High transaction costs have been a thorn in the side of the top blockchain protocols for years as both Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) have seen the average cost of conducting token transfers skyrocket during times of network congestion and high demand. One layer-one (L1) protocol that has been gaining traction in recent months that seeks to offer a low-cost solution to high fees is the Oasis Network (ROSE), a privacy-focused L1 blockchain built using the Cosmos SDK and designed for open finance and a responsible data economy. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that since hitting a …

Metaverse gaming platform Ready Player Me has announced a $13 million Series A funding led by the respective co-founders of Wise and Teleport, Taavet+Sten, with further participation from the co-founder of GitHub, Tom Preston-Werner, alongside Samsung Next, Konvoy Ventures and Gmoney. The platform intends to utilize the capital to advance ambitions for avatar interoperability between metaverse worlds. This initiative supports the thesis of multiple digital dimensions as opposed to a singular model, a critic often leveled at Meta, formerly known as Facebook, amid cautions of their attempts to land-grab, or monopolize, the metaverse space. Aside from this, Ready Player Me …

DeBank, a cryptocurrency wallet focused on decentralized finance (DeFi) solutions, has closed new funding led by major venture capital firm Sequoia China. The firm announced Tuesday on Twitter that it raised $25 million, bringing DeBank’s total valuation to $200 million. Apart from Sequoia China, the funding round featured major crypto investment firms like Dragonfly, Hash Global and Youbi. The raise also included strategic funding from Coinbase Ventures, Crypto.com exchange, stablecoin provider Circle and hardware wallet maker Ledger. DeBank is a cryptocurrency wallet designed to track DeFi data, including decentralized applications or exchanges (DEX) and DeFi interest rates. It also lets …

When you're no longer at the helm of a publicly-traded company, you have more leeway to express controversial views. Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey took to social media this week to express his discontent over venture capital's role in Web 3.0. Some of his Twitter followers agreed with his views, others disagreed and some even blocked him entirely. Below is the concise version of the latest “Crypto Biz” newsletter, which is sent to your inbox every Thursday. For a comprehensive breakdown of business developments over the last week, register for the full newsletter below. "You don't own Web 3.0," says …

Arcade, a platform that allows users to utilize nonfungible tokens as loan collateral, has raised $15 million in a Series A funding round with participation from Pantera Capital. In a Wednesday announcement, Arcade said Pantera, Castle Island Ventures, Franklin Templeton Blockchain Fund, Golden Tree Asset Management, Eniac Ventures, Protofund, Probably Nothing Capital, and Lemniscap in addition to angel investors BlockFi CEO Zac Prince and Quantstamp CEO Richard Ma were behind the investment in an effort to connect NFT-collateralized lending with the decentralized finance space. The platform is also coming out of a private release with $3.3 million in total loan …

In a series of tweets posted on Tuesday, Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, as well as the founder and CEO of Square (now Block), voiced his criticism over the direction of Web 3.0 development. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, joined Dorsey in the mockery. On an unrelated note, the same day, Dorsey replied, "Bitcoin will" when asked if crypto will replace the dollar. Within context, Web 3.0 is a decentralized version of the virtual world that will in part feature public blockchains, metaverse technology, nonfungible tokens and decentralized finance free from the grasp of centralized …

DFG Capital has led a $6.5 million investment in the interoperability start-up Interlay, which is building infrastructure for decentralized finance applications across major blockchains such as Ethereum, Cosmos and Polkadot. As per the announcement, the new funds will be used by Interlay to scale its operations and bring more developers on board with its open-source platform. In a statement, James Wo, DFG Founder and CEO, said Interlay's solution will "expand the cross-chain possibilities for Bitcoin." Interlay aims to integrate cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) with DeFi platforms such as Polkadot and Ethereum. InterBTC, the company's main product, is a fully crypto-based …

Binance Labs, the venture capital and incubation arm of Binance cryptocurrency exchange, has led a financing round for the cross-chain protocol Multichain, previously known as Anyswap. Shortly after rebranding from Anyswap last week, Multichain has raised $60 million in a seed funding round led by Binance Labs, the firm officially announced on Dec. 21. Other participants in the raise included major VC firms and industry investors like Sequoia China, IDG Capital, Three Arrows Capital, Primitive Ventures, DeFiance Capital, Circle Ventures, Hypersphere Ventures, HashKey and Magic Ventures. Apart from providing capital investment for Multichain, Binance is also building a stronger relationship …

Tokyo’s biggest finserv firm, SBI Group, will now allow general Japanese investors to purchase cryptocurrencies via its newly launched ‘crypto asset fund’. The fund is composed of seven cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), XRP, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Chainlink (LINK) and Polkadot (DOT). The crypto-asset fund, to be traded and operated by the SBI Alternative Fund, was established on Dec. 02 with a dedicated capital of 5 million yen, worth approximately $45,000 at the time of writing. However, the company may choose to release the capital in smaller break-ups of 1 million yen each. According to the official …

On Dec. 15, Genius Yield, a decentralized automated market maker and liquidity management protocol built on the Cardano (ADA) blockchain, announced the launch of its initial stake pool offering, or ISPO. The fundraising will continue for six months until June 15, 2022. At the time of publication, more than 95.8 million ADA, worth approximately $118 million at the time of writing, have been delegated to the stake pools. In an ISPO, blockchain enthusiasts stake their cryptos in a protocol and receive tokens of the new project they fund as rewards. After a lockup period, investors can then reclaim their staked …

On Friday, Polygon (MATIC) and Alexis Ohanian's venture capital firm Seven Seven Six announced a $200 million initiative backing projects operating at the intersection of social media and Web 3.0. The initiative will focus on gaming applications and social media platforms built on Polygon's infrastructure. Alex Ohanian co-founded Reddit in 2005, left in 2010, and returned as executive chairman in 2014 to lead a turnaround before resigning in 2020. He has been a seed investor in several prominent tech and blockchain firms such as Coinbase, Instacart, Sky Mavis, the maker of Axie Infinity, and Patreon. As an Ethereum scaling solution, …

While the Fed’s decision to reduce market liquidity could impact crypto investors in the short term, Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and DeFi are carving out their own narratives heading into 2022. Those narratives could supersede the latest episode of central-bank tightening. Below is the concise version of the latest “Crypto Biz” newsletter. For a comprehensive breakdown of business developments over the last week, register for the full newsletter below. Block’s Cash App will allow users to gift BTC for the holidays If you’re concerned about inflation and central bank policy, the best gift you can give this holiday season is …