SBF Takes the Stand

📢 Sponsor | 💡 Telegram | 📰 Past Editions

Good Morning. As we enter the remaining two months of the year, all attention will be on the spot Bitcoin ETF launch in January 2024, and the Bitcoin halving in April 2024. Until then, everything else is a sideshow.

In Today's Email:

• What Matters: SBF takes the stand 👨‍⚖️

• Founders Highlight: Solana incubator 🧪

• Deal Flows: $20M FPS crypto game 🔫

BROUGHT TO YOU BY

NEAR

Dive into the future at NEARCON ‘23, hosted by NEAR, the engine powering an open web. Join us in Lisbon, Portugal from November 7-10th to explore the latest in: Venture capital, Decentralization, and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Witness NEAR's booming ecosystem with over 2.6M unique active wallets and 25M transactions in the past 30 days.

Highlights include:

• Discovering NEAR's Blockchain Operating System (B.O.S), the heartbeat of an open web.

• Engaging with top partners like Google Cloud and Cosmose AI, pioneers in "Shoppertainment”, and Sweatcoin, the app that rewards your fitness journey.

• Connecting with innovative projects like Mintbase's NFT platform and PlayEmber's gaming studio.

Ready to step into the Web3 evolution?
Click to unveil what NEARCON ‘23 has in store for you.

Launchy readers get 50% off! — Use the code: LAUNCHYFRIENDS at checkout.

or register for the NEARCON Hackathon, includes free entry to NEARCON

Indulge in 4 days of deep dives, hands-on building at the NEAR IRL Hackathon, and networking with industry trailblazers. This year’s NEARCON IRL Hackathon theme is “Step into the Open Web”.

Come hack together apps and experiences that explore how NEAR is paving the way for a truly open web. $140K+ in prizes are up for grabs.

WHAT MATTERS

SBF Testifies in Court

State of play: According to Inner City Press, SBF testified in court on Thursday after the jury was dismissed, indicating Judge Lewis Kaplan will decide on the admissibility of his statements.

SBF was questioned on the use of the auto-delete feature on Signal and the legality of his action in taking FTX deposits through Alameda.

• SBF said that his external General Counsel was the architect of the policy that led him to automatically delete messages in Signal.

• He also said that lawyers were behind the FTX's terms of service and its banking arrangement with Alameda.

• SBF blamed General Counsel Dan Friedberg and the Fenwick & West law firm for the creation of numerous contested documents and policies.

However, SBF was struggling to answer further questions from Assistant US Attorney Danielle Sassoon.

• Sassoon challenged SBF to identify the section of the Payment Agent Agreement between FTX and Alameda that permitted Alameda to use FTX's customer funds.

• SBF hesitated for nearly two minutes before uncertainly responding to the agreement query, admitting his lack of legal expertise.

The unexpected move to have SBF testify without the jury is an unusual procedure, suggesting it was driven by a specific need for clarification on a particular matter.

Why it matters: After numerous days of SBF’s former Lieutenants testifying against him, he needs to take a risk in testifying for himself, a move that’s rarely taken by the defendant.

For builders and investors: Learn from FTX’s mistakes. Implement proper governance controls especially if your companies or protocols are responsible for customer funds, whether directly or indirectly via smart contracts.

BUILDER-INVESTOR HIGHLIGHT

Solana Labs Launches Incubator

Solana Labs recently launched a brand-new incubator in an initiative to support the development of projects on the Solana blockchain.

• The incubator will provide fundraising support, development assistance, connections, and promotional aid to ventures aiming to build on Solana.

• Builders that are planning to build on Solana will be helped to integrate and expand.

• The Solana Incubator will accept applications through November 30.

Why it matters: Solana needs to (and is indeed) bounce back from its old ties with FTX. The blockchain understands that having a strong decentralized application ecosystem is key to winning the infrastructure layer war.

• Case in point: Arbitrum has GMX and Base has Friend Tech.

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

INSIGHTS

POS Asset Market Cap Drops 7% to $254B

In the latest quarter, the market cap of top Proof-of-Stake (POS) assets decreased by 7% to $254B, according to a report by Staked, a non-custodial staking platform owned by Kraken.

• The value of staked POS assets rose by 3% to $74B.

• The annualized staking rewards dropped 7% to $4.1B.

• The average POS staking yield was 10.2%, showing a 4% decline compared to the last quarter.

• The POS assets market share is 22% of Total Crypto Market Cap, a 2% quarterly decrease.

• Staked observes that despite quarterly dips, the metrics suggest the market is off the bottom.

DEAL FLOWS

Neon Machine $20M Series A

Deal flows soared this week 📈 — we saw $110M+ in deals.

Neon Machine, the Web3 gaming developer behind Sharpnel, secured $20M in a Series A funding round to advance the development of its eagerly awaited extraction shooter game.

• The round was led by Polychain Capital, with participation from Griffin Gaming Partners, Brevan Howard Digital, Franklin Templeton, IOSG Ventures, and Tess Ventures.

• Shrapnel is a sci-fi shooter game with in-game items such as weapon parts available as NFTs on its Avalanche subnet.

• In April, Shrapnel introduced SHRAP, its own ERC-20 token, on the Avalanche network.

• Neon Machine plans to release the early-access version of Sharpnel in December this year, with the full version coming in 2024.

• Neon Machine has raised a total of $37.5M from seed funding, Series A, and private token sale rounds.

Deal flows in the past week:

• Anboto Labs, $3M Seed Round

• Hytopia, $3M Seed Round

• Noble, $3.3M Seed Round

• Moonveil, $5.4 Seed Round

• Blockaid, $6M Seed Round

• Nocturne, $6M Seed Round

• Aera, $8M Seed Round

• smIXL, $13.4M Seed Round

• Rymedi, $9M Series A

• Shrapnel, $20M Series A

• Blockaid, $27M Series A (yes, they announce both rounds)

• Upland, $7M Series A+

• CyberConnect, Undisclosed $ Private Round

• De.fi, Undisclosed $ Private Round

QUICK BITES

• SBF testifies in his fraud trial.

• Solana launches incubator program.

• Mastercard teams up with MoonPay.

• Taiwan officially proposes a crypto bill.

• Circle partners with Bitogroup and FamilyMart.

• Polygon’s POL deployed on the Ethereum mainnet.

• Binance CZ loses $12 billion on crypto-trading slump.

• JPMorgan reports that JPM Coin handles $1B in daily tx.

• Mexican Senator advocates for Bitcoin to be legal tender.

• Lawmakers call on DOJ to consider charges against Binance.

• Elliptic says its crypto-based terrorism data is misrepresented.

• Ken Griffin denies Citadel's involvement with Terra’s downfall.

• Bandai Namco is bullish on blockchain gaming for the Asian market.

• Elizabeth Warren finds support to tackle crypto-financed terrorism.

NOTEWORTHY READS

• Paul Veradittakit’s read on permanent storage.

• Gearbox’s read on building the onchain credit layer.

• An Ape’s Prologue’s read on dYdX v4: a cushion for heavy unlocks.

If you enjoy reading this issue, please consider subscribing. It takes 1 minute of your time but it would mean the world to us 🙇

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.