Weekly Summary: Focus on RWA Tokenisation, Aptos DeFi Move, and Binance.US Fast-Tracks Compliance
This week’s edition focuses on real-world asset tokenisation with Homium and Centrifuge taking centre stage, Aptos Big DeFi move with Microsoft and former New York Fed Chief joins Binance.US.
As I write this week’s edition of our newsletter, it is a matter of hours before the highly anticipated Bitcoin halving event.
What an eventful four years it has been.
It wouldn't have been surprising to see everything else in the crypto space take a back seat for the ‘mighty Bitcoin’ to take centre stage through a guard of honour into its next 4-year chapter.
But that has not been the case. Instead, Web3 startups have seized the opportunity — in anticipation of the next chapter — to unveil their plans for the industry and the exciting products they have launched to bring more utility to crypto.
Real-World Asset Tokenisation Takes Centre Stage
Real-world asset tokenisation has emerged as one of the easiest ways to bring utility to the blockchain.
Given the nascent stage of the industry, tapping into an already existing market was always going to be an exciting avenue for Web3 startups to onboard more users to the industry.
This week, Homium and Centrifuge demonstrated just how interesting this segment is for Web3 investors with their fundraising as they look to accelerate their plans.
The real-world asset tokenization industry is predicted to hit $10 trillion in value by the year 2030, according to a report by crypto research firm 21.co.
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Centrifuge Secures $15M to Tokenise Real-World Assets On-Chain
ParaFi Capital and Greenfield co-led the round with participation from Circle Ventures, IOSG Ventures, Arrington Capital, the Spartan Group, and Wintermute Ventures.
The company is building an on-chain lending platform called Centrifuge Pools on Coinbase’s Base network. It wants to deliver utility on-chain equivalent to what treasuries have in the traditional financial ecosystem.
“Users can’t hedge, speculate, borrow, or service liquidity needs with or on RWAs today,” Lucas Vogelsang, the co-founder of Centrifuge wrote in a proposal describing his company’s plans. “If DeFi wants to expand to institutions, the key infrastructure they already enjoy needs to be here first.”
Homium Secures $10M Series A Round to Tokenise Home Equity Loans on Avalanche
The fundraising was led by Sorenson Impact Group and Avalanche’s Blizzard Fund.
Homeowners can secure a loan on the Homium’s securitisation platform by committing a portion of their home’s price appreciation.
Investors (fanciers of the loan) receive a tokenised asset that tracks the price appreciation of a pool of securitised price appreciations for home loans.
Tommy Mercein, CEO of Homium said: “Homium is building a valuable new asset class for institutional investors, providing a new source of uncorrelated, inflation-protected return in their core portfolios.”
Big Moves by Crypto OGs
In an industry where new products tend to be most exciting. The more established can slip under the radar unless they make big moves.
That is exactly what Aptos and Binance did this week.
Aptos Taps Microsoft, Brevan Howard and SK Telecom to Build DeFi Platform for Institutions
The three companies will collaborate to build Aptos Ascend, a digital asset management platform targeting financial institutions.
Aptos Ascend will leverage technologies and expertise from all parties to provide a suite of tools and solutions that will guide financial institutions in expanding their services to the digital asset space.
The platform will be powered by Microsoft Azure and Azure OpenAI Service, SK Telecom’s Web3 infrastructure for Wallet-as-a-Service and Brevan Howard’s financial markets expertise.
Aptos Labs co-founder and CEO Mo Shaikh said in a statement: “Aptos Ascend will provide the world’s financial institutions, banks and tech-forward money markets with a performant, compliant, secure and scalable gateway to decentralized finance on Aptos that will evolve for years to come.”
Binance US Fast-Tracks Its Compliance-First Focused Vision With Key Appointments
The company has appointed the former New York Fed’s Chief Compliance & Ethics Officer, Martin C. Grant to help oversee financial reporting processes and internal controls.
In January, Lesley O’Neill the former Chief Compliance Officer at Prove Identity joined Binance US in a similar role.
