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IOSG: Multi-chain DeFi expansion, Rollup empowers the new financial system

IOSG Ventures

Read this article in 28 Minutes

In the long run, most applications will be built on rollup, because it is the only sustainable solution

Original title: "IOSG Weekly Brief ｜Rollup empowers a new financial system-Multi-chain DeFi #123"

Original source: IOSG Ventures

Part.1 Insight

This article is only for industry learning and communication, and does not constitute any investment reference

Introduction

After five years of rapid development of DeFi, the major building blocks/infrastructure fields The winner of the direction has been determined, and the market structure has not changed much. Due to the lack of new financial infrastructure innovations, the easiest fruit in the Ethereum DeFi field has almost been picked up. Multi-chain DeFi is one of the few narrative directions for new entrepreneurs, but at present, most of the other public chains The financial protocol is basically a follower and replicator along the path pioneered by the Ethereum DeFi predecessors.

On the one hand, due to the explosion of multi-chain narratives and the gradual saturation of the Ethereum ecology, activities on other chains have also gradually increased. But what is interesting is that the giant whales still show a strong preference for safety. The TVL of Curve.fi, the largest agreement on Ethereum, is more than the sum of the TVL of all DeFi applications built on top of Avalanche and Solana (does this also mark the DeFi business model and product experience that people debated in the past two or three years? Should the dust settle on the topic of retail or institution?).

On the other hand, because these multi-chains can provide lower handling fees, some users who cannot afford Ethereum fees are also squeezed out to other chains. However, considering that the actual capital and transaction volume provided by these users is still insignificant, platforms based on the architecture of most mainstream single blockchains will actually be difficult to withstand the huge throughput of DeFi.

DeFi Map; Source: IOSG Ventures

Multi-chain DeFi expansion has been the new focus of DeFi development in 2021. Among them, BSC-Chain, Polygon, Terra, Avalanche and Solana have also made a lot of discussions. Although most of these chains are positioned as competitors of Ethereum, the leadership of Polygon and the community have chosen to support the biggest narrative of Ethereum, and even announced an ambitious and positioning itself as one of the leaders in the modular blockchain approach.

Since the progress of existing Ethereum-native scaling solutions has been slow, this has opened up a certain window of opportunity for its competitors to capture some market share. While TVL is most widely used to define a traffic volume metric for individual on-chain activity, the metric has certain drawbacks. Since usually most of the TVL comes from a specific L1 native token, an increase in the price of the native token will naturally lead to an increase in TVL, which in turn will further cause speculators to drive up the token price.

As The Block shows in the figure below, it can be seen that Avalanche has the largest fresh capital inflow into the ecosystem.

Source: The Block

Although There is growing activity on other chains, but Ethereum remains the dominant solution when it comes to sheer TVL and the number of dApps built on it. Intuitively, we can see that the total TVL of the largest Ethereum protocol, Curve, is greater than the sum of the TVL of all applications built on top of Avalanche and Solana.

Source: Footprint Analytics

Other chains are more than 12 months behind Ethereum development. The new chain will have to stand the test of time in order to prove secure enough for large capital providers. The perception of risk becomes clear if we compare the yields of stablecoins on Solana vs stablecoins on Ethereum. For example, Solend, the largest money market protocol on Solana, offers 2-3x larger APY on USDC and USDT than AAVE. This gap suggests a larger implied risk premium for interacting with new protocols on a new chain.

Any chain that seeks to compete with Ethereum must rebuild the Ethereum DeFi map. Therefore, while the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem has been trying to explore new natives and build verticals, most other L1s are copying the Ethereum DeFi map.

If we look at the market cap of DeFi tokens, the dominance of Ethereum DeFi is also very clear, only 4 of the top 20 token assets are non-Ethereum Fang ecological project.

The identity of the pioneer of decentralized applications has helped Ethereum accumulate soft power. All alternative L1a adopt EVM compatibility in some form, such as Avalanche's C-chain, Polkadot's Moonbeam, NEAR's Aurora, Solana's Neon, Fantom, Polygon, BSC, etc.

In the long run, we expect that most applications will be built on rollup, as this is the only sustainable solution, supporting tens of thousands of users have a good experience on the chain, and this is based on the basic principles of not sacrificing decentralization, anti-censorship, security and trustlessness.

