Quick take:

The integration is expected to help MetaMask detect potential wallet exploits better using transaction validation and client-side heuristics.

The entire Wallet Guard team will join ConsenSys as part of the deal.

In February ConsenSys also integrated Blockaid security alerts into MetaMask.

ConsenSys has announced the acquisition of the crypto security app Wallet Guard. The company plans to integrate Wallet Guard’s browser extension to further protect MetaMask users against exploits and scams.

Metamask will also leverage Wallet Guard’s security engine capabilities to improve wallet drain detection via transaction validation and client-side heuristics, The Block reported. ConsenSys said the integration will provide users with real-time protection against scams and malicious dApps.

Commenting on the acquisition, Consensys CEO and Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin said in a statement: “Wallet Guard has quickly become a premier security tool with advanced capabilities and constant innovation that strategically aligns with Consensys’ goal of putting user safety at the forefront. Their innovative security solutions will be instrumental in our mission to create a safer and more secure environment to continuously pave the way for the industry’s mass adoption.”

As part of the deal, the Wallet Guard team is expected to join ConsenSys as part of its MetaMask product safety department.

Wallet Guard co-founder and co-CEO Ohm Shah commented: “We’re thrilled at the opportunity to bring our knowledge and commitment to end-user security to millions of MetaMask users worldwide. Advancements in security, fraud and scam prevention are essential for the mass adoption of web3.”

This announcement follows MetaMask’s integration with Blockaid earlier this year, which sought to improve the crypto wallet service provider’s security alerts.

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Quick take:

Polychain Capital and Borderless Capital led the round with several other Web3 VCs also participating.

Sreeram Kannan of EigenLabs, Balaji Srinivasan, Polygon’s Sandeep Nailwal and Sebastien Borget of The Sandbox were among those who joined as angel investors.

The company seeks to address the issue of data in AI model training, which its press release states is the biggest challenge that many AI models face today.

OpenLedger, a blockchain data oracle for AI models has raised $8 million in a Seed round led by Polychain Capital and Borderless Capital. The fundraising also attracted participation from Finality Capital, Hash3, HashKey Capital,  STIX, TRGC, Mask Network, MH Ventures and WAGMI Ventures.

Sreeram Kannan of EigenLayer, Balaji Srinivasan, Polygon’s Sandeep Nailwal and Sebastian Borget of The Sandbox were among several others who joined as angel investors.

OpenLedger believes the advancement of AI will be driven by three elements, computing, algorithms, and data. 

The company said in a press release on Tuesday that, while developers have figured out how to address the issue of computing with powerful computers and created complex algorithms, data remains the biggest challenge that AI model builders are facing today.

“Data is currently the biggest bottleneck in AI development, with the quality of AI models derived from the data the models are trained on,” OpenLedger wrote.

The company believes its fully permissionless and verifiable data-centric infrastructure could spur the growth and development of AI by enabling builders to create smarter and more performant AI models.

OpenLedger is leveraging EigenLayer’s crypto restaking protocol to secure its network and was alert to point out how the protocol has rapidly grown to a TVL of $20 billion, amid the rising demand for restaking services.

Kannan was equally optimistic about the collaboration, saying “Verifiable databases was the first category I wanted to see built on EigenLayer, as this category empowers a new category of developers who can work with verified data.”

OpenLedger plans to launch its testnet at the bigging of the fourth quarter in 2024 and is now expanding its team and operations to realise that goal.

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Quick take:

Polychain Capital led the round with participation from ABCDE, Bloccelerate, Generative Ventures, Robot Ventures and Samsung Next.

Ethereum Foundation’s Justin Drake and EigenLayer founder Sreeram Kanaan also joined as angel investors.

Pi Squared is developing a technology suite that enables verifiable computing with zero-knowledge proofs.

Pi Squared a Web3 startup led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign computer science professor, Grigore Rosu has raised $12.5 million in a seed round led by Polychain Capital.

The fundraising also attracted participation from ABCDE, Bloccelerate, Generative Ventures, Robot Ventures and Samsung Next, with Justin Drake of Ethereum Foundation and EigenLayer founder Sreeram Kanaan joining as angel investors.

Pi Squared is using zero-knowledge technology to build products for what it calls “trustless remote computing”. Its first product dubbed a ‘Universal Settlement Layer’ enables the settlement of blockchain transactions “claims” in any programming language, Rosu told CoinDesk.

In a nutshell, Grigore is building what he calls a “Universal ZK Circuit”. The product can also be used to enable ‘trustless remote computing’ in AI and interoperable smart contracts for any decentralised application or blockchain, according to information on the company’s website. Rosu said in a press release on Tuesday that he did the research over many years with his students.

