Weekly Highlights | Instagram plans to launch NFT display feature; Google Cloud is forming a Web3 team

Organized by: Linqi, Hu Tao, Chain Catcher

Important News

1. Binance Labs Launches Season 4 Incubation Program, 14 Projects Including FilSwan, Grindery, NuLink Selected

On May 4, Binance Labs announced that it will launch the Season 4 incubation program on May 5, with 14 projects selected from over 500 submissions, including FilSwan, Grindery, NuLink, Starton, CODA Ventures, OpenLeverage, AlterVerse, ChapterX, CoralApp, Gamic Guild, Qwestive, Reveel, Playbux, Ambrosia, etc. (Source Link)

2. Multicoin Capital Partner Mable Jiang Announces Departure to Join StepN as Chief Revenue Officer

Multicoin Capital partner Mable Jiang announced her departure to join the Move to Earn game StepN as Chief Revenue Officer, aiming to drive external economic value into the StepN system through ecosystem partnerships and strategic investments.

At the same time, Mable Jiang stated that she would end the podcast "Wu Shi Yi Shuo" and launch a new podcast called "Post-Wave," expanding the target interviewees to a broader Web3 ecosystem. (Source Link)

3. Musk Changes Twitter Avatar to Bored Ape Yacht Club Related Images

On May 4, Tesla CEO Elon Musk changed his Twitter avatar to images related to the Bored Ape Yacht Club. The images are from the previous auction of 101 Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs at Sotheby's, which sold for a total of $24.39 million.

It is reported that on February 25, Bored Ape Yacht Club #1837 was sold for 569 ETH (approximately $1.49 million). The seller of BAYC #1837, well-known crypto collector Deepak.eth, posted on social media that BAYC #1837 may have been purchased by Elon Musk through MoonPay's NFT purchasing service. (Source Link)

4. Two Main Offenders Sentenced to 12 Years in Prison for Stealing Over 50 Million Yuan in Virtual Currency from a Trading Platform

On May 4, the Beijing court announced a criminal case judgment document, revealing that on October 16, 2020, Ling M. and Ling R. were prosecuted for stealing virtual currencies totaling 620,000 Tether, 12,687.9956 Ether, and 149.99627927 Bitcoin (totaling over 50 million yuan, later returned with a value of over 48 million yuan) from a digital asset trading platform (XX Global XX Ltd.) using technical means to invade the computer information system. The two sold part of the virtual currency on the trading platform, making a profit of over 2 million yuan.

According to the lawsuit document, the two main offenders discovered a negative loophole in the platform system contract account during the transfer to the spot account, and by tampering with the network request packet, they changed the amount to a negative number, increasing the account balance and withdrawing funds in a short time, thus illegally profiting. The maintenance party of the trading platform, a Beijing-based information technology company, reported to the police after identifying Ling M. as the user who first conducted such an attack through platform log analysis. On October 21, 2020, the police arrested the two defendants.

The document also pointed out, "This case does not determine the criminal amount of the two based on the platform trading value of over 50 million, but the defendants' theft of virtual currency and subsequent sale for a profit of over 2 million yuan is objective and real, thus this case uses the amount of the proceeds from the sale as the basis for the defendants' conviction and sentencing."

The Beijing Chaoyang District People's Court found that Ling M. and Ling R.'s actions constituted theft, sentencing them to 12 years in prison, a fine of 200,000 yuan, and deprivation of political rights for two years, among other penalties. (Source Link)

5. Binance and a16z Invest $500 Million and $400 Million Respectively in Musk's Twitter Privatization Acquisition Consortium

On May 5, it was reported that in the SEC's disclosure of Musk's Twitter privatization acquisition documents, a list of "co-investors" was included, showing that Binance invested $500 million in the equity acquisition, a16z invested $400 million, Oracle CEO Lawrence J. Ellison Revocable Trust invested $1 billion, and Sequoia Capital invested $800 million. (Source Link)

6. Shanghai High Court: Bitcoin Has Property Attributes as Virtual Property

On May 5, the official WeChat account of the Shanghai High People's Court published an article titled "Does Bitcoin Have Property Attributes? How to Execute Return and Delivery? | Case Reference Book," which stated that "Bitcoin, as virtual property, has property attributes and is subject to legal norms governing property rights. When executing the return and delivery of Bitcoin, the executing court disposes of the request for delivery of the object according to norms and judges whether the executed person has Bitcoin available for execution. If the executed person has no Bitcoin available for execution, based on public interest and the concept of good faith and civilization, compensation can be made at a mutually agreed price through negotiation; if negotiation fails, the applicant can file a separate lawsuit." (Source Link)

7. Google Cloud is Building a Web3 Team to Become the Preferred Platform for Developers to Build Web3 Applications

According to CNBC, Google Cloud is forming a Web3 team to build services that help developers create Web3 applications, including better management of blockchain nodes. Google Cloud Vice President Amit Zavery told employees in an email last Friday that the goal is to make Google Cloud Platform the preferred choice for developers in this field.

