SBF & Do Kwon - What a Difference a Year Makes

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💵 Weekly Crypto Fundraises & Deals

Here are all the crypto fundraises we heard about this week, ranked by size…

1. Ledger has raised a $109M round from 10T, CapHorn Invest, Morgan Creek Capital and Cathay Innovation, True Global Ventures, Cite Gestion SPV, Digital Finance Group and VaynerFund
   

2. M^Zero Labs has raised $22.5M led by Panera to build a decentralised value transmission mechanism

3. LI.FI, a Berlin, Germany-based provider of a multi-chain liquidity and data gateway, has raised $17.5M in Series A funding, led by CoinFund

4. Hydra Ventures, a decentralized autonomous organization, has raised $10M, led by 1kx

5. Authlete, the leader in implementing the latest digital identity and API security standards, has raised $4M in Series A Funding led by SBI Digital Asset Holdings

6. Franklin, which provides tax-compliant hybrid crypto and cash payroll services to startups and businesses, has raised a $2.9M seed funding round led by venture capital firms gumi Cryptos Capital (gCC) and CMT Digital

7. GoJoe, a London-based social fitness app, has raised £1.2M, led by Superbet Ventures

🗞️ Crypto News Recap: The Top 5 Stories

Welcome back to This Week in Crypto… everything you need to know in one scannable format. Here are the top 5 stories of the week…

1. 1.⚖️ SBF Pleads Not Guilty to All 13 Federal Indictments- Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) pleaded not guilty to all federal indictments filed against him during a March 30 hearing, including the bribery charges unsealed last week.

2.⚖️ U.S. and South Korea Vying for Do Kwon Trial; Extradition Destination Uncertain- Currently, Kwon is being held in Montenegro. Ongoing court proceedings in the country are now determining where Kwon will go to face trial.

3. 😑 SEC’s Gensler Insists Clear Rules for Crypto Market ‘Already Exist’- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler today said that rules for the cryptocurrency market already exist—but that the industry is still “rife with noncompliance.”.

4. 🎭 Safemoon Liquidity Pair Compromised in $8.9 Million Hack- The BNB chain-based exchange Safemoon was compromised, according to on-chain records, resulting in close to $9 million being drained from its liquidity pool.

5. 🚩Crypto Exchange Bittrex, Once a U.S. Leader, Is Shutting Down in the Country After Volumes Dwindled to Less Than 1% of the Market, and Blaming Regulatory Uncertainty - Choke Point or no Choke Point, Bittrex says it's leaving the U.S. and it's placing the blame flat on Uncle Sam. "It’s just not economically viable for us to continue to operate in the current U.S. regulatory and economic environment," co-founder and CEO Richie Lai said in a message to customers in the country on Friday.

💬 Tweet of the Week

📊 Key Stats of the Week

Here are the most important and interesting stats in crypto this week...

1. March Was the Third Monthly TX Volume All-Time-High in a Row on Arweave

2. Bitcoin leads with 3T in trading volume over the last 90 days, more than 3x Ethereum

3. Zora Has Generated $1.5M Revenue Since Late February & Outpaced OpenSea for 4 Consecutive Weeks

4. Binance’s Market Share Plummeted 16% Over the Past 2 Weeks After Facing a Lawsuit From the CFTC and Ending Their Zero Fee Trading Program

5. Lido Finance Leads Staking Market with More than $10.9B in Assets Staked

6. GMX Crosses $113B Total Volume

📝 Highlights from the Top Crypto Reports

Here are the top highlights from the best crypto research reports this week…

Infrastructure Brief: Aggregators and Abstraction Layers

Intro

In recent years, significant progress has been made in advancing and improving Web3 infrastructure protocols. Despite this, adoption has been sluggish. Many Web3 developers still choose to use Web2 cloud providers, mainly due to the subpar user experience and the complexity involved in using decentralized infrastructure.

Similarly, enterprises have also been reluctant to embrace decentralized infrastructure, deterred by the steep learning curve and challenging onboarding processes that come with adopting new technology.

Aggregator Platforms for Developers

The Web3 developer experience has been fraught with challenges, as building a truly decentralized application requires learning how to work with various unique protocols, each having their own APIs, SDKs, and documentation. This fragmentation creates a high barrier of entry, making it difficult for developers to navigate the ecosystem and pushing them towards more user-friendly Web2 cloud providers.

