Bi-Weekly News Recap

News From Our Partners

DeFi Land

DeFi Land’s public sale launched on Solanium, an influential IDO launchpad for Solana-based projects. It was completed on October 19th (raising the project’s follower count on Solanium to over 155K), and the token launch is planned for the end of the month. While the DeFi-based agricultural simulation game rolled out its first update last week (with various UX/UI improvements and bug fixes), the v2 scheduled for Q1 2022 is set to greatly expand the gamified experience through the introduction of an NFT marketplace and tournaments (and many other features).

Aleph Zero

After a 1-day extension, Aleph Zero’s public sale concluded on October 8th with over 8K KYC’d investors securing an allocation before the token launch. The fair sale process provided all investors with the same contribution room. The $AZERO TGE is coming soon, and participating exchanges should be released shortly. The team also announced a surprise video game on their Twitter page earlier this month.

ParaState

Multi-chain smart contract platform ParaState announced it was co-organizing a 2-month long hackathon with DoraHacks. The reward pool ($100K in total, among which $30K for winners alone) wishes to entice developers of all levels to develop creative and breakthrough applications. Online and offline workshops organized by the ParaState developer team will be offered to all participants to familiarize them with the project and available documentation. Submissions will be accepted until December 15th, and award winners will be announced on December 31st.

Notable Investment News

Swash

After closing a $7M private round, whitelisting for Swash’s IDO (scheduled for October 29th) is now open. Submissions will be allowed until October 25th (or after the 20,000th place is filled, whichever comes first). Also, while over 75K users now use Swash’s browser extension to earn for the value of their data, the project was recently featured in Bitcoin.Com, The Block, and other media outlets to spread awareness about the upcoming First Wave Solutions aimed at transforming data ownership. For details about the whitelisting: https://swashapp.io/ido-whitelist

DeFi Warrior

DeFi Warrior’s testnet launched on October 15th, giving 1100 users exclusive access to most of the game’s features (adventures, PvP battles, warrior evolution, and more). Early testers help improve game stability and bug reduction ahead of launch by giving reviews and comments to the development team. This ensures all users a more pleasant gaming experience at DeFi Warrior’s mainnet launch, which should take place at the end of October. Finally, on October 21st, 1500 mystery boxes featuring only Tier 2 Warriors sold out in a few seconds on Binance’s NFT Marketplace.

XP.network

XP.Network’s brand-new website was released last week. Aside from featuring an improved layout and navigation experience, numerous dedicated pages have also been added to more easily search for and access the whitepaper, roadmap, ambassador program details, and more. Also, a potential XP.Network NFT collection launch was hinted at a few days ago, with more details expected soon. As NFTs continue to gain widespread adoption, XP.Network wishes to act as a cross-chain bridge to transfer assets seamlessly. To access their new website, follow this link: https://xp.network/

WWVentures Announcements

On October 10th, we held our first Twitter Space AMA with DeFi Land’s team lead, to dig deeper into the team’s vision for DeFi gamification and the roadmap to mainstream crypto adoption.

Our AMA with Swash took place on October 20th. This hour-long meetup was a great opportunity for WWVenture’s and Swash’s communities to delve deep into this ambitious project at the forefront of the new data economy. The freshly-posted Swash investment announcement is available here.

Major Headlines in Crypto

Visa Is Optimistic regarding CBDC’s

The global payments company said it can be useful to make Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) interoperable: it announced the Universal Payment Channels (UPC), which will be a “universal adapter” among blockchains, allowing consumers, businesses, and banks to exchange value in a currency-agnostic fashion.

TikTok launches first creator-led NFT collection

After Instagram and Twitter, Tik Tok becomes the next major social media platform to be joining the NFT movement. They announced its first NFT collection featuring Lil Nas X and Jess Marciante as a new tool to empower creators. The NFTs will be made available on Ethereum, due to “network effects”. Profits will be redistributed in large part to involved NFT artists and creators.

U.S. Bank Launches Bitcoin Custody

The 5th biggest retail bank in America announced on October 5th it now allowed fund managers to store private keys for Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin, with support for other coins (including Ethereum), planned in the future. In an interview, the Bank’s vice chair of wealth management and investment services, Gunjan Kedia, said: “Our clients are getting very serious about the potential of cryptocurrency as a diversified asset class […]. I don’t believe there’s a single asset manager that isn’t thinking about it right now”.

SEC Approves Volt Equity’s Crypto Stock ETF

As rumors of a Bitcoin ETF have been a hot topic for many years (with a dozen pending applications), the SEC announced the approval of Volt Equity’s Crypto Stock ETF on October 10th. It will be listed under the ticker $BTCR on the NYSE. 20% of the fund’s assets will be directed at traditional stocks, for risk management purposes. While investors will be able to gain exposure to public companies involved in cryptocurrencies, it will not represent direct Bitcoin ownership. Regardless, this approval does appear favorable to the eventual approval of a Bitcoin ETF.

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DISCLAIMER: Content in this article does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrencies are volatile assets. Always do your own research and invest at your own risk.