The tech investment world has grown rapidly in the 20 years since the Dotcom boom. Investors have gone from investing in microchip manufacturing companies to internet marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay.
Even though investors understand the rapid changes and growth of the tech world, they have been apprehensive about investing in Web3 (crypto, blockchain, etc.) and the Metaverse. However, this all changed when Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta is building the Metaverse.
The Metaverse concept coming to reality helped investors understand how the world will shift from Web2, which runs on a centralized internet, to Web3, which works seamlessly in a decentralized fashion.
Moreover, this has allowed investors to see that the value crypto brings is not just about tokens that rise and fall in price, but that crypto is about a peer-to-peer transaction system that is fast and connected to all aspects of Web3 and the Metaverse, and that this is how tech will evolve and be pushed to the next level.
Since then, governments around the world have announced billions of dollars in funding for Metaverse and Web3 development.
In fact, the Dubai government aims to create 40,000 jobs in the Metaverse over the next five years as well as add $4 billion into the economy through Metaverse and Web3 development. It’s for this reason that a summit such as MetaVSummit exists. MetaVSummit helps bring the top Web3 and Metaverse companies from over 20 countries to meet investors and strategic partners in Dubai.
With the help of title sponsor CyCoin, which is one of the largest Web3 ecosystem projects with its own Metaverse, MetaVSummit will bring together hundreds of founders and engineers from the Metaverse and Web3 world to showcase companies and innovations in Dubai on Sept. 14 and 15, 2022.
MetaVSummit continues to focus on making sure that Dubai and GCC investors and strategic partners are being educated to maximum capacity on Web3 and Metaverse developments.
The event will continue to push for this mission, as the belief in a Web3 decentralized world is strong and much-needed for humanity to progress without borders.
Trippin’ Ape Tribe, a community-first profile picture nonfungible token (NFT) project recently launched on Solana, is already shattering records. With hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter before its mint event even began, this community-backed project broke Solana’s record for 24-hour sales volume on its first day in the market. At OpenSea and Magic Eden, it topped the charts for 24-hour sales volume and seven-day sales volume, beating blue-chip Ethereum projects by a large margin.
These overwhelming sales numbers also supplemented Solana’s run to surpass Ethereum’s daily NFT sales volume for the first time. With $14.5 million in sales, Trippin’ Ape contributed more revenue to this total volume than any other NFT collection.
Trippin’ Ape Tribe breaks records at Solana
As 10,000 Trippin’ Apes ascend into the NFT realm, this list of broken records doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon. The collection also broke the record for the highest opening price on the secondary market, trading several times the mint price.
One of the critical factors of the collection’s success and continuous growth is its engaged community. Community members and believers take to social media, especially Twitter and Discord, to show their support and raise awareness for the project, often by using the artwork as a profile picture.
Talking about the overwhelming response the collection has received, Fenrus, the marketing lead behind Trippin’ Ape Tribe, said, “It’s been exciting to see our project break all sorts of records for hype and sales volume right out of the gate. It shows how much the community has connected with the art, storytelling and mystique — really, the brand — we’ve been building. At the same time, it’s humbling to recognize we’re standing on the shoulders of giants. Solana is going through a massive influx right now, and it feels good to be a part of it.”
Building exciting new partnerships
To continue with an approach of building relentlessly, the Trippin’ Apes team is creating exciting new partnerships with the best projects in the industry. This includes Magic Eden, a key NFT marketplace on Solana; NFT Technologies, a leading investor and incubator; IBC Group, an industry-leading incubator and accelerator in the blockchain space; and numerous collaborations with Solana NFT projects and known personalities in the space. These partnerships will help Trippin’ Ape Tribe catalyze its operations, community and marketing growth.
Moreover, Lysergic, the co-founder of the collection, owns and operates various music festivals and live events in the United States, boasting a decade of experience. Backed by Lysergic’s expertise, the team also partnered with some of the biggest names in the Solana ecosystem to organize a major event at NFT NYC 2022 last month.