According to Pi Squared, the technology creates a universal and disarmingly small ZK circuit that checks the integrity of mathematical proofs, which provide verifiable-computing correctness guarantees to all languages and virtual machines (VMs) alike directly from their formal semantics, without any translation to a common language, VM or instruction set architecture (ISA).”

Designed for builders, Pi Squared is still in its proof-of-concept phase but Rosu’s goal is to have the project in testnet by the end of the year.

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Quick:

Arrington Capital led the round with participation from Kraken Ventures, White Star Capital, Spartan Group, Amber Group, SevenX Ventures and IOSG Ventures.

The company offers a blockchain oracle that provides smart contracts with real-world data on-chain.

Its modularity brings flexibility and scalability whilst also being able to integrate with different blockchains.

RedStone has completed a $15 million Series A round led by Arrington Capital, with participation from Kraken Ventures, White Star Capital, Spartan Group, Amber Group, SevenX Ventures and IOSG Ventures.

The fundraising also attracted Berachain’s Smokey the Bera and Homme Bera, Mike Silagadze, Jozef Vogel and Rok Kopp of Ether.Fi and Puffer Finance’s Amir Forouzani, Jason Vranek and Christina Chen as angel investors.

The token round was structured as a simple agreement for future tokens (SAFT) RedStone founder and CEO Jakub Wojciechowski told The Block.

RedStone describes itself as a blockchain oracle, which is basically blockchain products that provide real-world data to smart contracts on-chain. However, its product is different from others like Pyth Network and Chainlink, as it leverages modularity to bring flexibility and scalability while the ability to replace different components of the Oracle means it can be easily integrated with different blockchains.

“Due to our modular architecture, our launch on new networks is significantly quicker and we can adjust our flow depending on the market needs, i.e., with the liquid restaking tokens wave, we were the first oracle to support projects like Ether.Fi, Renzo, Puffer and Swell,” Wojciechowski said.

RedStone is chain-agnostic, supporting over 60 blockchains. The platform is also among the largest data oracles with the current total value secured surpassing $1.3 billion according to DeFiLlama data. 

RedStone also plans to add Berachain and Monad to its list of supported blockchains and is preparing to launch as an actively validated service on EigenLayer.

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Quick take:

The fundraising also attracted participation from BabylonChain, Inc., dao5, Franklin Templeton, Foresight Ventures, Mirana, Mantle EcoFund and Nomad Capital.

The company offers a liquid and yield-bearing representation of staked Bitcoin powered by the LBTC token.

The company also plans to integrate LBTC across Ethereum DeFi protocols by the end of the year.

Lombard, a Bitcoin restaking protocol on the Bitcoin ecosystem has raised $16 million in a Series A round led by Polychain Capital. The fundraising also attracted participation from Babylon Chain, Inc., dao5, Franklin Templeton, Foresight Ventures, Mirana Ventures, Mantle EcoFund and Nomad Capital.

The company plans to use the fresh capital to expand its Bitcoin restaking ecosystem by leveraging Babylon Chain’s Bitcoin staking protocol. In May, Babylon Chain raised $70 million in a round led by Paradigm. Polychain Capital was also among other Web3 VCs that joined the round.

“Lombard’s cross-chain LBTC product taps into the vast pool of parked Bitcoin liquidity, enhancing the supply-side into Babylon’s Bitcoin staking protocol. We are pleased that Lombard has received significant funding so we can continue our close collaboration, fill a critical void in the market, and drive substantial growth,” said David Tse, Co-Founder of Babylon.

Lombard’s fundraising comes at a time when Bitcoin is emerging as a major dApp ecosystem driven by the rapid rise of crypto staking and restaking protocols, most of which are powered by Babylon Chain.

According to the announcement, Lombard will use the BTC staked via Babylon to secure more protocols in the Bitcoin ecosystem by issuing the liquid and yield-bearing representation of staked Bitcoin powered by the LBTC token. According to the company’s website, LBTC is freely minted across chains and backed 1:1 with BTC, allowing users to stay liquid and carry their tokens wherever they go.

Lombard’s goal is to expand its service beyond the Bitcoin ecosystem with plans underway to integrate LBTC across Ethereum DeFi protocols by the end of the year.

Commenting on his firm’s leading role in the fundraising, Polychain Capital founder Olaf Carlson-Wee in a statement: “Our investment in Lombard demonstrates our belief in its potential to add immense value to the Web3 ecosystem by unlocking Bitcoin’s latent potential. Our commitment to Lombard represents a deeper belief in the leverage Bitcoin can have in catalyzing growth across the whole Blockchain space.”

