Morning Report | Optimism issues token OP and announces token economics; 0x Labs completes $70 million Series B funding
The crypto investment firm Asymmetric is seeking $1 billion in funding and has received investments from founders of a16z, Solana, and others.Organizer: Cookies, Chain Catcher
"What important news has emerged in the past 12 hours?"
1. Optimism to issue token OP and announce token economics, with 19% of initial supply allocated for airdrop
Ethereum scaling solution Optimism has officially announced the issuance of the token OP and the announcement of its token economics, with an initial total supply of 4,294,967,296 OP tokens, which will expand at a rate of 2% per year.
19% of the initial OP token supply is reserved for user airdrops, with 5% to be distributed in Airdrop #1. Users who have used Optimism multiple times and some active users on the Ethereum mainnet can receive the airdrop (details can be found in this article). A total of 264,000 addresses meet the airdrop criteria, which means an average of 813 tokens can be obtained per address, with the snapshot taken on March 25. Additionally, 14% will be distributed in future airdrops. Currently, users can check the specific airdrop amount at this website, but it is not yet open for claiming. (Source link)
2. Decentralized trading infrastructure provider 0x Labs completes $70 million Series B funding, led by Greylock Partners
Decentralized trading infrastructure provider 0x Labs has completed a $70 million Series B funding round, led by Greylock Partners, with participation from Pantera, Sound Ventures, A.Capital, Jump Capital, OpenSea, Coinbase, Brevan Howard, Reid Hoffman, and Jared Leto. Previously, 0x raised $24 million in the ZRX token sale in 2017.
0x Labs, headquartered in San Francisco, has developed the 0x protocol that allows peer-to-peer asset trading via blockchain and launched NFT trading capabilities earlier this year. The NFT marketplace launched by Coinbase last week is technically supported by 0x. (Source link)
3. National Bureau of Economic Research survey: Bitcoin is not widely used in El Salvador, with several metrics at historical lows
The National Bureau of Economic Research recently released a public opinion survey report on the use of Bitcoin in El Salvador, showing that the country's official Bitcoin wallet, Chivo, is not widely used for tax payments and remittances, and Bitcoin is essentially not an accepted medium of exchange in El Salvador. In the first quarter of 2022, almost no new adopters of the Chivo wallet were found, and the share of Bitcoin remittances is at its lowest point since the launch of the Chivo wallet.
Specifically, under the incentive of a $30 registration bonus, nearly 60% of residents in El Salvador downloaded the Chivo wallet, with 20% continuing to use the app after utilizing the registration bonus; about 20% of companies reported accepting Bitcoin as a payment method, but only 11.4% of companies had positive sales in Bitcoin; 4.9% of sales were paid in Bitcoin, and 88% of companies converted the received Bitcoin sales into USD.
The survey was based on face-to-face interviews with adults from 1,800 households across El Salvador, with a margin of error of 2%. (Source link)
4. Crypto investment firm Asymmetric seeks $1 billion in funding, backed by a16z, Solana founders, and others
New investment firm Asymmetric, founded by former Microsoft strategy executive Joe McCann, is seeking $1 billion in funding and has already secured investments from a16z founders and partners Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon, Solana co-founders Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal, CMS Holdings head and co-founder Dan Matuszewski, former Coinbase president Asiff Hirji, and founders of FTX, Circle Ventures, Tiger Global, Scott Schleifer, MultiCoin Capital co-founder Kyle Samani, and executive partner Tushar Jain.
Asymmetric will set up two types of investment vehicles: a venture capital fund and a liquidity fund, with the former responsible for token trading allocation and the latter utilizing the most sophisticated algorithmic analysis tools for investment. The Asymmetric team includes former Brevan Howard portfolio manager Chris Cecere, Goldman Sachs alumni Bouchra Darwazah, and Drizly founder Brett Beller. (Source link)
5. Former Jefferies executives collaborate with former Euronext CTO to launch crypto exchange Crossover Markets Group
Former Jefferies head of foreign exchange brokerage Anthony Mazzarese and Brandon Mulvihill are collaborating with former Euronext CTO Vlad Rysin to launch an institutional-focused cryptocurrency exchange, Crossover Markets Group. The exchange is currently building its team and plans to launch in late summer or early fall, while completing its seed funding round and planning to conduct Series A funding later this year.
Anthony Mazzarese and Brandon Mulvihill previously worked at FXCM, with Mazzarese having served as the head of foreign exchange margin sales for Citigroup in the Americas. Vlad Rysin co-founded the electronic trading venue for the spot foreign exchange market, FastMatch FX, in 2012, which was acquired by Euronext in 2017, and he became the CTO of the merged company. (Source link)
6. 2iQ Research: Currently, 21 U.S. Congress members or their immediate relatives are trading cryptocurrency-related assets
According to data provider 2iQ Research, there are currently 21 U.S. Congress members or their immediate relatives trading cryptocurrencies, crypto investment products, and stocks related to crypto businesses, with 7 members serving on committees in the Senate or House, with a total investment value of approximately $1.8 million.
"We need the public to believe that Congress is making the right rules for the right reasons," said former White House chief ethics lawyer and University of Minnesota law professor Richard Painter. "This situation will undermine public confidence in the crypto market." (Source link)