About Trippin’ Apes
Aside from its central focus on community development, what sets Trippin’ Ape Tribe apart from other Solana NFT projects is its strong and ownable branding, cheeky storytelling and innovative long-term utility. The project is built around the story of 10,000 apes who have fallen under the trance of a mysterious, charismatic leader, Chorles, who promises salvation to his followers but insists he is building a tribe, not a cult.
Operating under a parent company, Valhalla Labs, the founding team has ambitious plans to leverage its diverse experience in software development, branding and event production to add tangible value to Trippin’ Ape holders and the ecosystem as a whole. Most recently, Valhalla Labs has added its new creative director Tim Deasy, former design director for luxury fashion brand Off-White. Deasy will draw from nearly 13 years of experience to create a standalone apparel brand that appeals not only to the Web3 community but also to the global mainstream.
Trippin’ Ape holders have already received a free, mysterious airdrop that has led to speculation and fan theories around its role in the project’s lore and a gamified quest to ascension. Bucking the trend of a traditional roadmap, the team has maintained an air of mystery surrounding the next steps for the project in the spirit of storytelling and rewarding holders with the strongest conviction.
The project will continue to focus on developing rich lore and engaging on-chain utility that moves the entire space forward. In addition, Valhalla Labs intends to onboard new community members into Web3 by launching and establishing connections to physical brands and live events and eventually fueling the community’s growth and sustainability.
The first edition of Next Block Expo will be held in Berlin on Nov. 23 and 24, 2022 with more than 5,000 attendees. In four months from now, the Berlin Station will be the most important place in the European blockchain map, linking together the most important names in the industry.
“We are bringing founders, investors and blockchain experts together to redefine and discover Web3’s future,” said Next Block Expo co-founder Tom Kopera.
Along with the 5,000 in-person attendees, another 10,000 will be watching online. The venue has ample space to host more than 100 exhibitors and sponsors, while everyone will get the chance to listen to more than 50 top blockchain speakers.
Next Block Expo is the biggest blockchain festival in Europe dedicated to Web3 startups, no matter the stage of development. The event brings together founders, angel and retail investors, venture capital firms, developers and software houses, and all kinds of industry experts.
There will be six types of events to attend. The most influential people in the blockchain space will share their visions about Web3 from the main stage in the form of presentations, while round tables will provide an opportunity to understand different perspectives from specialists and experts. During Workshops, experts will share their insight and knowledge with participants. All exhibitors will be able to submit their projects to the pitch contest, where the best startups will be selected by experts. Hackathons are also planned for hardcore developers who want to learn hands-on, as well as side events organized directly by startups for their communities.
The conference will be divided into six content tracks:
- DeFi
- Blockchain gaming
- Metaverse/NFTs
- Scaling and infrastructure
- Web3 discovery
- Fundraising and investing
“It is a unique opportunity to either find partners for your project, talk to investors and venture capital firms, see what is ‘hyped’ and maybe find the next big thing to invest into,” said Kopera. “But most importantly, we want to focus on the future of Web3 — we are witnessing a new economy that is a combination of what Web3 already created, and now traditional sectors are jumping in. So let’s discuss, brainstorm and share our vision of the future.”
Next Block Expo is an extension of a previous event series held under the name Cryptocurrency World Expo over the last six years.
Nuls Blockchain is delighted to announce its partnership with Suisse Blockchain. The partnership is a blend of expertise, as Suisse Blockchain is rooted in marketing and regulatory compliance while Nuls is grounded in blockchain and multichain technologies. Both are committed to a future where blockchain startups are enabled to grow and market their visions for the future of blockchain.
Together, Nuls and Suisse Blockchain are creating and supporting an initial decentralized exchange (IDO) and incubator platform.
Blockchain is known for its technical and legal complexities — high barriers for blockchain startups to navigate. The mission of Suisse Blockchain is to lower those barriers and enable startups to grow without the limits of potential roadblocks — in other words, to facilitate blockchain startups shaping their futures.