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Quick take:

Sentient features Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal as one of its key contributors.

Nailwal sees Sentient as an avenue for Polygon’s expansion in AI.

Sentient allows contributors not only to use the model and build apps, but also contribute to the model itself.

Sentient has raised $85 million in a seed round co-led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Framework Ventures and Pantera Capital. The fundraising also attracted participation from Ethereal Ventures, Robot Ventures, Symbolic Capital, Delphi Ventures, Hack VC, Arrington Capital, HashKey Capital, Canonical Crypto and Foresight Ventures.

Sentient is being developed by Polygon co-founder and chief business officer Sandeep Nailwal, joined by two university professors, Pramod Viswanath, the Forrest G. Hamrick Professor of Engineering at Princeton University and Himanshu Tyagi, a Professor of Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science.

The company is building what it calls open-source AI models, a potential competitor to Sam Altman’s OpenAI. According to the announcement, unlike OpenAI, which only allows users to access the model and build apps, Sentient will also allow the community to contribute to the model itself.

“AI today is becoming incredibly centralised, and the safety and ethics of AI are also questionable,” Nailwal told The Block. “So community-built AI models are the key.”

The open-source AI startup said it plans to launch “Campaigns” for contributors, with specific rewards for each campaign, including “co-ownership of the AI model they help create and future rewards on its usage,” Tyagi said.

Commenting on his firm’s leading role in the fundraising, Joey Krug, partner at Founders Fund, said in a statement: “Currently, anyone is able to just copy models without paying for them, and Sentient aims to solve this incentive problem which disincentivizes open source AI. This is a really interesting research area and we’re thrilled to support the team at Sentient as they make this vision a reality.”

Sentient plans to launch in testnet in the third quarter of 2024 and Tyagi believes the capital raise will play a crucial role in achieving that goal. “AI is capital-intensive, and talent is very costly.” With a workforce of less than 20, Tyagi said the company is planning to hire 10 people soon to join its research and engineering teams.

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Quick take:

The announcement follows Sony subsidiary Quetta Web’s acquisition of Amber Group the parent organisation of WhaleFin last August.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

WhaleFin said in a notice on Monday that the acquisition will also see it collaborate with various businesses of the Sony Group.

Sony Group is accelerating its Web3 strategy after revealing plans to relaunch crypto exchange platform WhaleFin. Quetta Web, a subsidiary of Sony Group acquired WaleFin parent Amber Group last August, which is now being rebranded to S.BLOX Co., The Block reported.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed but WhaleFin put out a notice on Monday stating that the acquisition would see its platform renewed, while there are also plans to launch a new app after that.

According to the announcement, some of the features scheduled for improvement on the platform include the overall service offering and the UI screen design.

“In addition, by collaborating with various businesses of the Sony Group, we will work to create new added value in cryptocurrency trading services,” WhaleFin said.

This acquisition adds to Sony’s expanding Web3 strategy, which has seen it launch various products this year. 

In January, at CES 2024, Sony introduced digital birth certificates for images, which were immediately likened to NFTs. The in-camera digital technology enables the verification of the origin of the content captured with Sony devices.

In April, the company also announced it was using Polygon to test a proof-of-concept to issue a stablecoin pegged to fiat currency. Sony plans to plans to adopt the stablecoin as a payment method across Sony Group’s gaming and sports IP.

Last June, Sony Network Communications invested $3.5 million in Startale Labs as part of a deal that will see the Japanese technology giant build its own blockchain.

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The post Sony Accelerates Web3 Strategy As It Acquires WhaleFin Crypto Exchange appeared first on NFTgators .

Raydium’s influence across the Solana ecosystem and beyond it is expanding. At the end of June, the decentralized exchange (DEX) accounted for a record volume share of 62.8% on Solana, according to data shared via Dune.

Orca, which previously dominated DEX volume on Solana, currently handles about a fifth of all trades on the chain.  

One month earlier, we reported that Raydium was expanding its market share to a record 53%. The DEX has consolidated its position by winning another 10% of the Solana ecosystem, becoming the go-to venue to swap tokens.

Raydium has also become a leading DEX outside the Solana ecosystem. On June 29, it was the third-largest DEX by daily trading volume with a 10% market share, after Uniswap V3 and PancakeSwap. However, in weekly and monthly terms, Raydium has become the second-largest DEX after Uniswap V3, followed by Orca.

In absolute terms, DEX trading volume has been declining for the fourth consecutive month as of June, but Raydium is defying this correction. At the beginning of June, the Solana DEX had its third-best day on record in terms of trading volume, processing about $800 million worth of trades, according to data from DefiLlama.

