Gnosis Safe Gets New Name & USD 100M, STEPN Earns USD 123M, Playboy in The Sandbox + More News
Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
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Investments news
- Digital asset management platform Gnosis Safe said it has rebranded to Safe and has raised USD 100m in a funding round led by 1kx. Tiger Capital, Digital Currency Group, and Blockchain Capital are also among the investors. “The funding round is an important milestone for the development of Safe as a programmable ownership platform, enabling secure management of digital assets, data and identity across [decentralized autonomous organizations], retail and institutional users. The funding and strategic alliances will enable Safe to grow an ecosystem of applications and tools on top of its smart contract account protocol,” they added.
- Early-stage-focused venture firm Lightspeed Venture Partners has raised USD 7.1bn across three US funds and an India fund—and it’s delving further into crypto as it launches a joint partnership with Blockchain Ventures co-founder Sam Harrison, Fortune reported.
- Mysten Labs, a decentralized application (dapp) developer founded by former employees of social media giant Meta, is in talks with investors about raising a Series B round of at least USD 200m led by FTX Ventures, The Information reported, citing undisclosed people with knowledge of the matter. The startup is targeting a valuation of USD 2bn and investors have so far committed at least USD 140m to the round, it added.
- Digital property rights company Animoca Brands raised over USD 75m in the second tranche of a funding round from January 2022, which was extended to accommodate due diligence processes. They will use the new capital to continue to fund strategic acquisitions, investments, and product development, they said.
- Fintech company M1 announced it is launching crypto investments on its platform. They added that early access clients will be able to open crypto accounts and try new trading features “in a few weeks.”
Adoption news
- STEPN (GMT), a “Web3 lifestyle” app with social and gaming elements, said it generated USD 122.5m in profits through its platform fees in Q2 this year. The team said they will leverage 5% of the profits to initiate a Q2 GMT buyback and burn program. In addition to the buyback and burn program, STEPN will allocate capital reserves to improve upon existing features and build out the team, they added.
Metaverse news
- Lifestyle brand Playboy announced a partnership with metaverse project The Sandbox (SAND) to create a Playboy-themed immersive and social gaming experience dubbed the “MetaMansion.” More information on this upcoming world in The Sandbox will be shared in the coming months, they said.
Mining news
- Gryphon Digital Mining announced a record-setting production of approximately 71 bitcoin (BTC)-equivalent coins for the month of June. Month over month, the number of coins mined increased by approximately 15% from the 62 bitcoin-equivalent coins mined by the company in May 2022 as additional machines were placed online, they added.
- Greenidge Generation announced it produced approximately BTC 230 during the month of June 2022, up 18% from the BTC 195 mined in May, bringing the total BTC production for the six months ended June 30, 2022 to BTC 1,183.
- Core Scientific announced that all of their miners in the state of Texas, USA have been powered down until further notice in order to provide relief to the state, which is facing potential blackouts due to a heatwave driving up demand.
NFTs news
- US-based video game retailer GameStop launched its own NFT marketplace that allows parties to connect to their own digital asset wallets such as the recently launched GameStop Wallet. Over time, the marketplace will expand functionality to encompass additional categories such as Web3 gaming, more creators and other Ethereum (ETH) environments, they said.