In the Web2 space, Vercel and Netlify have gained popularity among developers for their ease of use, free-tier plans, and one-stop-shop functionality for building and deploying web applications. Decentralized protocols have struggled to offer a similar UX.

However, aggregator platforms such as Fleek, Spheron, and 4everland are emerging to bridge this gap and provide a more familiar experience for developers transitioning from Web2 to Web3. These platforms aggregate numerous decentralized infrastructure networks, offering services like web hosting, storage, and serverless compute, effectively acting as decentralized cloud platforms.

Fleek, Spheron, and 4everland have integrated with protocols such as Akash, Arweave, ENS, Filecoin, IPFS, and Internet Computer, offering user-friendly APIs and SDKs to make these protocols more accessible. Furthermore, they provide free-tier plans and fixed fiat pricing.

By delivering a seamless and intuitive experience for building and deploying apps, Web3 aggregators can enable developers to more readily use Web3 infrastructure, thereby accelerating its adoption.

Abstraction Layers for Enterprises

Enterprise adoption of decentralized infrastructure has been limited primarily due to the steep learning curve and unfriendly user experiences. To promote greater enterprise adoption, it's essential to develop abstraction layers that remove the complexity of blockchain and offer a more user-friendly on-ramp.

One sector focusing on enterprise adoption is decentralized storage. Companies like Filebase and Seal Storage are at the forefront of this movement, reducing the technical friction and providing a turnkey solution for enterprises wanting to migrate to decentralized storage.

For example, Filebase addresses the ease of use and onboarding problems that exist by providing a browser-based dashboard and an AWS S3-compatible API to deploy, access, and manage data across decentralized storage networks. Additionally, Filebase selects the most suitable storage network for the user based on their specific requirements.

🎧 Top Crypto Podcasts of The Week

Here are the crypto podcasts that are worth listening to this week...

1. Bankless - Why the Dollar is on the Decline with Lyn Alden

2. Real Vision - Has Crypto Weathered the Banking Storm? + The Future of Bonds (Kevin Miao, BlockTower Capital)

3. The Breakdown With NLW - Operation Choke Point 2.0 is Real with Nic Carter

4. The Defiant - 🏃Layer 2s for People in a Hurry💨

5. Coin Bureau - CRYPTO Is Now A Security: What Does It Mean For You?!

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💬 Join The Coinstack Telegram Community

Join our Telegram Channel here to chat with our community, ask questions, and learn more about the future of money as we move to a decentralized internet and the creation of a new open global monetary system that works for everyone.

💬 The People We’re Following Closely on Twitter

1. Vitalik Buterin

2. Justin Drake

3. Hayden Adams

4. Hasu

5. Ryan Adams

6. Vance Spencer

7. Camila Russo

8. Ryan Selkis

9. Anthony Sassano

10. Lyn Alden

11. Gavin Wood

12. Cathy Wood

13. Beniamin Mincu

14. Barry Silbert

15. David Hoffman

16. Preston Pysh

17. Willy Woo

18. Ultra Sound Money List

19. Polkadot Ecosystem List

📚 How To Get Started With Crypto Learning

1. Crypto: Explain It Like I’m 5 (Article)

2. The Infinite Machine by Camila Russo (Book)

3. Crypto Theses for 2021 by Messari (PDF)

4. Bankless - The DeFi community (Substack + Podcast + Discord)

5. Understanding Polkadot - The Next Generation Blockchain Tech (Website)

6. The Ethereum 2.0 Report from Messari (PDF)

7. Blockgeeks Video Tutorials (Video)

8. The Coinstack Website (Website)

9. 2008 Bitcoin Whitepaper (PDF)

10. 2013 Ethereum Whitepaper (PDF)

📰 The Coinstack Newsletter:

Tracking the most important blockchain stories of the 2020s, including a decentralized internet and the creation of a new open global monetary system that works for everyone. As always, published for informational purposes only. Please do your own research. Just our opinions. Not intended as financial advice as we are not financial advisors. We may own some of the digital assets we write about as we believe strongly in the sector. Please do your own research. Published and written weekly by Ryan Allis and Mike Gavela.

Coinstack is a news and analysis newsletter for the digital asset industry. None of the information here is a recommendation to invest in any securities or other types of investments. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Any historical returns, expected returns, or probability projections may not reflect actual future performance. All investments involve risk and may result in loss.

Comments and thoughts are welcome on our Telegram channel:

• Website at Coinstack.co

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• Telegram channel at t.me/thecoinstack

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