⚡ Binance US Stopping USD Support, Robinhood Delisting Tokens, and More!
Discover the latest and greatest Crypto & Web3 products
💡 Intro
🥳 Happy Friday!
A crazy week for crypto tools & platforms, with some massive effects already happening from the SEC announcement Monday.
Centralized exchanges & platforms especially in the US are at major risk, with the biggest being Binance and Coinbase.
Expect even more fallout next week & onwards in the space, as platforms are in the midst of making very tough decisions around where and how they’re going to operate.
If you use any centralized platforms, be very careful and stay aware of any risks around the ones you specifically trade/store on.
As always: we’re here to keep you updated on the last tools news including the following stories:
Binance US dropped a bombshell tweet last night, saying their banking partners signaled intent to pause USD fiat channels as early as June 13th.
Banking and financial institutions that power the fiat service side of exchanges like Binance US are obviously spooked at the SEC announcement earlier this week, and are already looking to pull out of some of their crypto partners.
As a result, in an effort to protect our customers and platform, today we are suspending USD deposits and notifying customers that our banking partners are preparing to pause fiat (USD) withdrawal channels as early as June 13, 2023. We encourage customers to take appropriate action with their USD. - Binance US
On top of the Binance US announcement, Robinhood put out a statement that they’re removing ADA, MATIC, and SOL.
Even crazier: Robinhood says in the statement that any SOL, MATIC,ADA in customer accounts will be SOLD on that date if it still exists.
Depending on how much of those coins is held in Robinhood accounts, this could could a drop in their price on the 27th.
⚡ Important Takeaways:
Start Learning Self Custody Tools: If you don’t already use Hardware Wallets or even Warm Wallets (like Metamask), it’s a good idea to start learning.
Centralized exchanges will likely be under more scrutiny going forward.
Stay Up To Date On Exchanges You Use: If you do trade/hold crypto on exchanges, it’s VERY important to watch for any news on the platform that could cause risk to your assets. At least for the next month.
HyperPlay / $12M — HyperPlay, a web3-native game launcher, has secured $12 million in a funding round co-led by Griffin Gaming Partners and BITKRAFT Ventures. — Decrypt
Taiko / $10M — Crypto startup Taiko, specializing in Ethereum blockchain scaling, has raised a total of $22 million in funding across two rounds led by Sequoia China and Generative Ventures. — Decrypt
Ouinex / $2M — Ouinex, an innovative digital asset exchange, has successfully raised over $2 million in its user-driven pre-seed round, supported by more than 1000 FX, CFDs, and equities traders. — Finance Feeds
Informal Systems / $5.3M — Informal Systems, a key contributor to the Cosmos Network software and protocols, has secured $5.3 million in funding led by CMCC Global, with participation from investors including Nascent and Maven 11. — Cryptorank
👉 Today our sponsor is BlockBridge Labs: a software development agency that specializes in both Web2 and Web3 development. Here’s an intro directly from the team:
We’ve helped a wide range of clients, from Fortune 500 companies to small startups.
Need development help? Setup a call through the form below, and get started today! We reply in 24 hours or less:
HyperPlay
"Bring your wallet, tokens, and NFTs into every native or browser game."
Type of Product: Web3 Game Launcher
Purpose of Tool: HyperPlay is a web3 gaming platform that enables game developers to easily distribute their games via the web3 network. It also allows players to manage and store their digital assets, including tokens, NFTs, and wallet information. It's a powerful tool for creating seamless interoperability between different games, allowing players to maintain their identity while playing multiple titles at once.
Web3-native game launcher: HyperPlay provides an intuitive desktop application for gamers to quickly install titles from popular stores like Epic Store, GOG, or its own native store.
Wallet integration: Players can securely connect their MetaMask or WalletConnect wallets for use within each game launched through HyperPlay.
In-game wallet overlay: Gamers can easily access and transfer funds in the form of tokens or NFTs across multiple titles with just one click.
Game discovery hub: The HyperPlay store aggregates content from other major stores as well as its own library, making it easier than ever for players to find new and exciting web3 games.
Interoperability: By enabling seamless compatibility between web3 applications and providing users with easy access to their digital assets within any given title, HyperPlay is ushering in a new era of gaming experience where gamers are able to maintain the same identity across multiple platforms.
