⚡ TFC Newsletter: 04/14/2023
Solana Mobile Phone Debuts, Mastercard + Web3, Web3 Payments, Crypto Calendars, NFT Lending, and more!
💡 Intro
🥳 Happy Friday! Crypto & NFTs up big, a ton of funding rounds this week, NFT NYC was great: a fantastic week for Web3 overall!
This weekend we have 2 great posts coming up:
Saturday’s is a guest post with an awesome Web3 security tool that has raised over $5M in funding. If you’re interested in easily tracking your wallet’s transactions + keeping your crypto assets safe: tune in!
Sundays’s is another TFC Rewards Recap post. We have some awesome updates + a new guide on a protocol, so stay tuned for that as well.
As always: have a good weekend!
At NFT.NYC, Mastercard announced their new Web3 Music Accelerator program.
This is Mastercard’s first big entry into Web3 (outside of some smaller ventures including their Moonpay integration).
Mastercard has a staggering 2.89 billion cards count worldwide, and their focus on Web3 is a great way to pull new users in.
“As a company, we hope to help people and partners around the world better understand and trust how blockchain and digital assets are used, and how our technology can support the ecosystem,” said Rajamannar. “We also believe that Web3 can be a powerful tool in connecting people and building communities around shared universal passions.” - Chief of Marketing, Mastercard
One of the biggest challenges to Web3 onboarding has been Web3 Mobile UX.
Many popular Dapps have rolled out their own mobile apps or extensions after starting on desktop. But there’s still improvements that only a Web3 native OS and device can do.
Enter the Solana Saga: the first Web3 smartphone, produced directly by Solana Labs.
After many months of development and teasing: demos are finally coming out and its official release is slated for May 7th.
We added it as a product today (so more details below), but checkout this video first from Unchained’s demo:
Helio / $3.3M — Helio, a payments platform, has announced that it secured $3.3 million in a seed round of funding. The investment was co-led by two major venture capital firms, namely Peak and Lightspeed Faction. — BlockchainWire
Natix / $3.5M — Blockchange Ventures has taken the lead in a Seed funding round that has raised $3.5 million for Natix Network. Natix Network is a decentralised network of cameras that creates real-time maps of cities. — Tech Funding News
Tradier / $24.6M — PEAK6 Strategic Capital has taken the lead in a Series B funding round that has raised $24.6 million for Tradier, a platform for trading cryptocurrencies. — FinSMEs
Tonic.xyz / $5M — Tonic.xyz, a prominent gallery that provides carefully selected blockchain-based art, has secured $5 million. — PR Newswire
CryptoTechFin / $0.55M — Not Just Investments and R2 Seed Investments have led a pre-seed funding round for CryptoTechFin, a start-up focused on cryptocurrency investment technology. — Tenity
HUG / $5M — HUG, a social marketplace, has raised $5 million in Seed funding from investors including DIGITAL, OKX Ventures, L'Oréal's BOLD corporate venture fund, Venrex, and Aa Sons. — FinSMEs
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👉 Brought to You by Cryptosteel: the premier backup tool for your cryptographic private key or seedphrase.
The Cryptosteel Capsule is a pocket-sized stainless steel device designed to securely store keys or seedphrases (its a physical set of steel letters)
Note: Do you have a product or tool you’re building? Have one you’d suggest? DM us on twitter! We’re always happy to feature products from the TFC community.
CoinMarketCal
"The leading economic calendar for cryptoassets that helps investors make better decisions."
Type of Product: Crypto Calender
Purpose of Tool: CoinMarketCal is an all-in-one calendar designed to keep cryptocurrency traders up-to-date on the latest news and events impacting their trading decisions. Here are some of the top features:
Trusted Data: The database is constantly refreshed to make sure the data provided is reliable and comprehensive.
Robust and Fast: The platform is built on the robust Amazon Web Services, ensuring fast response times and an impressive 99% uptime rate.
All-in-One: CoinMarketCal offers an easy-to-use database with more than 6500 coins and 20000 events, so users can track their entire portfolio in one place, create push notifications and even add events within the app.
Backtesting: The platform also allows users to backtest their trading and investment strategies to see how they would have performed in the past.
Customizable: Whether you're a casual trader or a seasoned investor, the platform can be customized to meet your individual needs.
Team / Funding / Backers / Other Info: On March 27th 2023, CoinMarketCal revealed their latest addition to their platform - NFTMarketCal. This new resource provides users with up-to-date information on upcoming events related to NFT collections.
Link to product | Link to TFC listing
Solana Mobile
“Web3 like never before"
Type of Product: Web3 Android Phone
Purpose of Tool: Solana Mobile has recently introduced its flagship mobile phone, Saga. It is an Android device that has been specifically designed to allow users to securely and easily manage digital assets and transactions on the Solana Blockchain.
