gm + welcome back.
March was another massive month for crypto. It’s now been 89 days since the BTC ETF approval and another major catalyst is on the horizon — the BTC halvening is expected to occur between April 18-20th. According to a Coin Shares report published this morning, digital assets saw inflows of $646M last week and year-to-date inflows are at $13.8B — the highest-ever level, surpassing the $10.6B seen in 2021.
Given this backdrop, our March newsletter is packed with a huge range of exciting experiments, partnerships, and opinions from crypto’s brightest.
Thanks for being here. Hope you enjoy the read.
Until next month,
BTC / Halvening — “The next Bitcoin halving is anticipated to take place on or around April 20, 2024, reducing the block reward from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC. This halving period — or epoch — will increase the supply by 164,250 bitcoin, a mere 328,124 bitcoin from the maximum supply limit of 21 million.” — more
Base / TVL Passes $4B — Base, Coinbase's L2 project, has exceeded $4B in total value locked per L2Beat data. Despite lacking a native token, Base has attracted meme coins and migrations from established web3 projects, showing nearly 14% growth in TVL in seven days — more
$WIF Meme Photo / Sells for $4.3M — Achi, the Shiba Inu behind $WIF, sold for 1,210 ETH ($4.3M) to Gigantic Rebirth Ventures at auction on Foundation. The anonymous minter claims to be the owner of the dog, which they say is named Achi, born in 2018 — more
Azuki / Anime Chain — Azuki partners with Arbitrum to create AnimeChain, a dedicated blockchain for anime fans, offering a community-governed ecosystem with content, games, merchandise, and NFTs. The initiative is backed by Arbitrum, Weeb3, and Chiru Labs — more
Crypto Games / Comeback in the Philippines — Two years post-crypto slump, internet cafes in the Philippines are buzzing with gamers earning through crypto-games. Farmers are again harvesting virtual crops for real income, marking gaming’s comeback in the region — more
Telegram / TON Foundation Grants — The TON Foundation unveiled The Open League, a $115M+ Toncoin reward initiative for community projects and users, aiming to encourage builders on the TON ecosystem — more
Coinbase / DOGE Futures — Coinbase plans to launch Dogecoin, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash futures in April, citing Dogecoin's shift from meme to crypto mainstay. Utilizing "self-certification," Coinbase will proceed without waiting for CFTC approval, aligning with regulatory guidelines — more
Helium Mobile / International Roaming — Helium Mobile’s decentralized infrastructure now supports International Roaming, letting subscribers use their service globally without fixed packages, offering 1GB data for $15 — more
Fidelity / Ethereum ETF with Staking — Fidelity, a $4.5 trillion asset manager, submitted an S-1 form for a Spot Ethereum ETF, featuring staking, marking a significant step following the SEC's approval of the first spot BTC ETF — more
On-chain Tokenized Treasuries / Surpass $1B — Tokenized U.S. Treasuries on public blockchains now exceed $1B in assets, with Franklin Templeton's BENJI ($360M at time of writing) leading and BlackRock's BUIDL ($280M at time of writing) not far behind — more
Coin Shares / Digital Asset Flows — “Digital asset investment products saw continued positive sentiment with inflows totaling US$646m last week. Inflows year-to-date at US$13.8bn are at their highest-ever level, now far surpassing the US$10.6bn seen in 2021.” — more
Tensorplex (🤝) / $3M Raised — Tensorplex Labs, an AI and web3 startup dedicated to developing capital and intelligence software for decentralized AI networks like Bittensor (🤝), raises seed round led by Collab+Currency and Canonical Crypto, with participation from Digital Currency Group, Accomplice, GoldenChain, Mechanism Capital, Quantstamp, Amber Group, and others — more
Botto (🤝) / $1.67M Raised — Botto DAO, the stewards for the decentralized autonomous artist Botto, raises OTC round led by 1kx, with participation from Collab+Currency and Variant — more