Meanwhile, June is Raydium’s second-best month, with over $13 billion in volume. Last March, the DEX crossed the $16 billion mark.

Interestingly, DEXs are increasingly preferred by traders. The Block shows that monthly DEX volume versus CEX volume is at a record high of almost 20%.

The increasing activity on Raydium is also driven by meme coins, which continue to make waves across Solana and Ethereum ecosystems. DEXScreener data shows that out of the top 10 most traded tokens during the last 24 hours, eight of them are traded on Raydium and two on Solana. All of them are meme coins, including WATER, BILLY, and POPCAT.

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Quick take: 

The SEC claims ConsenSys wallet offering MetaMask is an unregistered broker that “engaged in the offer and sale of securities.”

The wallet is also accused of offering an unregistered securities program through its staking service.

MetaMask is alleged to have supported staking services for Lido (LDO) and Rocket Pool (RPL) as investment contracts.

Ethereum software provider ConsenSys has become the latest company to be sued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) amid allegations related to breaching securities laws.

According to the lawsuit filed Friday, the SEC claims ConsenSys’ crypto wallet offering, MetaMask is an unregistered broker that “engaged in the offer and sale of securities.” The U.S. securities regulator also claims that MetaMask offered an unregistered securities program through its staking service.

According to the lawsuit, MetaMask supported liquid staking services for Lido (LDO) and Rocket Pool (RPL) as investment contracts, implying they are also unregistered securities.

The SEC said in the press release that ConsenSys helped distribute the staking programs and operated as an unregistered broker for the LDO and RPL tokens.

Commenting on the filing, Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement said in a statement: “By allegedly collecting hundreds of millions of dollars in fees as an unregistered broker and engaging in the unregistered offer and sale of tens of thousands of securities, Consensys inserted itself squarely into the U.S. securities markets while depriving investors of the protections afforded by the federal securities laws.”

The SEC also alleges that ConsenSys has brokered transactions in crypto asset securities since 2020, including — “soliciting investors to trade crypto asset securities, providing pricing and other investment information regarding crypto asset securities, purporting to provide investors with the “best” quote, accepting and routing customer orders, facilitating order execution, handling customer assets, and receiving transaction-based compensation.”

The lawsuit has been filed in the federal district court in the Eastern District of New York and is charging Consensys with violating the registration provisions of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 seeking injunctive relief and penalties.

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Quick take:

The three YouTube videos branded the failed CryptoZoo project as “Logan Paul’s biggest scam”. 

According to Paul, Findeisen purposely omitted information that showed he was fully committed to the CryptoZoo project.

Paul blames “several of the project’s trusted advisers who turned out to be conmen” for CryptoZoo’s failure.

Logan Paul has filed a defamation lawsuit against YouTuber Stephen Findeisen, popularly known as CoffeeZilla on YouTube.

Filed on June 27, the lawsuit claims that Findeisen “maliciously and repeatedly” made false statements that included three YouTube videos about Cryptozoo. The social media influencer turned professional wrestler claims purposely omitted information that showed he was fully committed to the CryptoZoo project.

“Paul brings this defamation suit to hold Findeisen accountable for his actions and to hold him liable for the immense harm that he has caused to Paul’s reputation through the intentional and reckless dissemination of defamatory falsehoods,” the filing states.

According to Paul, “several of the project’s trusted advisers who turned out to be conmen” are the ones to be blamed for CryptoZoo’s failure.

In December 2022, the CoffeeZilla YouTube channel released three videos branding the failed CryptoZoo project as “Logan Paul’s biggest scam”.

According to the filing, Findisen “perpetuated the false narrative that Paul scammed and defrauded his own fans in connection with the CryptoZoo project, despite “despite knowing it to be completely and utterly false, in order to enhance his own profile and increase his viewership and income in the process.”

The filing also claims that “Findeisen knew full well that Paul had never set out to scam anybody, but to the contrary had always intended to build a legitimate blockchain-based game.”

Paul instead blames Eduardo “Eddie” Ibanez, who he says “turned out to be a charlatan” after he found out that he lied about his credentials, while Jake Greenbaum, an adviser to the project is described as having been “more interested in trying to personally profit than in helping to create a legitimate project.”

Logan Paul now seeks damages in excess of $75,000 plus interest, with the social media influencer also expecting the defendant to cover all legal fees and additional damages and relief as determined by the court.

Earlier this year, Logan Paul announced he was buying back CryptoZoo NFTs on the condition that holders waived any potential claims against him. Paul offered 0.1 ETH for each eligible NFT as reported.