Commenting on his new role at Binance US, Grant said: “It is an honour to join the Binance.US Board and be part of an organization built from the ground up to connect Americans to the digital asset industry in a safe, responsible, and compliant manner.”
Norman Reed, Interim CEO of Binance.US commented: “The addition of a director of Martin’s calibre to the Binance.US Board reflects the strength of our business and demonstrates our commitment to maintaining the highest standards of compliance and integrity.”
More Money for Crypto
Although Bitcoin and crypto prices in general have eased in the past few days, funding for Webd startups has continued from where it left off last week.
It is a signal that the bull market has caught the eye of venture capital firms.
Puffer Finance Secures $18M Series A Co-Led by Brevan Howard and Electric Capital
Coinbase Ventures, Kraken Ventures, Franklin Templeton, Fidelity, Mechanism Capital, Lightspeed Faction, Consensys, Animoca, GSR and Lemniscap also joined the round.
The company plans to use the fresh capital to accelerate its mainnet launch on Ethereum.
“By reducing the entry requirement to just 1 ETH for validators and enhancing their earnings through the integration of Ethereum’s proof of staking with Actively Validated Services’ (AVS’) restaking yields, Puffer’s mainnet sets a new standard for innovation in the liquid restaking landscape,” the company said in a statement.
Web3 Indie Studio Avalon Secures $10M for First Blockchain Game
BITKRAFT Ventures and HASHED co-led the round with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Spartan Capital, Foresight Ventures, LiquidX, and Momentum6.
The company will use the funds to develop its debut Web3 MMO title, AVALON.
Commenting on the announcement, Sean Pinnock, Founder and CEO of AVALON said in a statement: “The AVALON universe prioritizes delivering an immersive gameplay experience by combining cutting-edge tech like Unreal Engine 5 with AI-assisted user-generated content systems. Our focus on a no-code solution enables players to create game logic effortlessly.”
Zignaly Backs Its Newly Launched ZIGChain with $100M Ecosystem Fund
The fund focuses on developing wealth-generation infrastructure. DWF Labs and UDHC are among those who invested in the round.
The company is expanding its ecosystem of digital asset investing, which currently includes a social trading platform that allows traders to copy professional traders.
Commenting on the announcement, DWF Labs Managing Partner Andrei Grachev said in a statement: “ZIGChain will allow builders to concentrate on doing what they do best: building, with wealth managers forming a layer of power users and then acting as a conduit between the protocol and its user base. This rare confluence of developers, wealth managers, and users has never been attempted at this scale and in a decentralized manner.”
Nibiru Chain Launches $15M Grant Program for Ecosystem Growth
The grant program will operate on a milestone basis measured against key performance indicators with $5 million dedicated to the Asian region.
The company will also be hosting ongoing hackathons with prize pools of up to $100,000 per event, offering accelerator opportunities across multiple dApp segments including Real-World Asset (RWA) tokenization, Web3 gaming, DeFi, and SocialFi.
Commenting on the announcement, Erick Pinos, Ecosystem Lead at Nibiru said in a statement: “The Nibiru ecosystem is excited to stand behind the passionate developer community, empowering builders to become catalysts for positive Web3 transformation. The grants initiative will supplement ongoing aid in partnership pairings and access to mentors, industry experts, and experienced developers.”
On-Chain Analysis
BlackRock’s IBIT Captures 50% of All Bitcoin ETF Volume
IBIT’s share of Bitcoin ETF volume crossed 50% for the first time since the 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs were launched in mid-January.
Meanwhile, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC), which accounted for almost 60% of all ETF trading volume in the early days following the launch, is currently left with less than 24%.
Bitcoin NFTs Account for Over 50% of Weekly NFT Volume for the First Time in 2024
In the week ending April 14, Bitcoin NFTs saw a weekly trading volume of almost $180 million out of a total NFT volume of $308 million across all chains, according to CryptoSlam data.
Ethereum came second with only $60 million, and Solana was third with over $40 million worth of NFTs changing hands during the week.
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