Today (🤝) / $5M Raised — Today, a web3 social simulation game powered by AI, raises seed round co-led by Sfermion and Big Brain, with participation from Collab+Currency, GSR, Lingfeng Innovation Fund, Compute Ventures, Builder Capital, and others — more
NFTfi (🤝) / $6M Raised — NFTfi, an NFT lending protocol, raises Series A1 round led by Placeholder VC, with participation from Maven 11, Launch Labs Inc, Kahuna Ventures, Brevan Howard, The LAO, Reciprocal, Longhash Ventures, and others — more
Parallel Studios (🤝) / $35M Raised — Parallel, a game studio building Sci-Fi worlds and TCG-style games, raises round from Collab+Currency, VanEck, Solana Ventures, Base Ecosystem Fund, The Spartan Group, and others — more
MetaBlox x Roam (🤝) / $5M Raised — Roam (formerly known as MetaBlox), a decentralized global WiFi network, raises round co-led by Anagram and Volt Capital, with participation from Synergis, ZC Capital, Future3 Campus, and others — more
Stack / $3M Raised — Stack, a startup building out infrastructure for on-chain points, raises round led by Archetype, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Scalar Capital, A Capital, and others — more
Sahara / $6M Raised — Sahara, a decentralized AI network, raises seed round led by Polychain Capital, with participation from Samsung Next, Matrix Partners, Motherson Group, dao5, Geekcartel, Canonical Crypto, and others — more
Zama / $73M Raised — Zama, a startup focused on fully homomorphic encryption, raises Series A round co-led by Multicoin Capital and Protocol Labs, with participation from Metaplanet, Blockchange, VSquared, Stake Capital, Portal Ventures, and others — more
9 Lives Interactive / $3M Raised — 9 Lives Interactive, a game studio building a web3 shooter called Nyan Heroes, raises round led by Mechanism Capital, with participation from Sfermion, 3Commas Capital, Momentum 6, Kosmos Ventures, and others — more
Lumino / $2.8M Raised — Lumino, an AI infrastructure startup, raises pre-seed round from Longhash Ventures, Inception Ventures, Protocol Labs, TRGC, L2IV, Zero Knowledge Ventures, Fenbushi Capital, and others — more
Morph / $20M Raised — Morph, a consumer-focused Ethereum Layer 2 network, raises round led by Dragonfly, with participation from Pantera, the Spartan Group, and others — more
Espresso Systems / $28M Raised — Espresso, a developer studio supporting L2 rollups, raises Series B led by a16z, with participation from Polygon, Taiko, o1Labs, StarkWare, Offchain Labs, and core contributors and strategic investors from over 30 ecosystem projects — more
Succinct Labs / $55M Raised — Succinct Labs, a startup focused on building out zk proofs, raises round led by Paradigm, with participation from founders of Polygon and EigenLayer — more
0G Labs / $35M Raised — 0G, a project aiming to create a modular AI blockchain, raises pre-seed round led by Hack VC, with participation from Alliance, Animoca Brands, Delphi Digitial, Stanford Builders Fund, Symbolic Capital, and OKX Ventures — more
MyPrize / $13M Raised — MyPrize, an online crypto casino supporting multiplayer games, secured $13 million in funding across two rounds led by Dragonfly and Boxcars Ventures, with participation from a16z Scout, Mechanism Capital, Arrington Capital, and others — more
Peaq / $15M Raised — Peaq, a new layer 1 blockchain focused on DePIN, raises round co-led by Generative Ventures and Borderless Capital, with participation from Spartan Group, HV Capital, CMCC Global, Animoca Brands, and others — more
1kx / $75M Raised — 1kx, a crypto fund “focusing on areas including crypto applications targeted at consumers”, raises $75M from investors including Marc Andreessen, Accolade Partners, Galaxy Digital, and others — more
Agora / $12M Raised — Agora, a stablecoin startup, raises seed round led by Dragonfly, with participation from General Catalyst, Hack VC, Kraken Ventures, and others — more
Sanctum / $6.1M Raised — Sanctum, a liquid staking provider, raises seed extension led by Dragonfly, with participation from Sequoia, Solana Ventures, CMS, and others — more