Streamlining the incubation process
The Suisse Blockchain team works hand-in-hand with the Nuls team, continually strengthening the security and future of upcoming projects. Blockchain is an evolving technology with constantly changing rules and regulations. It is important to navigate the immediate while keeping sight of the future.
Suisse Blockchain takes care of that through code auditing, due-diligence research and a deep commitment to regulation. The foundation of Suisse Blockchain is the legal framework of the forward-looking Swiss distributed ledger technology (DLT) law.
This collaboration enables blockchain ideas and visions not yet dreamed of to flourish. As more blockchain startups appear with new ideas and concepts combined with a metaverse-bound future, Suisse Blockchain will be there to provide assistance and guidance.
Nuls is excited to join with Suisse Blockchain in contributing to the predictable and unpredictable shape of the future of the blockchain space.
About Nuls
Nuls, based in Singapore, provides a blockchain infrastructure boasting cross-chain consensus, a multichain mechanism and smart contract support. Its combination of two blockchains, the Nuls and the NerveNetwork blockchain, allows for fast speeds and comparatively low transaction costs.
Its multichain wallet Nabox provides Suisse Blockchain with the ability to interact with multiple chains. This enables the blockchain startup incubator to host IDOs for projects from a variety of platforms and is not restricted to BNB or Ether (ETH). Being able to utilize 20-plus blockchains is a technical advantage uncommon in the industry.
About Suisse Blockchain
Suisse Blockchain is a company based in Chur, Switzerland. Founded in 2022, Suisse Blockchain is the first blockchain startup incubator created on the Swiss DLT law framework, allowing the project to be secure and progressive when it comes to regulations. The blockchain-experienced team takes care of the creation, acceleration and later expansion of the company, utilizing one of the most cost-effective and future-proof blockchain platforms.
For more details, visit the Suisse Blockchain website here.
Follow Suisse Blockchain on Twitter.
Join the Suisse Blockchain community on Telegram.
Hector Network’s recent announcement that they are a champion partner of Borussia Dortmund (BVB), one of the most iconic and loved Bundesliga teams in Germany, is a massive achievement for the company.
BVB is one of the most traditional and popular German football clubs. Founded in 1909, BVB boasts more than 10 million fans within Germany and, in addition, also has a rapidly growing fan base worldwide. The eight-time German champions and five-time DFB-Pokal winner was in 1966 the first German club to win a European Cup competition. BVB also became the first Bundesliga club to win the UEFA Champions League in 1997, followed by the Intercontinental Cup in the same year.
With a turnover of over 400 million euros ($4.08 million), BVB nowadays is also one of the economically strongest football clubs in the world. BVB is an incredibly desirable partner with well-established stars playing every game, an enthusiastic fan base and an internationally recognized brand.
For Hector Network, the importance of this deal cannot be overstated. Live televised games, massive social media presence and unparalleled visibility mean the partnership with BVB will catapult Hector Network beyond the crypto community into mainstream recognition.
The association also promises to open up a world of business growth opportunities for the company, broadening its networking sphere and giving it access to high-profile industry events. The team has already begun making connections, which will continue as the season progresses.
Members of the Hector Network team recently had the privilege of touring the incredible stadium and meeting face-to-face with members of the BVB marketing team to finalize the partnership details. The experience of walking through the hallowed stadium was a true honor, and engaging with its BVB counterparts in person has inspired the Hector Network team, more than ever, to make the most of this exceptional opportunity.
Hector Network will be bringing the BVB experience to its community as well. There will be ticket giveaways for every regular match this season, both home and away games.
Additionally, tons of giveaways for fans and community members — for whom travel would be tricky — include merchandise, special events, unique personalized experiences and so much more. Later in the season, there will also be some substantial grand prizes to be won.
In the meantime, the Hector Network team is busy ensuring that every aspect of this partnership is maximized to its fullest potential. They will be focused heavily on community engagement and exposure. Hector Network is incredibly proud to join the BVB family, and it can’t wait to start interacting with the football team’s exceptionally dedicated fanbase.
To find out more about Hector Network, visit the official website: https://hector.network.