This article is an excerpt from a part of "IOSG Report: Rollup Empowers a New Financial System": Multi-chain DeFi. Stay tuned for the full report.

Part.2 Investment and financing event

Cassava Network completed 8 million US dollars in financing, Dragonfly and others participated

* Web3 infrastructure

Africa's Web3 infrastructure Cassava Network announced the completion of a $8 million private placement round of financing. More than 40 institutions including Dragonfly, CMT Digital, YGG, Mirana and Panony participated in this financing . It is reported that Cassava Network is committed to providing users with Web3 products and services including inclusive financial services, and will create a super traffic portal for users from Web2 to Web3. At present, a multi-chain wallet supporting Solana, ETH, and BNB Chain has been launched. Users can obtain reward points, conduct NFT transactions, and manage assets in the app.

Ireverent Labs has completed 40 million US dollars in financing and will launch the NFT cockfighting game for earning money

* Chain Game

According to the documents submitted by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the chain game company Ireverent Labs completed a $40 million investment For financing, 11 investors participated in the sale of equity and option combinations, and the specific investors have not been disclosed. Ireverent Labs, led by esports veteran Rahul Sood and founder of gaming platform Unikrn, is launching its first earn-to-play NFT cockfighting game, MechaFightClub. Previously, Ireverent Labs completed a financing of US$5 million in November last year, and a16z, Chainsmokers and others participated in the investment.

LootRush Completes $12M Seed Round Financing Led by Paradigm

* Lianyou

Blockchain game platform LootRush completed a $12 million seed round of financing, led by Paradigm, and participated by a16z and Y Combinator cast. LootRush is a blockchain game platform similar to Steam. It provides a quick start platform for blockchain games and also provides NFT rental services for games, aiming to lower the barrier for new gamers and earn income for NFT owners. Currently LootRush only supports the Axie Infinity game, with plans to support more games such as CryptoKitties and NBA Top Shot.

Infinigot completes USD 9 million seed round financing led by Pantera

*Chain Game

Blockchain game developer InfiniGods completes $9 million in seed round financing led by Pantera Capital and Framework Ventures , Jefferson Capital, Animoca Brands and Double Peak participated in the investment. InfiniGods intends to use the new funds to release three games in 2022, including an NFT with in-game utility, and will also release governance tokens. It is reported that InfiniGods has created web and mobile games that contain mythological elements, and the gameplay includes puzzles, strategy and city building. InfiniGods co-founder Owen O'Donoghue previously spent 11 years at Meta (formerly Facebook), helping grow Meta's gaming division and helping game developers publish, monetize and scale their games. Another co-founder, Damon Gura, has spent 25 years in the gaming industry and founded social and mobile gaming company DGN Games in 2014.

Untamed Planet Closes $24.3M Funding Led by Animoca Brands

* Chain Games

Untamed Planet, a 3D immersive natural game combining the concepts of metaverse and NFT, completed a financing of US$24.3 million, led by Animoca Brands . As part of the partnership, Untamed Planet and Animoca Brands will develop and co-publish the metaverse game Untamed Metaverse, with Nway, a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, providing development support for the game.

Bitcoin.com Closes $33.6M in VERSE Token Sale

* Exchange &Wallet

Bitcoin.com, a provider of cryptocurrency exchange and wallet services, announced the completion of a $33.6 million VERSE Token private placement financing, Digital Strategies, KuCoin Ventures, Blockchain.com, ViaBTC Capital, Redwood City Ventures, 4SV, BoostX Ventures, Roger Ver, Jihan Wu, David Wachsman and other individuals participated in the investment. It is reported that Bitcoin.com has more than 4 million monthly active users and 30 million self-hosted wallets. VERSE is a reward and utility token for Bitcoin.com ecosystem contributors and participants, with a total supply of 12.6 billion. Scheduled to begin in June 2022, the VERSE Token Public Sale will launch as the first token project on the Bitcoin.com Verse Launchpad and sell 6% of the total token supply.

