stated that the project now meets the standards and needs of the Cardano DeFi community. SundaeSwap launched its testnet in early December, and following the audit, preparations for mainnet launch are underway.
Cosmos-based DEX Osmosis integrates Ethereum assets via Gravity Bridge
Osmosis, the first DEX in the Cosmos ecosystem, launched Gravity Bridge to connect with Ethereum, enabling trading of Ethereum-based assets. This integration aims to boost the total value locked (TVL) in AMMs within the Cosmos ecosystem. Integration with other blockchains supporting the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is also forthcoming, and the team hopes to enable cross-chain NFT trading in the near future.
NFT/GameFi
Premier esports club G2 to launch 'Samurai Army' NFT collection on Solana in February
Esports club G2 Esports plans to release its “Samurai Army” NFT collection on the Solana blockchain in February. The collection consists of 6,262 NFTs, minted using the Metaplex protocol. Holders of Samurai Army NFTs will gain access to the G2 social club, opportunities to interact with G2 professional gamers, receive future NFT airdrops from G2, and participate in related esports events.
Adidas may collaborate with Prada to launch co-branded NFT on January 24
According to information from Adidas' official website, Adidas may collaborate with Italian luxury fashion brand Prada to launch a co-branded NFT on January 24. Web details suggest the NFT series may draw inspiration from Prada’s RE-NYLON (regenerated nylon) product line and is scheduled to officially launch at 9 PM Beijing time on January 24.
Others
Privacy public chain Secret Network secures $400 million in ecosystem funding
Privacy public chain Secret Network has unveiled $400 million in ecosystem funding, including a new $225 million ecosystem fund and a $175 million accelerator pool. Backers include DeFiance Capital, Alameda Research, CoinFund, and HashKey.
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