Crypto Daily Digest - December 16th

IDO

Rainmaker Games $RAIN Token Launch Auction

Rainmaker Games is the platform to P2E games — connecting players, games, and guilds worldwide. This week, Rainmaker Games announced their $6.5 million seed round funding, backed by Alameda, Animoca Brands, CoinFund, Republic, and strategic partners like Meric Circle and more.

Token Launch Auction (TLA) Details

• Token: $RAIN
• Total supply: 1,000,000,000 $RAIN
• Copper launch: 6% (60m $RAIN)
• Time: December 17, 3:00 pm UTC - December 20, 3:00 pm UTC (Dec 21, TGE)
• Starting weights: 95/5
• Starting Price: $1.00 Source

DeFi

What is FreeRossDAO?

Ross Ulbricht founded Silk Road, introduced hundreds of thousands to crypto, and received a disproportionate prison sentence of two lifetimes plus 40 years. Today we unite in solidarity for Ross, gathering funds to buy his Genesis Collection, and protesting the injustices of the American prison system.

“Perspective” is a graphite pencil drawing created in prison. It is part of a unique collection of writings and 10 artworks by Ross Ulbricht, from early childhood to teen to prisoner. The collection also includes a 2m40s original animation by Levitate, created in collaboration with Ross. Once the auction is won, the entire collection will be compiled into one singular NFT using Kanon’s KSPEC protocol. Curated by Entoptic, this is the first and only NFT collection to include Ross Ulbricht’s personal work. Proceeds will fund efforts to relieve the suffering of the incarcerated and their families, as well as the fight to free Ross from a life in prison. Source

Ribbon Finance is Live on Avalanche

Ribbon Finance is now live on Avalanche. It is an options-based structured wealth management product protocol. Ribbon uses the assets deposited by users as collateral, mints options contracts with low exercise probability through the decentralized options trading platform on Ethereum, and sells them to specific buyers (such as V1 version market makers, V2 version bidders participating in options contract bidding, etc.) to earn premiums as users' profits. Source

Celestia Launches Devnet

Celestia, a scalable general-purpose data availability layer for Decentralized Apps and trust-minimized sidechains, announced that it launches Devnet on 14th Dec. Devnet features three core components for Celestia: celestia-node, celestia-app and optimint. Its public testnet launch is scheduled in 2022. Source

Balancer Labs Collaborates with Aave to Launch Boosted Pools

Balancer Labs, an automated portfolio manager and liquidity provider, announced the launch of Boosted Pools in partnership with Aave, a leading DeFi lending agreement, noting that the new product is designed to address the issue of reduced capital efficiency through the yield of tokens deposited into automated market maker (AMM) pools. Traders typically utilize only 10% of the available liquidity in AMM pools, and by leveraging Boosted Pools, the remaining liquidity in an idle state can be deposited into the lending agreement, resulting in additional revenue. Source

NFT/GameFi

Michael Jordan Jumps Into Web3 via Solana App for Athletes

Michael Jordan and son Jeffrey have revealed HEIR, a Web3 fan engagement platform built on Solana. The platform is designed to link professional athletes with their most ardent supporters. It will feature an HEIR token minted on the Solana blockchain, and will showcase NFT assets along with community-building features that let fans join an athlete’s limited-capacity “huddle” for exclusive access and benefits. HEIR has raised $10 million in seed funding and will launch in 2022. Source

Sound Offers Musicians a New Model

Sound is a Web3 startup that allows musicians to sell NFTs tied to their songs. The NFTs let fans leave comments on a new song. On Wednesday, Sound announced it had raised $5 million led by Andreessen Horowitz(a16z) with participation from Variant Fund, Flamingo, Packy McCormick and others. Source

Funding

a16z Invests PleasrDAO

a16z announced its investment in PleasrDAO, a collective of DeFi leaders, early NFT collectors and digital artists. It buys and funds culturally significant pieces and then creates additive things to it before sharing it back with the community. Source

Jadu Closed $7 Million Seed Round with Coinbase Ventures and others

NFT virtual accessory company Jadu has closed a $7 million seed round to accelerate its efforts to build a Web3-based AR platform. The round was led by General Catalyst, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, VR Fund, Sound Ventures, Guy Oseary and others. Jadu is an AR startup whose products include pixelated NFT jetpacks and hoverboards, virtual accessories that can be used alongside other 3D avatars. In addition, the company plans to launch an AR game next year. Source

Chapter One Announced its $50 Million Fund

Chapter One, an early stage venture fund investing in Web3 at the intersections of consumer, culture, and the future of work, announced a $50 million Web3-dedicated fund to invest in generational founders who will make crypto more accessible around the world. Source