Ellipsis Labs / $20M Raised — Ellipsis Labs, a startup building liquidity and DeFi infrastructure, raises Series A led by Paradigm, with participation from Electric and others — more
Wayfinder (🤝): A new AI Agent Network / Dustin Teander x Messari — “The report delves into Parallel's whitepaper unveiling the Wayfinder network, a revolutionary platform incentivizing developers to create micro blocks of code for AI agents across blockchain networks.” — more
Futarchy For Both Ends of the Curve / Arad — “Futarchy is a pure market-based governance system. That means, in essence, that decisions are made according to what the market anticipates will make the organization more valuable. How does it do that? Why does it do that?” — more
The Bittensor (🤝) Standard / Timo — “Markets are deeply natural and inherently decentralized mechanisms, like an emergent nervous and vascular system of civilization. Though central banks and other top-down institutions have corrupted our means of representation, distorting the signal our distributed intelligence depends upon for coordination.” — more
A Blueprint for Breakthroughs / James Brodie — “Decentralised science (DeSci) marks a new era for discovery by breaking down institutional and hierarchical barriers. When coupled with AI, R&D will be superpowered.” — more
Agentic Protocols / good alexander — “The rails for Agentic Protocols are coming online. Within the next 6 months, there will be 15+ major infrastructure launches in the crypto AI arena that will lower the marginal cost structure of creating Agentic Protocols to close to zero … The resulting rails will be a subsidy to Agentic Protocols the same way that Cloud was a subsidy to B2B Saas.” — more
The Big Whoosh / good alexander — “And that is the essence of The Big Whoosh. The sound of the entire IP value capture of the system flowing outside the grasp of the future authoritarians before it is too late. And it will be too late by the time the CBDCs are implemented and deployed by 2026-2027.” — more
The Internet of Agents / Davide Crapis — “An Internet of Agents: An upgrade to the current paradigm of interconnectivity, augmented with incentives and modern cryptography, that will allow us to reap the benefits of an economy driven by AI agents with unprecedented levels of security, efficiency, and collaborative potential.” — more
Empowered by Blockchain: We Rise / Agent 23 x ID Theory — “AI is sprinting towards unparalleled autonomy. Pair it with blockchain, and suddenly it’s every move, from training to inference, is transparent. Every detail is recorded on an immutable ledger. No more shadows; only clarity. Together, they’re transformative.” — more
Web3 Social Landscape / Paul Veradittakit — “In this article, we’ll look at distinct social protocols and platforms, with a focus on how they use web3’s building blocks to build new experiences.” — more
Publisher-Exchanges: Consumer Applications and the Attention Theory of Value / Shayon Sengupta x Multicoin — “Rather than just moving existing economies on-chain, crypto unlocks new economies for attention where like-minded cohorts of people can trade minutes for dollars and vice versa.” — more
Ethereum has blobs. Where do we go from here? / Vitalik — “…blobs are the moment where Ethereum scaling ceased to be a "zero-to-one" problem, and became a "one-to-N" problem.” — more
Degen communism: the only correct political ideology / Vitalik — “What does the internet of the 2020s - not the "respectable" internet of Substack, not a hypothetical version of Twitter where the bad people and somehow only the bad people are censored, but the real internet as it exists today - fundamentally want? The answer is, it wants chaos.” — more
What else could memecoins be? / Vitalik — “If people value having fun, and financialized games seem to at least sometimes provide that, then could there be a more positive-sum version of this whole concept?” — more