The lawsuit stated that he ended up spending $1 million in the CryptoZoo NFT buybacks between January and March, whilst earning nothing from the project.

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Blur, the largest non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace by trading volume, experienced its highest three-week market share among platforms that support Ethereum NFTs, according to data from TheBlock.

During the three weeks from June 2 to June 23, Blur’s market share was 77.86%, 81.39%, and 79.44%, respectively. In the first week of 2024, Blur’s weekly volume share reached a record high of 82.78%. However, its three-week dominance peaked in June 2024.

Blur has become the largest NFT marketplace on Ethereum since the first half of 2023, dethroning OpenSea, which had been dominating the market for years.

However, despite gaining market share, June is poised to be the worst month of the year so far in terms of USD sales. As of this writing, Blur has handled $214.5 million worth of NFT trades, TheBlock data shows. This is down 24% from $282 million in sales registered in May.

Starting with January, when Blur experienced its best month in almost a year, monthly volume sales have never increased so far, with the indicator dropping for the sixth-consecutive month.

Can OpenSea Recover Market Share?

Interestingly, while Blur remains the dominant force, OpenSea is showing its teeth at the end of the month. On June 26, OpenSea surpassed Blur in 24-hour volume for only the third day during the last three months.

In an unexpected turn of events, Opensea is back to being the #1 NFT marketplace on Ethereum pic.twitter.com/lkI30IPYd2

— wale.moca (@waleswoosh) June 27, 2024

This may not be an occasional occurrence. Recently, Blast, a fast-growing layer 2 for Ethereum, launched its Blast token.

Blast is a crypto project backed by the Blur team, and the marketplace users have been attracted by generous incentives before the launch of the token.

With Blast now live, rewards on Blur have declined, potentially prompting users to explore other NFT platforms like OpenSea. Meanwhile, OpenSea continues to have the highest number of traders.

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Quick take:

Stripe will add support for Base across its crypto product suite to offer users faster and cheaper money transfers.

The online payment provider will also add USDC on Base to their fiat-to-crypto on-ramp to enable customers in the US to convert fiat to crypto faster.

Coinbase will add Stripe’s fiat-to-crypto on-ramp into Coinbase Wallet, enabling instant crypto purchases with credit cards and Apple Pay.

Coinbase and Stripe have announced a partnership to accelerate the global adoption of crypto. The two companies are teaming up to provide faster, cheaper financial infrastructure globally.

As part of the partnership, Stripe is adding support for Base across its crypto product suite to offer users faster and cheaper money transfers in 150 countries. The online payments company will also add USDC on Base (Coinbase’s L2 built on Ethereum) to its fiat-to-crypto on-ramp, enabling customers in the US to convert fiat to crypto faster.

On the other hand, Coinbase will Stripe’s fiat-to-crypto on-ramp into Coinbase Wallet, enabling instant crypto purchases with credit cards and Apple Pay.

According to Coinbase, this partnership is bound to bring several benefits associated with crypto to millions of businesses and people around the world.

Stripe’s vast user base will benefit from gaining access to faster and cheaper money transfers powered by Base, Coinbase said in a statement.

“Base has quickly become the most used L2 due to its secure, low-cost, and developer-friendly transaction infrastructure, as we continue to make strides towards our one second, sub one cent goal.”

The two companies believe crypto is the future of money because “it is unrestricted by international borders or banking hours, and reduces both friction and fees for users.”

“These three key integrations lay a strong foundation for Stripe and Coinbase to begin building a better payments future for users around the world,” Coinbase wrote.

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Quick take:

The fundraising also attracted participation from Figment Capital, Folius Ventures, Robot Ventures, Big Brain Holding, Tangent, and Credibly Neutral.

MegaLabs will use the funds to accelerate the development of its new Ethereum scaling protocol MegaETH.

According to a press release, the MegaETH blockchain can stream 100,000 transactions per second with millisecond-level responsiveness.

MegaLabs, a Web3 developer building the “first real-time EVM-compatible blockchain” has completed a $20 million seed round led by Dragonfly. The fundraising also attracted participation from Figment Capital, Folius Ventures, Robot Ventures, Big Brain Holding, Tangent, and Credibly Neutral.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Consensys’ Joseph Lubin, EigenLayer founder and CEO Sreeram Kannan, Cobie, ETHGlobal co-founder Karthik Talwar, and Helius Labs’ Mert Mumtaz were among those who joined as angel investors.

The round was completed at a valuation of $100 million according to MegaLabs co-founder Shuyao Kong, The Block reported.

MegaLabs plans to use the funds to accelerate the development of its new blockchain dubbed MegaETH.

