Crypto Daily Digest - April 13th

DeFi

• Aave Founder: Aave Ventures will be launched and every funded team will receive tickets to rAAVE. Source
• USDC Stablecoin Issuer Centre hires former Diem executive as Chief Operating Officer. Source
• Former Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith sentenced to 63 months in prison. Source
• Decentralized Derivatives Protocol ApeX Protocol on Arbitrum launches its first round of airdrop. Source
• Stablecoin platform Elephant Money suffers attack, hackers profit about $4 million. Source
• Decentralized derivatives trading platform Firefly launches early trader program Firefly Trader Alliance. Source
• Data: $USDC market value on the Ethereum network crosses $40 billion. Source
• Ethernet scaling solution Metis launches decentralized storage layer. Source
• Cross-chain protocol Router Protocol has integrated Arbitrum. Source
• Crypto trading platform Compendium Finance becomes a strategic partner with Alameda Research. Source
• Web3 infrastructure Torus changes its name to The Auth Network and will launch a new token $AUTH. Source
• Binance to delist $UST/$BTC and add $BTC/$UST pairs. Source
• Binance will invest 100 million Euros in France to help startups. Source
• Initial funding from the Elephant Money hack is being withdrawn via Tornado.Cash. Source
• DeFi lending protocol Maple Finance and MakerDAO enter into a partnership. Source
• Decentralized trading platform Ellipsis launches Ellipsis 2.0. Source
• Ronin exploiter moved 21,000 Ether to Tornado Cash in past week. Source
• Crypto trading platform Currency.com stops operations in Russia. Source
• Pai Shield: The initial funds to launch the Elephant Money hack are withdrawn from Tornado Cash. Source
• Total bitcoin transaction fees are near all-time lows, but counting power continues to grow. Source
• Some addresses bought large amounts of relevant tokens before Coinbase announced the list of tokens to be considered for listing in Q2. Source

Policy & Regulation

• Iran plans to launch its own CBDC. Source
• Brazilian central bank president confirms CBDC pilot will launch in 2022. Source

NFT

• YouTuber Logan Paul announces the launch of NFT project 99 Originals. Source
• Soccer media platform OneFootball launches NFT trading marketplace Aera in partnership with Animoca Brands and Dapper Labs. Source
• Sotheby's to mix auctions for third edition of Natively Digital. Source
• NFT Worlds announces mint rules for second NFT collection NFT Worlds Genesis Avatars. Source
• NBA has launched the NBAxNFT Twitter account. Source
• Serum Partners with Burnt Finance to launch NFT collection Serum Surfers. Source
• AdaSwap's NFT marketplace ADANFT will distribute NFT airdrops to $ASW holders. Source
• Japanese communication giant LINE's NFT marketplace LINE NFT is now live.
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• 3D animation NFT project Imaginary Ones releases minting rules. Source
• Sony Network Communications and Sun Asterisk partner to start NFT Business in Singapore. Source
• Korean telecom giant SK Telecom's Meta Universe platform will launch the NFT marketplace this year. Source
• CFDA partners with The Sandbox, Polygon Studios. Source
• The new owner of Pudgy Penguins proposes to create a music NFT platform similar to the iTunes version of OpenSea. Source

Fundings

• Cross-chain communication protocol Nomad closes $22 million seed round led by Polychain Capital. Source
• Japanese gaming giant Namco establishes about $20 million fund to invest in Web3 and Metaverse. Source
• Pantera Capital blockchain fund has raised $1.3 billion and recently stopped raising capital. Source
• Crypto payments company MoonPay closes $87 million funding round with Justin Bieber, Sharapova and others. Source
• Binance Labs announces investment in chain tour DAO Merit Circle. Source
• NFT game Paladin Pandas closes $4 million funding round with Hashkey Capital and others. Source
• $500 billion in crypto managed by CoinStats as it raises $3.2M to enter DeFi. Source
• Metaverse firm Infinite Reality will acquire esports company ReKTGlobal for $470 million. Source