Team / Funding / Backers / Other Info: HyperPlay has secured $12 million in funding from investors including Griffin Gaming Partners, Bitkraft, and MetaMask to create the world's first game store and launcher that is built specifically for web3.
In November of last year, MetaMask and Game7 teamed up to create HyperPlay, a platform dedicated to developing Web3 gaming infrastructure. MetaMask is a self-custody wallet that specializes in Web3 transactions, while Game7 is focused on building the necessary infrastructure for decentralized gaming.
Link to product | Link to TFC listing
Taiko
“Decentralized, Ethereum-equivalent ZK-Rollup."
Type of Product: ZK-EVM
Purpose of Tool: Taiko is a decentralized, open source, permissionless ZK-Rollup (Type 1 ZK-EVM). It is an Ethereum-equivalent technology which allows for maximum compatibility with the Ethereum network. Taiko's codebase is available on GitHub, ensuring that anyone can use and modify it with its permissive license.
Block Proposal: When a block is proposed, its data is published on Ethereum and added to the proposed blocks list stored in the TaikoL1 contract. This makes block execution deterministic as post-block states can be calculated by anyone. Furthermore this prevents one party from having more knowledge about the most current state than any other party.
Block Verification: In order to achieve deterministic block transitions all relevant inputs for proof generation must be verified directly or indirectly on L1. As all proposed blocks are deterministic they can be proven in parallel as intermediate states between them are known and unique. Once proof has been submitted for both parent and child blocks then it can be called ‘on-chain verified'
Decentralization: Network participants such as proposers, provers and nodes are all decentralized allowing anyone to join in without needing to gain permission from another party first
Team / Funding / Backers / Other Info: Taiko has raised $22 million in two funding rounds yesterday on June 8th, to develop a decentralized ZK-EVM that is comparable to Ethereum's Type 1. The funding was led by Sequoia China and Generative Ventures with participation from various investors such as BAI Capital, GGV Capital, GSR Markets, IOSG Ventures, Kucoin Ventures, Mirana Ventures and more.
Taiko has been launched by a team of experienced co-founders who have previously scaled ZK projects. The founders have an impressive track record, having created Loopring in 2017 - the world's first application-specific ZK rollup. The team is led by Daniel Wang (CEO), Brecht Devos (CTO), Terence Lam (CSO), and Matthew Finestone (COO).
Link to product | Link to TFC listing
Wormhole
“Harness the power of generic messaging and a single SDK"
Type of Product: Dev Tool
Purpose of Tool: Wormhole is an interoperability protocol that enables users to move assets, apps, and data across different blockchains. Wormhole can be used to easily move assets, cross-chain applications and access data that previously lived on one chain from multiple chains.
It provides a single SDK which makes cross-chain movement more feature-rich than ever. With Wormhole, organizations can easily grow their userbase by going cross-chain with minimal effort.
FEATURES OF WORMHOLE:
Low Lift & Low Code Solution: A single integration for all of your use cases.
Composability: Applications on different chains work better together with Wormhole.
Support for Multiple Runtimes: Including EVM, EVM+, Solana, CosmWASM and Algorand runtimes are supported by Wormhole.
Modular Architecture: Protocols built on top of Wormhole can access data, assets and messages from other chains efficiently and quickly.
Team / Funding / Backers / Other Info: On May 1st of 2023, Wormhole announced the launch of Wormhole Connect, a tool that allows developers to easily integrate bridge functionality into their apps with just three lines of code. This simplifies the process of creating a seamless cross-chain experience for users.
SuiNetwork teams have already started implementing this feature, and it is expected to go live in the near future. Learn about Wormhole Connect here: Link
Link to product | Link to TFC listing
Fuel | Senior Compiler Engineer | Link to position
Magic Eden | Product Designer | Link to position
Robinhood | CISO - Crypto | Link to position
Moonpay | Senior Manager | Link to position
Ava Labs | Financial Analyst | Link to position
Dapper Labs | Senior Product Manager | Link to position
Gelato Network | Business Development Intern | Link to position
Goldsky | Account Executive | Link to position
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Disclaimer: None of this is to be deemed legal or financial advice of any kind. Always DYOR!