MegaLabs believes all types of blockchains currently in existence have some flaws in them, arguing that they are “failing to serve the growing demand for decentralised applications.”

“High throughput blockchains, such as Solana, are unable to scale to meet user demand and suffer from constant congestion and reliability issues. Ethereum Layer-2 Blockchains, while easy to develop, are not optimized for performance and are fundamentally limited in the number of users they can serve,” MegaLabs wrote.

The company claims MegaETH is capable of streaming 100,000 transactions per second with millisecond-level responsiveness, the speed and level of performance it believes is necessary to handle the growing demand for on-chain trading activities.

“People increasingly want to store their savings in stablecoins on-chain, bet on world events on-chain, and post content to social networks on-chain, but today’s blockchains cannot offer the snappy, reliable experience that people are used to in mainstream consumer applications.”

According to MegaLabs, the MegaETH protocol’s near-instant performance unlocks fully on-chain applications that can match the experience of best-in-class web2 apps without compromising on decentralisation.

Commenting on the fundraising, Yilong Li, the CEO and Co-Founder of MegaLabs said in a statement: “By leveraging Ethereum’s superior security and censorship resistance guarantees, we can explore a much larger design space to create the fastest execution layer and state synchronization network possible without compromising the core values of blockchains.”

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The number of daily transfers on NeuroWeb, a Polkadot parachain, reached a new record on June 20, at 79,510, according to data compiled by TheBlock.

Polkadot parachains are independent blockchain networks built on Polkadot infrastructure and compatible with Polkadot’s mainnet and its other parachains.

NeuroWeb is an artificial intelligence (AI) blockchain that rewards users for sharing data and knowledge. The project builds upon the OriginTrail Decentralized Knowledge Graph (DKG), a decentralized knowledge-sharing market developed for its predecessor, OriginTrail Parachain. The ecosystem began transitioning to NeuroWeb at the end of 2023 following a community vote.  

The goal of the DKG is to organize data on traditional and crypto assets to make it discoverable and verifiable. It connects physical world data from sectors like art, fashion, healthcare, and education with digital world ecosystems like decentralized networks, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), metaverse, and decentralized finance (DeFi).  

NeuroWeb incentivizes knowledge sharing via its native NEURO token, formerly known as TRAC. The token, with a market cap of over $310 million, is still listed under the old ticker on Coinmarketcap.

The parachain builds upon OriginTrail’s expanding ecosystem, which has secured high-profile partnerships with the likes of the British Standards Institution, Walmart, Oracle, and the European Union Commission’s Next Generation Internet.

The increase in NeuroWeb transfers reflects the growing adoption of decentralized AI solutions for data sharing and analysis.

Currently, there are over 100 parachains on Polkadot, and NeuroWeb is the most active one in terms of daily transfers.

Other popular parachains include MoonBeam, Astar, Nodle, Interlay, and Phala.

Another parachain that is gaining traction in June is BridgeHub, a bridge network that connects Polkadot with its sister blockchain, Kusama.

The number of daily transfers on BridgeHub has surged from less than 50 at the beginning of June to over 6,700 as of this writing.

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Quick take:

The Bitcoin analytics startup says its product will enable miners to organise transactions better.

The company believes that new protocols like Ordinals and Runes will particularly find its product useful because Bitcoin does not natively support smart contracts.

MEV or maximum extractable value is an ordering process that helps miners earn the highest fees possible from transactions.

Rebar Network, a Bitcoin-based analytics software startup has raised $2.9 million in a seed round led by 6th Man Ventures. The fundraising also attracted participation from ParaFi Capital, Arca, Moonrock Capital, and UTXO Management.

The Remote Procedure Calls startup will use the funds to accelerate the development of its MEV tools on Bitcoin. This comes as new protocols like Ordinals and Runes continue to emerge as gateways for building the Bitcoin ecosystem. 

Rebar CEO Alex Luce commented: “Bitcoin is entering a new era of programmability and increased trading activity. Our mission is to develop infrastructure and products that help the Bitcoin community (users, miners, and developers) navigate the emerging MEV landscape on Bitcoin, ensuring a more equitable and transparent ecosystem.”

MEV or maximum extractable value is an ordering process that helps miners earn the highest fees possible from transactions. Because the Bitcoin blockchain does not natively support smart contracts, Rebar sees an opportunity for MEV protocols amid the potential of Bitcoin’s dApp ecosystem.

“Rebar recognizes that MEV (Maximum Extractable Value) strategies are emerging on Bitcoin, similar to those seen in DeFi on Ethereum,” Rebar wrote in a press release. “The company recognizes both the challenges and opportunities presented by MEV, aiming to develop solutions that balance network efficiency with user protection and equitable value distribution across the Bitcoin ecosystem.”