Processing Power: It is powered by the latest flagship Snapdragon® 8+ Gen 1 Mobile Platform, offering users a smooth and reliable experience.
dApp Store: Access your favorite protocols, NFT marketplaces, and Web3 apps on the go, transact seamlessly, and discover the newest dApps right from your phone.
Seed Vault: Protect your seeds from malicious actors with secure hardware and AES encryption and approve transactions with the tap of a finger.
Build on SMS (Solana Mobile Stack): Integrate the SDK to extend your dApp's functionality, submit your dApp to the store for greater distribution, and securely sign transactions.
Team / Funding / Backers / Other Info: Yesterday, April 13th, 2023, marked the official launch of the Saga. Saga was first announced on June 23, 2022, Solana Mobile, a subsidiary of Solana Labs, unveiled their upcoming flagship device, Saga, at an event in New York. Saga is manufactured by OSOM, a top-tier Android development company.
Link to product | Link to TFC listing
Helio
“The Web3 payments platform"
Type of Product: Web3 Payments
Purpose of Tool: Helio is an advanced payments platform for the Web3 economy. It is designed to help thousands of merchants, decentralized apps, and creators to securely and conveniently accept crypto payments on Solana, Ethereum and Polygon with low fees and no middlemen. Helio is faster and more user-friendly than any other crypto payments platform, making it an ideal choice for digital payments.
E-commerce: Merchants can easily add one-click crypto payments to their stores, allowing them to reach a rapidly growing crypto audience and double their sales.
Pay Links: Users can generate 'no-code' checkout pages quickly and easily, allowing them to receive payments like donations, NFT sales, invoices and more.
Pay Streams: Flexible subscription models and paywalls for digital content are enabled.
Pro-code: Developers are offered powerful tools such as APIs, libraries and webhooks to integrate Helio checkouts into their websites, apps or workflows.
Team / Funding / Backers / Other Info: Just yesterday on April 13th, 2023, Helio, a startup, announced that it had successfully raised $3.3 million in a seed round. The round was co-led by Peak and Lightspeed Faction, and was supported by RockawayX, Solana Labs, and a collection of angel investors.
Link to product | Link to TFC listing
NFTfi
"Use your NFTs to get a crypto loan”
Type of Product: NFT Lending
Purpose of Tool: NFTfi is a liquidity protocol for NFTs. It allows NFT owners to access liquidity by receiving secured loans from liquidity providers. NFTfi is a completely trustless platform where lenders have a chance to earn attractive yields or be able to obtain NFTs at a discount in case of loan defaults.
Lender Benefits: Liquidity providers use their idle capital to earn attractive yields and, in case of Borrower defaults, have a chance at obtaining NFTs at a steep discount compared to market prices.
Official NFTfi SDK/API: A full-featured SDK and API is available, enabling developers to easily access our full-feature API and build on top of NFTfi (for instance, lending bots).
Loan Data: Loan data can be exported in a CSV file for tax reporting purposes.
Service Fee: There is no fee for borrowers on NFTfi. The NFTfi service fee for Lenders is 5% of the interest earned on successful loans.
Safety: The NFTfi team has no access to any asset or is involved in any negotiation of terms between Lenders and Borrowers. The NFTfi V2 smart contract system has been double-audited by two industry-leading firms. (Chainsecurity, Halborn)
Team / Funding / Backers / Other Info: Since its launch in May 2020, NFTfi has facilitated over $300 million in loan volume spread across more than 30,000 loans, with no borrower ever having an asset stolen.
The platform also features an official Ambassador program, which allows active community members to support NFTfi and its upcoming DAO through various activities such as community moderation, outreach and education, content creation, and technical support.
Link to product | Link to TFC listing
Gomu | NFT Creator Tool | Link to product
Invisible College | Education | Link to product
Freckle Triva | Metaverse game | Link to product
Anmol Network | Dev Tool | Link to product
DeBank | Portfolio | Link to product
Solana | Head of Staking Ecosystem | Link to position
Ethereum Foundation | Grant Analyst & Liaison | Link to position
Chainlink | Blockchain Data Analyst | Link to position
Mysten Labs | Partner Manager | Link to position
Paradigm | Business Operations Analyst | Link to position
Ledger | QA Automation Engineer | Link to position
Safe | Protocol Designer | Link to position
Fireblocks | HR Generalist | Link to position
Animoca Brands | Summer Internship | Link to position
ConsenSys | Senior Backend Java Developer | Link to position
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Disclaimer: None of this is to be deemed legal or financial advice of any kind. Always DYOR!