Weekly Summary: Focus on Stablecoins as Codex Raises $15.8M and FDUSD Depegs After Sun Comments
In this edition, stablecoins take centre stage as Codex raises $15.8M to build a stablecoin-centred blockchain and FDUSD depegs after Sun’s comments on First Digital Trust.
🔊The Stablecoin Buzz Lives On
This week has been shaky for crypto in general, with cryptocurrency prices plummeting to reflect Trump’s recent tariffs announcement. Bitcoin slipped to low $80,000s, while ETH remained pinned below $2,000.
However, long-term views of the industry remain positive, especially judging by the moves traditional finance companies have been making lately.
Largely, stablecoins and real-world asset tokenisation are driving positive sentiment. However, there were some concerns this week when FDUSD, the stablecoin issued by the Hong Kong-based First Digital, momentarily depegged from the $1. It has since regained parity, trading at about $0.99565 to USDT.
Later in the week, there was more positive cheer to the sector, with Optimism-based layer-2 Codex coming out of stealth with $15.8 million for a stablecoin-centred blockchain.
FDUSD Still Recovering from Depeg as First Digital Vows to Take Legal Action Against Justin Sun
The FDUSD initially fell from the $1 peg to about $0.87 against the USDT after Sun claimed First Digital Trust was “effectively insolvent”.
The Hong Kong-based stablecoin issuer later issued a statement vowing to pursue legal action against Sun.
The FDUSD later recovered to trade around $0.98 to USDT on Binance.
“First Digital Trust (FDT) is effectively insolvent and unable to fulfill client fund redemptions. I strongly recommend that users take immediate action to secure their assets,” Sun wrote on X.
“Every dollar backing $FDUSD is completely, secure, safe and accounted for with US backed T-Bills. The exact ISIN numbers of all of the reserves of FDUSD are set out in our attestation report and clearly accounted for,” First Digital responded in an X post.
Dragonfly Leads $15.8M Seed Round for Stablecoin-Focused Blockchain Developer Codex
The fundraising also attracted participation from Coinbase Ventures, Circle Ventures, Cumberland, Wintermute, and Selini Capital.
Dragonfly put in $14 million to the round, according to general partner Rob Hadick.
The round was structured as equity with warrants to receive tokens of Codex’s yet-to-be-released token.
Codex plans to use the funds to build a layer-2 stablecoin-focused blockchain on top of Optimism.
Explaining why his company is building a specialised blockchain for stablecoins, Li told Fortune: “[General purpose blockchains] want to address as large of a market as possible, and so they end up addressing none of the particular industry segments all that well.”
🔊NFT News
While NFT trading activity continues to decline, not all Web3 companies hold the same views about the future of the industry.
In the past week, popular NFT platform X2Y2 shut down its marketplace, citing a 90% decline in transaction volume. Two days later, the Solana-based DEX platform Jupiter acquired the digital collectibles platform DRiP Haus, expanding its NFT offerings.
NFT Marketplace X2Y2 Shuts Down as It Pivots Towards Crypto AI
The NFT project said its platform is shutting down within a month, citing a 90% fall in trading volume from its all-time highs as a contributing factor.
X2Y2 reached a monthly trading volume of $209 million in May 2022, just months after its launch, but the platform saw just $53.6 million over the past 365 days.
The project won’t be completely shutting down, with plans underway for a crypto AI pivot.
“Here’s the exciting part: this isn’t goodbye. It’s a pivot,” founder TP wrote in a blog post. “Over the last 12 months, we’ve been diving deep into AI—hands down the biggest paradigm shift we’ll see in our lifetimes—and how it can transform crypto. We’re building something new, something that takes everything we’ve learned and aims higher.”
Solana DEX Platform Jupiter Expands to NFTs with DRiP Haus Acquisition
The digital collectibles platform will continue to operate independently as its team integrates NFT tools into Jupiter’s platform.
According to Jupiter’s Kash Dhanda, the acquisition is part of the company’s plan to build a Solana-based “Super App”.
The news came just days after popular NFT marketplace X2Y2 shut down its platform to pivot to crypto AI.
🔊More News
Fidelity Enables Direct Crypto Investments for Customers in New Retirement Plan
The brokerage firm’s clients have reportedly expressed interest in leveraging the tax advantages associated with trading and holding crypto.
The no-fee crypto IRA product allows U.S. adults to invest in Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC).
The assets are held in a cold wallet, and Fidelity also provides the custodial services.
The product can be accessed by investing through a Roth IRA, traditional IRA or rollover IRA.
WisdomTree Rolls Out 13 Tokenised Funds Across Five Blockchains
The funds will be offered across Arbitrum, Base, Avalanche, Ethereum and Optimism blockchains.
They will be offered through the ETF and asset management company’s WisdomTree Connect platform.
The chain-agnostic platform allows customers to use the various chains without ever needing to leave their original networks.
The launch follows increased interest from the firm’s institutional clients for tokenised assets, the WisdomTree team told Blockworks.
Avara Launches Lens Chain on Mainnet to Power Decentralised Social Media Apps
The layer-2 network built on top of Ethereum has already partnered with leading DeFi and infrastructure projects, including Uniswap, Balancer, LayerZero, Circle, Consensys and Chainlink.
The Ethereum overlay is described as developer-friendly, fast, and inexpensive, features that are perfect for consumer-focused apps.
Lens aims to unlock the economic potential of decentralised social media, providing an option that challenges centralised platforms like Facebook and Musk’s X platform (formerly Twitter).
Ultra Secures $12M Funding Round For Its ‘Next-Generation’ Gaming Platform
The company is building a platform that combines traditional gaming with cutting-edge technology, including digital assets.
The fundraising also attracted significant interest from the gaming, blockchain, and technology sectors.
Its goal is to build a platform that redefines how games are played, published, and monetized, returning value to those who deserve it most – gamers, developers, and publishers.
The new capital will be used to hire top-tier talent, continue expanding and upgrading the Ultra platform.
Gus van Rijckevorsel, CEO at Ultra said in a statement: “The gaming industry has been sitting on the sidelines for decades – too stubborn to change, too afraid to take a risk and think outside the box, and unable to reimagine what the future of gaming could look like.”
Muhammed Yesilhark, CIO at NOIA Capital, commented: “Ultra is bringing the kind of bold, disruptive thinking that the gaming industry desperately needs. Gus and his team have a clear vision for the future, backed by a strong tech foundation and a strategic roadmap that puts Ultra in a position to challenge legacy players.”
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