Web3 Funding Hasn't Stopped

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What's Dropping ⚡️

• Superf3st wraps up their mint today. Project founders are behind both Bonnaroo and SF Outside Lands (NFT holders actually received physical tickets to SF Outside Lands this summer). If you love live music this is definitely worth a deep dive (@superf3st)

• Sports fashion brand PUMA is taking the leap into the metaverse with Black Station, their own metaverse. NFTs with redeemable physical sneakers will be released soon. (@PUMA)

• BRICK, founded by Lee Spielman and Garrett Stevenson of the hardcore punk band Trash Talk is creating an IRL music venue by night and a community-run creative space by day in Los Angeles. Holders of the NFTs (minting now on the Ledger Marketplace) get voting rights over what BRICK will do with the venue, as well as free entry to all events with a plus-one. All events will stream via upcoming various Metaverse builds to serve holders worldwide. (@ONEWORDBRICK)

• FTX joins forces with Gamestop to help onboard new users into crypto. (bitcoinist)

• Users can now stake Ethereum on the Binance platform, and with a low entry barrier. Some crypto experts say that this is a risky move, though. (cointelegraph)

• WeatherXM has launched decentralized weather stations around the world, which collect data and allow station owners to collect tokens in return. A brilliant use case for the blockchain! (cointelegraph)

• A dispute between Quentin Tarantino and Miramax regarding Pulp Fiction NFTs was just settled. (hollywoodreporter)

• An ongoing project in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II will be hosting its final auction, following the news of the Queen's passing yesterday morning. (Decrypt)

• The Whitehouse is hoping to push blockchain technology into greener territory, offering guidelines for the tech to become more environmentally sustainable (coindesk)

• Ford just filed a bunch of NFT and metaverse trademarks.(@KondoudisLaw)

• A proposal made by Coinbase expresses their interest in managing a chunk of MakerFAO funds. (Decrypt)

• Okay Bears announced a basketball team and they drop final draft picks from the community as they head to Atlanta. (@Okaybears)

Animoca Brands $110 Mill Round Completion 💰

Even during the bear market, we have been seeing consistent capital injection into the NFT space, mainly in the metaverse micro-vertical. Even companies like Meta have fully pivoted to focus on the future of the metaverse. On Thursday of this week, Animoca Brands announced that they raised $110 million through a convertible notes sale to institutional investors.

The round was led by institutional investors Temasek, Boyu Capital, and GGV Capital, while existing investors, Mirae Asset Management and True Global Ventures, also took part in the round. After this round, Animoca has raised a total of $775 million, which pushes the company well past the July valuation of $5.9 billion.

Animoca has invested in many different companies, including, but not limited to, Dapper Labs, Opensea, and even Axie Infinity. But, Animoca’s biggest venture remains to be The Sandbox, which is being diligently built to beat the rest of the competition to market. The future is clearly digital. And based off of these recent funding rounds, we’re seeing more and more institutional money being funneled to speed up the process. WAGMI.

Prepare: The Merge Is Coming 👀

 Mysten Labs Raises $300 Million 💰

The crypto startup Mysten Labs has raised $300 million dollars in funding to bring forth its decentralized infrastructure. Well-known giants like Binance Labs, Coinbase Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitiz’s are behind the funding and this indicates strong confidence in the startup. Mysten Lab's specialty consists of two products; the Sui proof of stake blockchain and the open source programming language Move. The funding rounds were led by FTX and the team behind Mysten is comprised of former Meta employees.

The funding will be used to build out the Sui blockchain and expand Mysten’s presence in the Asian Pacific markets. The $300 million dollar funding and $2 billion evaluation demonstrate a remarkable appetite for crypto in this otherwise slumped market. Indeed 2022 has seen nearly $40 billion funneled into Web3 startups, outpacing the $32 billion raised by Web3 startups in all of 2021. The star-studded dev team that makes up Mysten Labs and the tremendous support they’ve received from notable ventures make Mysteb a Web3 institution that you’ll want to keep your eyes on.

Solana Name Service (SNS) Walkthrough 📝

Last week, Bonfida the Solana naming service provider announced that Trust wallet has been added to the Solana name service site and funds and NFTs can be transacted on Trust wallet with .sol domain names. This further expands the list of their wallet partners and also their vision of making Web3 easy.

This integration allows its users to flex their registered domain instead of the default public addresses provided by the wallet. The .sol names you see on Twitter handles and wallet addresses are decentralized domain names built on a public chain. They work by converting addresses into easily remembered and recognized characters. The 32 to 44 characters address format is a barrier to adoption, having a human-readable address helps facilitate transactions by allowing users to exchange assets by simply sharing a name (e.g thedropnft.sol). This is the most obvious use case of the Solana domain names. However, these domain names can have much broader applications than just payments. Users can host their favorite websites, and applications or confirm their identities with their domain.

Why should you register for Solana's naming service (SNS)?

There is a single point of failure in most decentralized applications (dApps), the domain names are centralized and censorable. This is not the case with on-chain domains; they cannot be censored hence a website hosted on IPFS using the Solana domain name would be entirely decentralized and difficult to censor.

IPFS- InterPlanetary File System designed to work together with existing blockchain protocols.

Solana naming service is the easiest and most affordable way to register a .sol domain and this can be done by direct registration, auctioning, fixed price purchase, or NFT marketplace purchase on  Bonfida an ecosystem of products for Solana which includes the Solana Name Service (SNS).

Check out the service here.

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Meme Drop 💧

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Disclaimer: The Drop DOES NOT provide financial advice. All content is for informational purposes only. The Drop is not a registered investment, legal, or tax advisor or a broker/dealer. Trading any crypto-related asset is extremely risky and could result in significant capital losses. 

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Gannon Breslin, Kayla Kilbride, CryptoVonDoom, Naveed Lalani, Alex Reed, Naman Patel, Big Tuna

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