Some of the various ways MEV protocols can be used to maximise earnings include opening two different orders on either side of an open order (sandwiching) and arbitraging transactions (where a miner replaces a pending order with their own to lock in a better price).

Commenting on his firm’s leading role in the fundraising, Carl Vogel of 6th Man Ventures said in a statement: “We believe Rebar is at the forefront of a crucial development in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Their focus on MEV and its related infrastructure will be vital as Bitcoin continues to evolve and attract more diverse activities on-chain.”

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Aptos has experienced an increase in activity at the end of the second quarter. The number of monthly active addresses has reached a new record in June, hitting 4.8 million as of this writing, according to data from TheBlock. By the end of the month, the metric can touch the 5 million mark.

The new monthly record is possible thanks to a spike in the number of users in mid-June. Token Terminal data shows that daily active users hit a record 1.3 million on June 8. That was the first time Aptos had seen 1 million users in a single day.

Aptos is a layer 1 blockchain supporting the smart contract feature. The network uses a programming language called Move, which was developed by Mysten Labs, the company behind Sui, another fast-growing layer 1 blockchain. Both Aptos and Sui have been developed by ex-Facebook employees.

Aptos has consolidated its presence in decentralized finance (DeFi). It has a total value locked (TVL) of $340 million, as per DefiLlama, which is about half of Sui’s TVL. Aptos TVL crossed the $500 million mark on April 1 after a tenfold increase since September 2023.

The most active DeFi apps are lending protocols – such as Aries Markets, Echelon Market, and Aptin Finance – and decentralized exchanges, such as LiquidSwap, Cellana Finance, and PancakeSwap.

While June becomes the month with the most active users, May keeps the transaction count record, with an impressive 350 million transactions.

The surge in transactions was driven by a cat clicker game called Tapos, where each click generates a transaction on the network. Players tickle a cat with each click to earn HEART tokens. The game ended its campaign on May 26, causing a correction in the number of transactions. It has demonstrated that Aptos is capable of handling a high number of transactions at a low cost.

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Quick take:

The company says its “verifiable oracle protocol” is used by developers to build end-to-end trustless and decentralised apps powered by AI.

The company also offers a product called “initial model offering,” or IMO, which enables ownership of open-source AI models through tokenisation.

Ora said it is using zero-knowledge technology to provide secure and efficient on-chain machine learning with privacy-preserving features.

Ora Protocol, the On-chain AI oracle looking to integrate AI with decentralised applications has raised $20 million in a round backed by Polychain Capital, HFO, HashKey Capital, and SevenX Ventures. 

The company said it will use the fresh capital to accelerate the development of its technology and infrastructure for tokenising AI models. Ora offers a product called “initial model offering,” or IMO, which enables ownership of open-source AI models through tokenisation.

The company describes itself as a “verifiable oracle protocol”, which developers can use to build end-to-end trustless and decentralised apps powered by AI.

According to the product documentation, ORA’s On-chain AI oracle breaks down the limitations of smart contracts by offering AI inference, so developers can innovate freely.

Launched in 2022, some of the early adopters of the product include Compound, Ethereum Foundation, Uniswap, Optimism, and Arbitrum, among others.

The product currently supports LlaMA 2 (7B) and Stable Diffusion, which allow users to build their own AI oracle that is programmable, permissionless, and censorship-resistant.

According to ORA, its product development is driven by the need to address the challenge of monetising AI model contributions. 

“Many open-sourced AI models face the challenge of monetising their contributions, leading to a lack of motivation for contributors and organizations alike. As a result, the AI industry is currently led by closed-source, for-profit companies,” the documentation states. This drives the current products to raise more funding to build in public.

“With IMO, we can win the fight for open-source AI. IMO can enable the sustainability of the open-source AI model’s ecosystem by fostering long-term benefits and encouraging engagement and funding to the open-source AI community.”

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Quick take:

The blockchain data infrastructure provider said it will use the funds to expand its operations in Asia.

The platform enables users to access historical blockchain data in the “Ethereum Wayback Machine.”

The firm also enjoys backing from Hashed, Coinbase Ventures, Binance Labs and Delphi Ventures which participated in a $2 million strategic funding in March 2021.

Covalent has raised $5 million in a strategic round led by RockTree Capital, with CMCC Global, Moonrock Capital and Double Peak Group also participating. 

The blockchain data infrastructure provider said it will use the fresh capital to expand its operations in Asia and accelerate the adoption of long-term data availability in China and Singapore among other countries.