- Telegram: https://t.me/Hector_Network
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Hector_Network
- Discord: https://discord.gg/hector
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/hector_network
- Medium: https://medium.com/@Hector_Network
- Telegram announcements: https://t.me/HectorNetworkAnn
Saddle Finance, a multichain decentralized automated market maker (AMM), ended the first vesting stage for its native token, Saddle Finance (SDL) on Thursday, June 23, 2022.
All community members that helped Saddle by providing funds to its liquidity pools are receiving access to their tokens so tokenholders can trade and transact SDL.
Users can stake SDL, earn rewards on Saddle Exchange and receive vested SDL (veSDL) tokens. They can also trade SDL or provide liquidity to SushiSwap’s SDL and Ether (ETH) pair on SushiSwap
Saddle’s tokenomics and community governance
Inspired by the popular vote-escrow model, veSDL is the governance token that allows the Saddle community to manage the protocol. Stakers can vote on SDL-provision to liquidity pools and manage the supply.
Saddle’s tokenomics were designed for veSDL’s linear decay: Users are incentivized to keep funds staked, as staking at lower token prices maximizes yield returns. Another benefit is that pressure to sell SDL diminishes, fostering sustainable price actions.
Saddle has further initiatives with the support of its community. These milestones include the migration to on-chain governance, adding liquidity to SDL through Tokemak and introducing a new gauge for stakers to unlock extra yield boosts.
Saddle also intends to issue bonds through Olympus Pro to generate more protocol-owned value, launch a borrowing function against liquidity providers, add leveraged-yield farming with Rari Capital’s Fuse protocol, and collect airdrops and admin fees from select Sempi — Saddle ecosystem maximum-proliferation initiative — partners.
In its roadmap, the team includes virtual swap improvements, the launch of new liquidity pools for SDL stakers and a new service for users to deploy customizable Saddle pools.
About Saddle
Saddle is an AMM decentralized exchange (DEX) available on the Ethereum, Fantom, Arbitrum, Optimism and Evmos blockchains. It has facilitated more than $2 billion in transaction volume to date.
Saddle’s DEX is optimized for trading stablecoins and pegged-value crypto assets, including Wrapped Ether (WETH) and Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC). The protocol features an easy-to-use interface, ideal for beginners and seasoned decentralized finance (DeFi) investors. All trades are swift, cost-efficient and have minimal slippage.
The Saddle team’s values are rooted in community-building, decentralization and expanding the DeFi space. Saddle wants to help bring AMMs onto any blockchain and pegged-asset swap primitives to DeFi. It’s backed by several renowned venture capital firms such as Coinbase Ventures, Framework, Polychain Capital, Dragonfly Capital and more.
Saddle’s code is 100% open source, and the team welcomes anyone to contribute to its protocol. Through the recent Sempi initiative, Web3 developers can join Saddle’s mission and develop with the protocol or, alternatively, fork the code.
Another selling point of Saddle is its robust security: All smart contracts have been thoroughly audited by leading blockchain-security companies such as Certik, Quantstamp, and OpenZeppelin.
After a successful edition in Limassol, the Singapore Blockchain Fest led a real awakening of Asian and European leaders from DeFi, mining, payment systems and crypto exchanges for two rush days. It was one of the most anticipated crypto events in Singapore, taking place from June 2 to 3 at Marina Bay Sands.
Attendees faced a unique earn-and-learn platform for the Asian crypto community to exchange insights and experiences, and pick up firsthand skills from market leaders with options for peer-to-peer communication.
One of the most vital aspects of the Singapore Blockchain Fest 2022 was the tremendous networking opportunities that the casual environment garnered. Participants got a chance to use networking lounges, expo spaces, conferences and workshop halls to represent themselves and get to know each other in a pleasant and comfortable format.
The producers of Blockchain Fest Singapore formed an exceptional agenda with renowned and respected speakers lined up for the event to bring up the hottest matters of the year: DeFi, the future of digital money and assets, governance and law, decentralized blockchain protocols and smart contracts, NFTs and Meta.