A Brief History of Memecoins: Their Past and Future / freezer x 1kx — “Memecoins, the intersection of digital currency and internet culture, have captivated participants throughout crypto cycles. Once again, they have captured the zeitgeist for their approachability, viral spread, and alluring potential for lucrative returns.” — more
The Token Is The Product / Mark Beylin — “When I say “the token is the product” I’m not being facetious — I actually believe that for anyone trying to build a valuable company in crypto, your first and primary goal should be to attract permanent attention and liquidity to your token…” — more
The year for Digital Fashion is 2024 / Dani Loftus — “If the internet can convince 200,000 people to snort cinnamon at risk of death, getting them to adopt behaviours that allow them to participate in the $1 trillion fashion industry more accessibly, sustainably and creatively is entirely within reach.” — more
Metaplex (🤝) / Introducing Core — Metaplex Core simplifies Solana NFT standards, reducing minting costs and network load. With a single account design and flexible plugin system, Core aims to offer a simplified and streamlined solution for NFTs on Solana — more
Seed Club (🤝) / Announcing SC07: Consumer Crypto — “Today we’re excited to announce SC07, and introduce you to the eight companies building category-defining consumer crypto products.” — more
Transient Labs (🤝) / Introducing Stacks — Transient Labs introduced Stacks — empowering creators to build and publish mint pages using ERC1155 or ERC721 contracts, streamlining sales with a 0% creator fee. Mint pages are entirely customizable and offer two new minting concepts for ERC1155’s called Velocity and Marathon — more
Introducing Light / EVM Fragmentation Solution — Light is a cross-chain smart wallet for simplifying EVM interactions. It’s open-source and allows users to use any EVM chain without bridging or gas refueling — more
Immutable x OKX / Partnership — OKX partnered with Immutable, introducing a GameFi launchpad & integrating Immutable's zkEVM chain into OKX Marketplace & Wallet — more
Electric Capital / Introducing NFT Pulse — Electric Capital introduced NFT Pulse — a new, useful source for cross-chain NFT data — more
Introducing Semi-Fungible Tokens / Why Semi-Fungible? — Paired with an ERC721 "chunk" processor, Semi-Fungible Tokens offer ERC20-like performance with inherent NFT backing. SFT enables dynamic NFT backing, allowing fractionalized units and unified NFTs without minting an NFT for each token transfer, preserving ERC20-native gas efficiency — more
Farcaster / Introducing Actions — Farcaster Actions aim to simplify operations integration into the Farcaster app. “The goals of Actions are to: extend casts with custom “cast actions”, reuse concepts from the existing frames standard where possible, keep it simple.” — more
Today The Game (🤝) / Free Mint — “The wait is over and the Ancient Seed Mint is here. Mark your calendars. Minting for FREE on April 9th.” — more
Tabor Robak / Verse: Broken Printer — “In Broken Printer, Robak artfully blends the nuances of traditional printing with the boundless scope of generative art, inspired by the evolution of printing technology.” Minting April 11th — more
Gene Kogan x DOES / Streetlab: Paper Pixels — “When paper collages transform into a digital universe where traditional paper art becomes dynamic, revealing futuristic landscapes and vibrant micro-cities through the fusion of craftsmanship and technology.” 600 pieces — more
Ravi / Introducing Hype (🤝)
Bright Moments (🤝) / Venice Finale April 20-22
IYK (🤝) / Mastercard x PGA Tour
Today (🤝) / New Game, New Look
brian flynn / Rabbithole x Blast (🤝) #1 in Blockspace Demand
BasedAF (🤝) / Smile Club x Pixelnyx
Squads (🤝) / Over $2.5B Assets Secured
LayerZero Labs / Clusters (🤝) Integration
ZTX (🤝) / Genesis Home NFT Integration
Digitized / Spotlight x Unlonely App
Digitized / Featured
Ally Zach / Data on Crypto Narratives
Rob / Decentralized AI Landscape
Keone Hon / Execution Bottlenecks Explained
Sofamon / Beta Goes Live
Mason Nystrom / Telegram Bots Deep Dive
🤝 = Collab+Currency Portfolio Company
Curated by @Collab_Currency x @_cutbank
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