Covalent unveiled the “Ethereum Wayback Machine” in November last year, a platform likened to web archive data on Web2 platforms, because of its ability to enable users to access historical blockchain data.

According to Covalent co-founder Ganesh Swami, his company will use this opportunity to revamp its data infrastructure offerings as blockchain technology and artificial intelligence continue to advance.

Covalent also boasts backing from the likes of Hashed Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Binance Labs and Delphi Ventures which participated in a $2 million strategic funding in March 2021.

The company has now raised a total of $20 million through token rounds, according to The Block, with Arthur Hayes, the founder of crypto exchange platform BitMEX joining as an advisor earlier this month.

Swami believes Asia is an emerging crypto hub, and continues to show “immense potential to become the leader of the next bull run.” He wants his company to play a significant in the industry’s next growth phase in the region.

“With the Ethereum Wayback Machine [EWM] as a gateway to permanent data, we are excited to bring Long-Term Data Availability to Asian countries to boost local adoption and innovations,” he said.

Omer Ozden, CEO of RockTree Capital commended the Covalent team for being “relentless in driving the convergence of AI and Web3,” highlighting their commitment to delivering the largest data infrastructure in crypto. “As this convergence explodes, so does Covalent’s use-case,” he said.

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Quick take:

The fund will focus on pre-seed investments in selected startups from the winners of Solana Hackathons.

Colosseum has already funded 11 startups, investing $2.75 million so far.

The accelerator sees hackathons as the “crucible” for innovation, and recetly held its first hackathon, attracting 8,000 participants.

Colosseum, a Solana-based startup accelerator, which uses hackathons to identify investment opportunities has raised $60 million to invest in early-stage projects. The oversubscribed round attracted participation from Bonk DAO, an organization that manages $124 million worth of BONK tokens.

Colosseum plans to invest the funds in pre-seed projects and has already deployed $2.75 million across 11 startups, investing $250,000 in each. The accelerator sees hackathons as the “crucible” for innovation, and recently held its first hackathon, attracting 8,000 participants.

Commenting on the fundraising, Clay Robbins, co-founder of Colosseum said in a statement: “It’s evident that there is a market demand for novel, specialized venture products in crypto, and we are excited to have a diverse group of investors, including ecosystem founders and hackathon alumni, alongside us to realize our vision for Colosseum.”

According to Robbins, while investors are ecosystem agnostic, they also believe in Solana ecosystem’s hiuge potential. “Institutional LPs invest with both the current focus on the future in mind for what the model can become – so not necessarily a fund focused on one ecosystem, but more so this model,” he said.

The accelerator offers a six-week online program supporting hackathon winners to become embedded in the Solana ecosystem, rapidly iterate to find product-market fit, and raise seed funding faster. The 12-member team also offers educational sessions, and an upfront investment from Colosseum. 

To be selected, projects must be among winners of the hackathon events, which are held 2-3 times a year. The $250,000 handed to winners is structured as a simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) with token warrants, according to a statement on the Colosseum website.

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Quick take:

The first product dubbed “Actions” enables users to complete crypto transactions on regular websites, social media platforms and QR codes.

Next up for Solana Foundation is a product called “Blinks”, which turns any “Action” into a shareable link.

Cubik, Sanctum, Tensor, Realms, Access, and Jupiter are among the teams that have opted in to test Solana’s newest products.

Solana Foundation is introducing new products designed to accelerate the mass onboarding of users to the Solana ecosystem. The organisation has already revealed the first two products dubbed “Actions” and “Blinks”, which have already attracted early adopters including Cubik, Sanctum, Tensor, Realms, Access, Jupiter, Helium, Truffle, Helius, Phantom and Backpack.

The first product, Actions, enables users to complete crypto transactions on regular websites, social media platforms and QR codes, while Blinks turns any “Action” into a shareable link, Solana Foundation said on Tuesday.

Commenting on the announcement, Jon Wong, head of ecosystem engineering at the Solana Foundation said in a statement: “Access to blockchain protocols has long been isolated to dapps and other wallet-aware tools. Actions and blinks on Solana allow any website and application on the internet to be a distribution point for on-chain interactions, furthering the goal of mainstream adoption.”

According to Solana, Blinks leverage the same concept used by Farcaster’s Frames on Ethereum. However, Blinks are not limited to one application, as they can be across websites, social medial platforms, apps.

Chris Osborn, founder and CEO of Dialect Labs, a smart messaging protocol based on Solana commented: “Actions and blinks deliver on one of the internet’s original promises: they make experiences portable, shareable, and actionable on any surface. From your X feed you can buy [NFTs], tip a creator, receive money, vote, stake, swap and so much more.”

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