Kinetix Completes $11 Million Seed Round

*Artificial Intelligence

Kinetix, an artificial intelligence 3D content creation platform, completed a seed round of financing of 11 million US dollars. This round of financing was led by the founder of Top Harvest Capital, Google and Google Former Ventures executive Adam Ghobarah led the round, and The Sandbox & ZEPETO (NAVER Z) and others participated in the round. It is reported that Kinetix aims to provide a platform to help users in the Metaverse generate content, making creation fast and easy.

Cometh completes USD 10 million seed round financing, led by Ubisoft and others

*Chain Games

French blockchain game studio Cometh completed a $10 million seed round of financing led by White Star Capital, game giant Ubisoft (Ubisoft) and Stake Capital, other participating parties include Serena Capital, Shima Capital and IDEO Colab Ventures, etc. The post-investment valuation was not disclosed. Additionally, Cometh announced the launch of its second blockchain-based video game, Cometh Battle. It is reported that Cometh is building an end-to-end game platform to power the next generation of P2E games. Cometh also provided its technology to help brands display NFTs.

Immi completed the seed round of financing participated by Mark Cuban and others, with a post-investment valuation of US$50 million

*Animation application

Animation application Immi announced its launch on the App Store and won 11:11 Media, billion The seed round, for an undisclosed amount, included participation from multimillionaire Mark Cuban, Tony Robbins, Zoom founder Eric Yuan, singer Pitbull, Grammy-nominated producer Steve AokiS, and NFT investor GMoney. An Immi spokesperson said the post-money valuation of the round was $50 million. Immi plans to launch its own NFT characters and animate more existing NFTs in the future, the company said. It is reported that the application to create animations that can be used in social media or in the virtual world will allow selected owners of BAYC and My Pet Hooligan NFT to animate these characters.

Copper Closes $29M Series A Financing Led by Fiat Ventures
*Digital Bank

Copper, a digital banking service provider for teenagers, completed a US$29 million Series A financing led by Fiat Ventures and participated in the investment Parties include Panoramic Ventures, Insight Partners, Invesco Private Capital, etc. According to reports, Copper aims to enable its customers to channel funds from their accounts into a wide range of investments, from stocks to mutual funds and cryptocurrencies. The company plans to launch its new product, Step Investing, early this summer, which will allow users to invest in stocks and cryptocurrencies on its app.

Masa Finance Completed $3.5 Million Pre-Seed Round Financing
* DeFi

DeFi lending agreement Masa Finance announced the completion of a $3.5 million Pre-Seed round of financing, Unshackled Ventures, Lateral Capital, GoldenTree Asset Management, Decentranet Intersect VC, Peer VC, Alves Ventures and others participated in the investment. Masa said in a statement that the next step would be a seed round. Subsequent funding will allow the company to hire more engineers, launch a product version of the protocol, conduct a public token sale, scale up node operators, and bring developers and lenders onto the platform. It is reported that Masa Finance is currently being built on Celo and Ethereum, and will launch a beta version in the near future.

Amberdata completes USD 30 million in Series B financing, with Coinbase and others participating
* Data Assets

Amberdata, a digital asset data provider, announced the completion of a $30 million Series B round of financing, led by Knollwood Investment Company, Coinbase, Nexo, Susquehanna International Group, Nasdaq Ventures, NAB Ventures and Chicago Trading Company also participated. The new financing will be used to increase Amberdata's engagement with potential U.S. and international clients. It is reported that Amberdata provides financial institutions with data and insights on blockchain networks, encrypted markets and DeFi to promote the adoption of digital assets by institutions. Previously, in September last year, Amberdata completed a US$15 million Series A financing led by Citigroup.

Bundlr Network completed a $5.2 million seed round of financing, led by Framework Ventures

*Multi-chain Expansion Solution

Bundlr Network completed a $5.2 million seed round financing, Framework Ventures, Hypersphere Ventures, Arweave and Permanent Ventures co-led the round, with participation from OpenSea Ventures and Race Capital. The new funding will be used to expand the team, especially in business development, Rust developers, and marketing initiatives. Bundlr Network is an Arweave-based multi-chain expansion solution. The project team is currently building a set of tools designed to make it easier for users to upload and access files on the Arweave network.

Prisma completes USD 40 million Series B financing

* Open Source Data Platform

Open source data platform Prisma announced the completion of $40 million in Series B financing, led by Altimeter, with participation from Amplify Partners and Kleiner Perkins, angels Investors include founding members of companies like Vercel, PlanetScale, GitHub, and SourceGraph. Prisma is an open source data platform designed to share data across organizations, across teams, and between front-end and back-end teams, as well as data engineers, developers, and business analysts.

