🧧 China's Crypto Comeback Plan

Worldcoin $115M Raise | Jules of Render Network

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Good Morning,

As we prepare for the long weekend, crypto markets are flat thanks to the ongoing US debt ceiling talks. At least we’re inching closer to a deal, otherwise, the impact would be catastrophic.

In Today's Email:

  • What Matters: HK crypto rules = China adoption? 🧧

  • Founders-Investors Highlight: Jules Urbach, Founder of Render 🖥️

  • Deal Flows: Worldcoin $115M Series C 🔥

Narratives: Next week, Optimism (OP) and Avalanche (AVAX) will unlock 3.6% and 1.3% of its total supply respectively. Tread carefully.

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WHAT MATTERS

China Crypto Comeback: HK Testing Ground

State of play: A CCTV broadcast showing Bitcoin is being regarded as a big deal by industry players, including Binance’s founder Changpeng Zhao.

The broadcast was reporting the latest crypto regulation in Hong Kong. Some argue the new Hong Kong crypto rules serve as China’s adoption playbook.

  • The regulation requires all trading platforms and exchanges to apply for a license.

  • HK’s SEC Head confirms retail traders from China will not be accepted and argues that stablecoin should not be admitted for retail trading.

  • To be eligible for trading by retail investors, crypto assets must be included in at least two acceptable indices issued by two separate index providers.

Credits to Wu Blockchain for the original article.

Why it matters: China's adoption of crypto has the potential to stimulate demand and prices, as well as promote wider acceptance of crypto assets.

  • It could also facilitate the revival of crypto mining within China, which was previously the world's primary Bitcoin mining center.

For builders and investors: It would be extremely difficult for crypto to progress if two of the world’s largest economies, the US and China, are hostile towards the technology.

  • Pay attention to the dynamics in both countries and find open attack vectors where you can enter and capitalize on the opportunities being presented.

  • Right now, Dubai and the MENA region look the friendliest toward crypto. China might only be testing what’s the right regulatory fit via Hong Kong, but it’s always great to have an option when the US is increasingly hostile.

BUILDER-INVESTOR HIGHLIGHT

Jules Urbach, Founder of Render

Jules Urbach is the Founder of Render, a crypto network that facilitates peer-to-peer GPU marketplace, enabling users to contribute computational power for rendering services

  • He is also the Founder, CEO, and Chairman of OTOY, a cloud graphics that has been in the rendering services business for over a decade.

  • Render Network last raised a $30M token round in December 2021, whereas OTOY raised an undisclosed amount of funds from 2 funding rounds between 2018 and 2020.

  • OTOY's technologies are being used in the production of big-name movies and TV series, including Ready Player One, The Mandalorian, and Stranger Things.

Previous backgrounds: Jules attended Harvard-Westlake high school before being accepted to Harvard University. But he never really attended Harvard University to pursue a career as a game-maker.

  • He made his first game at age 18 and founded OTOY in 2008.

The big idea: Jules is using his skills and experience from OTOY to grow Render Network.

  • “Centralized rendering is done by data centers owned by large cloud providers. Render Network, on the other hand, allows anyone with a compatible GPU to share their idle computing power on the network and help carry out render jobs for artists and projects.” — The Block

Take a peek at our new referral reward at the bottom of this issue. Share this newsletter and receive our list of 100 smart crypto investors' wallet addresses 👇

INSIGHTS

Multichain Bridge Situation

Multichain is a bridging protocol. Its volume is only second to Stargate.

  • A few days back, there were rumors that the Multichain team has been arrested.

  • Over $1.5 billion dollars of contract funds are now under the control of the Chinese police.

  • While there’s no certainty about the arrest, users of Multichain have been having difficulties bridging assets with their funds stuck since May 21. Multichain responded on May 23, stating that it was a back-end node upgrade issue.

The reputational damage is already done, with many protocols withdrawing their funds from Multichain.

DEAL FLOWS

Worldcoin $115M Series C

Deal flows remained steady this week 🏄 — we saw $190M+ in deals.

$115M to scan eyeballs: The crypto project co-founded by Open AI CEO Sam Altman has raised a $115M Series C. The new entity is called Tools for Humanity, which is comprised of the team behind Worldcoin.

  • The round was led by Blockchain Capital with participation from a16z, Bain Capital Crypto, and Distributed Global.

  • Worldcoin has onboarded ~2 million people and will remain a decentralized open-source protocol.

  • The new capital will accelerate R&D as well as growth efforts for its products, notably the World ID, the crypto wallet ecosystem, and the Worldcoin token.

Deal flows in the past week:

QUICK BITES

  • Paradigm broadens crypto-only investment focus.

  • Binance plans to launch an NFT loan feature.

  • ESRB comments on crypto leverage.

  • Multichain Bridge escalates its $1.6B situation.

  • Binance’s CZ says China is ‘buzzing’ after BTC is seen in a TV segment.

  • Unciphered claims the ability to hack Trezor T Wallet.

  • DCG shutters crypto institutional services subsidiary TradeBlock

  • DeSantis promises to protect BTC in a presidential campaign launch event.

MEME & NOTEWORTHY READS

  • Variant Fund’s read on SocialFi, web3 social apps.

  • Compound VC’s read on a crypto future.

  • Zee Prime Capital’s read on identity in web3.

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Disclaimer: All the information presented in this publication and its affiliates is strictly for educational purposes only. It should not be construed or taken as financial, legal, investment, or any other form of advice.’s