Here are just some of the topics and associated names:
NFTs
- Alvin Leong — Bybit NFT ambassador
- Arvin Khamseh — NFT marketing expert
- Bobby Bhatia — chief operating officer of Fellaz
- Terence Ting — Nex10 Labs founder and managing director
- Adrian Jones — founder of Yorze Group
- Kishor M. — founder of Crowd Fund Junction, CEO of Mad for NFTs
- James Park — co-founder and chief operating officer of Revolve Games
The future of blockchain
- Zennon Kapron — director at Kapronasia
- Jack O’Connor — sales director ASEAN at Snowflake
- Mike Chiam — founding board member of Asia Blockchain Association, lawyer at PDLegal Advocates and Solicitors
- Julian Hosp — CEO of Cake DeFi
Governance and law
- Ronald Wong — director at Covenant Chambers
- Andy Meehan — chief compliance officer of Gemini APAC
- Shaun Tham — legal director at ChainUp
- Collin Cheong — director of corporate development at Coinhako
Women in blockchain
- Belinda Lim — co-founder of Avarta
- Soh Wan Wei — founder of Ikiguide Metaverse Collective
- Megan Lee — founder and CEO of Regtank Technology
- Ida Mok —founding president of WIBA
- Shu Hui Choo — founder and CEO of Bedrock
The conference served as a platform for discussing the newest issues within the crypto space making up the modern dialogue between regulation authorities, businesses, developers and even startups.
The event was powered by cryptocurrency exchange ByBit, an online streaming service and sponsor of the event’s gala dinner. The grand sponsor of Blockchain Fest 2022 was Fireblocks.
Web3 NFT platform Fellaz, all-in-one blockchain solution suite ChainUp and digital asset bank JPex were the platinum sponsors. Some companies such as global digital asset platform Amber, crypto platform Coinstore, decentralized exchange AnchorSwap and CR Square Guardian Platform joined as gold sponsors.
Phemex is a Singapore-headquartered crypto derivatives trading platform. They offer perpetual contracts with up to 100x leverage on an impressive array of coins and tokens, such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Chainlink (LINK).
The exchange has over two million active users across the globe, and works with in excess of 30 integrated liquidity providers to ensure the smooth operation of trades, by always providing good market depth on both sides of a trade for all listed tokens.
Phemex was founded in 2019, by CEO Jack Tao. At the moment, the US Dollar is the only fiat currency supported by Phemex, but there are over 250 trading pairs to choose from on this exchange.
READ: UK’s FCA warns of ‘significant issues’ with stablecoins as it drafts regulation
Phemex holds the mission of making everyone and not only experienced traders trade efficiently without taking any additional risk.
Phemex is run by eight ex-Morgan Stanley executives, and this exchange allows users to trade various perpetual contracts, such as ETHUSD, BTCUSD, XRPUSD, and XTZUSD, with up to 100x leverage (though this leverage isn’t available to all users, for risk management reasons.)
Phemex allows crypto traders from all over the world to trade cryptocurrencies through a medium that is safe and not too complicated to navigate. The efficiency of Phemex is very high as it is rated at number 6 in the world in terms of daily trading volume.
Zerion, the leading DeFi and NFT portfolio manager, is launching the first generative NFT linked directly to users’ on-chain activity. As users explore Web3, this Dynamic NFT Avatar – or DNA for short – will evolve with them based on their actions and the assets they own.
“With our DNA NFT, users can express their web3 identities based on the tokens they own, networks they trade on, and communities they belong to,” said Evgeny Yurtaev, CEO and co-founder at Zerion.
Based on a series of attributes, users will be able to mint an NFT when they create a Zerion wallet that represents their on-chain footprint across the 10 networks Zerion supports. Every additional action users take will alter their DNA.
This announcement comes alongside evolving into a Web3-native Wallet that enables users to sign transactions within their mobile app, trade across 10 networks, and connect directly to any decentralized application in a few taps.
Starting today, users can create a stand-alone crypto wallet with Zerion or import existing wallets like MetaMask or Coinbase Wallet, with no limit to the number of private keys supported on the app.