Pangea Fund completed $85 million in financing, Alameda Research and others participated

*Fund Financing

Encrypted hedge fund Pangea Fund completed $85 million in financing, with participants including Bain Capital, ParaFi, Alameda Research Individual investors include USV co-founder Brad Burnham, Apollo Global Management co-founder Josh Harris, Multicoin Capital partner Kyle Samani, etc. It is reported that Pangea Fund was founded by former Messari analyst Ryan Watkins and Daniel Cheung, who previously worked at Jennison Associates, and will focus on "long-only" strategies.

Part.3 IOSG post-investment project progress

Acala is now supported Two-way transfer between relay chain and parachain

* DeFi

The Polkadot ecological DeFi platform Acala officially tweeted that the DOT transfer from Polkadot to Acala has been upgraded and has now allowed two-way transfers between the relay chain and the parachain. Users can start transferring their DOT liquidity to Acala in preparation for DOT liquidity staking.

Interlay will open the crowd loan reward claim, users can now start the claim process

* DeFi Interoperability Platform

Polkadot Parachain Interlay announced that it will open crowd loan reward claiming later this month, Users participating in crowdlending can start to sign the terms. After signing, INTR will be airdropped to users later this month, which will help speed up the overall claim process.

Illuvium will have its first land sale on June 2

* ;chain game

RPG chain game Illuvium announced that it will conduct its first land sale at 17:00 on June 2, Beijing time, about 5 % of in-game revenue goes to landowners. Previously, the Illuvium Council passed the IIP-20 proposal on the details of land sales. It will mainly use the Dutch auction method to sell land, with a total of 100,000 pieces of land, and 20,000 pieces of land available for sale for the first time. area. NFTs will be minted on Immutable X. Last month, lluvium launched the Staking v2 version, which supports users to obtain rewards from multiple mining pools in one transaction.

Moonbeam integrates XCM to increase cross-chain functionality and enable cross-chain asset xcDOT

* Polkadot ecological smart contract platform

Moonbeam, a multi-chain decentralized application development platform based on Polkadot, is now available This is also Moonbeam's first XCM (cross-consensus message format) integrated application.

As XC-20, xcDOT is compatible with the ERC-20 standard and can be used directly in Moonbeam, which allows existing DOT holders to pass Moonbeam's DApp for the first time Deposit tokens and use DOT flexibly through various applications such as decentralized trading platforms, liquidity pledge protocols and lending applications. XCM introduces new cross-chain token functionality to the Polkadot ecosystem and opens the door for asset transfers and interoperability between parachains without the use of cross-chain bridges.

Part.4 Industry Pulse

Lido Finance surpasses Curve to become the total locked position DeFi protocol with the highest volume

* DeFi

Decentralized Lido Finance's total locked-up volume (TVL) surpassed Curve, becoming the DeFi protocol with the highest total locked-up volume. At present, Lido Finance's total lock-up volume is about 19.52 billion US dollars, and Curve's total lock-up volume is about 19.3 billion US dollars. The third to fifth places are Anchor Protocol ($17.23 billion), MakerDAO ($13.53 billion), Aave ($11.84 billion)

Instagram Plan to integrate Ethereum, Polygon, Solana and Flow's NFT

* Social

Instagram is planning to integrate NFTs from Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, and Flow, starting with a pilot for a small group of users in the United States. It's unclear if Instagram will support all four networks at launch. As long as the user puts the NFT into the wallet, he can prove the ownership of the NFT. Instagram will not charge users to upload and display NFTs. According to previous news, Zuckerberg said that he is working hard to introduce NFT into Instagram, and users may be able to mint NFT in the APP.

Opera's encrypted browser integrates BNB Chain

* Browser

Opera’s encrypted browser, Opera Crypto Browser, announced that it has added support for BNB Chain, allowing users to purchase BNB tokens with legal currency, and Use the built-in Opera encrypted wallet to send and receive tokens, and have access to DApps on the BNB Chain, including PancakeSwap, 1inch, etc. According to news last month, Opera has launched the iOS version of its encrypted browser.