Wallets can be grouped, allowing users to manage their entire Web3 portfolios, from DeFi tokens to NFTs, all in one place without having to manually add assets or constantly switch between different wallets.
“It’s still difficult to make crypto transactions on your phone, especially across different chains,” says Evgeny Yurtaev, CEO and co-founder at Zerion. “ The Zerion Smart Wallet scans every decentralized exchange on the market to make mobile trading accessible, affordable and easy for the next billion Web3 explorers.”
Before launching its wallet, Zerion conducted security audits with the two of the leading blockchain security firms, Secfault and Cure53 who both concluded that the company’s code base was safe and secure.
Since raising its latest round of funding in July 2021, the Zerion team has been working on turning the product into the primary interface for Web3.
They’ve made it easier for users to see the value of their NFTs, bridge across blockchain networks and invest in hundreds of protocols. Zerion was recently named one of the 50 most promising startups in 2022 by The Information.
To date, Zerion measures 220K monthly active users, has integrated over 500 protocols across 10 networks and has processed over $1.2B in transactions.
About Zerion
Zerion is a web3 smart wallet and investing tool that enables anyone with a mobile phone to manage their DeFi and NFT portfolios. With a relentless focus on user-centered design and a technology stack that aggregates across every major wallet, network and decentralized exchange, users are offered a single point of entry for managing their digital assets, including NFTs. Zerion is non-custodial, which means users never delegate their funds to the platform. This agile approach mitigates centralization risk and has allowed Zerion to operate globally since inception.
The company was founded in 2016 by Evgeny Yurtaev (CEO), Alexey Bashlykov (CTO) and Vadim Koleoshkin (COO) with the mission to empower more people around the world with efficient, permissionless and transparent financial services.
They raised their seed round in 2019 and Series A in 2021. Since then, Zerion has built an award-winning interface that serves more than 200K monthly active users from over 150 countries. Zerion has processed over $1B in transaction volume, seeing $5M traded per day on average with a median trade size of $1,000. To learn more, visit their website or follow the company on Twitter.
Exciting news from the Astar ecosystem. The project AstridDAO being built on Astar has officially announced a partnership with Microsoft. This partnership has huge implications for the ecosystem as a whole. Microsoft, a powerhouse of innovation, brings its resources and technology to AstridDAO. Endorsing and coaching the project shows that the tech giants are paying attention to Astar and the projects being built on the network.
AstridDAO is a decentralized money market with a fully backed stablecoin, BAI, which is hard-pegged to the US Dollar.
Microsoft welcomes AstridDAO to the Microsoft for Startups program. This partnership accelerates business development and growth removing the traditional barriers involved in building a company. Bringing AstridDAO access to technology, coaching and marketing which competitors and other companies do now have access to.
Microsoft will be providing AstridDAO with up to $350,000 of benefits through Github Enterprise, Microsoft Teams and Azure credits. Keep your eyes on AstridDAO, the future is looking very bright for the company.
This partnership from Microsoft signifies AstridDAO as being backed by one of the most innovative tech-driven companies in history.
AstridDAO team shares: “We are super excited to join the Microsoft for Startups program! With incredible resources sponsored by Microsoft, we will ensure AstridDAO can better serve the community and facilitate BAI to become the dominant native stablecoin for the whole Astar and Polkadot ecosystem.”
If you haven’t been paying attention to Astar and the ecosystem as a whole, take this as a sign to start. This network has shown time and time again that they are innovating and building the future of blockchain technology. Microsoft partnering and becoming involved in the network is yet another signal that Astar is an ecosystem you need to keep your eyes on.
About AstridDAO
AstridDAO is a decentralized money market protocol and multi-collateral stablecoin built on Astar and the Polkadot ecosystem, allowing users to borrow BAI, a stablecoin hard-pegged to USD against risk assets at 0% interest and minimum collateral ratio. This mechanism enables users to leverage the value in their risk assets, including ASTR, BTC, ETH, and DOT without selling them.