"We're not trying to directly become part of the cryptocurrency wave," Zavery said in an interview with CNBC. "We're providing technology for companies to use and leverage the distributed characteristics of Web3 in their current business and enterprises."

Zavery indicated that looking ahead, Google could design a system that other companies could use to make it easier for people to explore blockchain data while simplifying the process of building and running blockchain nodes to verify and record transactions. (Source Link)

8. Instagram Plans to Launch NFT Display Feature, Supporting Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, and Flow Networks

Social media giant Instagram is planning to integrate NFTs from Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, and Flow, initially conducting pilot work for certain groups. It is reported that Instagram plans to support Web3 wallets like MetaMask, allowing users to showcase their NFTs and the creators of those NFTs on their profiles. It is still unclear whether Instagram will support all four networks at launch. Additionally, Instagram stated that it will not charge users for uploading and displaying NFTs. (Source Link)

9. Cross-Chain Bridge Hop Protocol to Issue Token HOP and Airdrop 8% to Early Users

Cross-chain bridge Hop Protocol announced the establishment of Hop DAO and will issue the token HOP, with a total supply of 1 billion tokens, of which 60.5% is allocated to the Hop DAO treasury, 22.45% to the initial development team (3-year vesting, 1-year lock-up), 6.25% to investors (3-year vesting, 1-year lock-up), and 8% airdropped to early network participants.

Specifically for the airdrop, 3.35% is allocated to users of the Hop cross-chain bridge (at least 2 cross-chain transactions and $1,000 in transaction volume), 2% to liquidity providers, 2% to Bonders (1-year lock-up), 0.1% to the top 500 Hop Discord participants and 79 Twitter users, 0.05% to external Hop contributors, and 0.5% to past Authereum users of deployed accounts, with a snapshot taken on April 1. Users can check their eligibility for the airdrop at this website.

The project stated that among the initially eligible 43,058 addresses for the airdrop, 10,253 have been identified as witch attacker addresses and removed from distribution. In the next two weeks, the project will accept reports of any undiscovered witch attacker addresses and reward those reporters with 25% of the saved tokens. (Source Link)

10. DeFi Lending Protocol bZx Team and Its DAO Organization Sued for Negligence and Illegal Conduct in Theft Incident

On May 4, it was reported that victims of the bZx theft incident filed a lawsuit against the project team and its DAO organization in the Southern District of California, with 14 plaintiffs claiming losses ranging from $800 to $450,000, totaling approximately $1.6 million.

The lawsuit names defendants including bZx protocol co-founders Kyle Kistner and Tom Bean, bZx investors Hashed International and AGE Crypto, and bZeroX, which created and controlled the protocol until August 2021. It also lists bZx DAO, Ookie DAO, and the company LeverageBox, which operates the Fulcrum trading platform, as defendants.

The lawsuit further states that since bZx Protocol claims to be a DAO lacking any legal procedures or recognition, it can be viewed as a "general partnership," meaning each partner is jointly liable to the plaintiffs and must repay all debts, the document states. Jason Harrow, a partner at the law firm Gerstein Harrow LLP, stated in a statement that everyone involved in DAO governance is responsible for the protocol's negligence and illegal conduct.

Previously, in November 2021, bZx developers suffered a phishing attack that led to the theft of private keys, resulting in asset losses exceeding $55 million. (Source Link)

Important Financing/Venture Capital News

1. Privacy Infrastructure Nym Launches Innovation Fund with $300 Million Investment Commitments from Supporters Including Polychain

On May 2, privacy infrastructure project Nym announced the launch of the Nym Innovation Fund, which has received $300 million in investment commitments from a range of venture capital investors, including Polychain, Greenfield One, Huobi Incubator, Tioga Capital, Eden Block, NGC Ventures, HashKey Capital, Figment, Distributed Global, OKX Blockdream Ventures, Tayssir Capital, KR1, Lemniscap, and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), to attract developers to its ecosystem. The fund plans to issue grants for individual projects ranging from approximately $50,000 to several million dollars.

It is reported that Nym is a next-generation global privacy infrastructure aimed at scaling the network, developing a foundational platform with high privacy protection features, and promoting the development of application products that emphasize privacy protection to improve network efficiency. (Source Link)

2. NFT Marketplace Zora Completes $50 Million Financing Led by Haun Ventures

On May 4, NFT marketplace Zora completed a $50 million financing round led by Haun Ventures, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Kindred Ventures, and others, achieving a valuation of $600 million.

Zora is an Ethereum-based NFT buying, selling, and management marketplace that has hosted multiple NFT auctions, including the first TikTok-inspired NFT and an auction by the Warhol Foundation. (Source Link)

3. Amber Group in Discussions for New Round of Financing at $10 Billion Valuation

On May 4, it was reported that global crypto financial services provider Amber Group is in discussions for a new round of financing at a $10 billion valuation. The Singapore-based startup has begun negotiations with potential investors for this new round, and the $10 billion valuation would be more than three times the previous $3 billion valuation.

In February of this year, Amber Group completed a $200 million financing round at a $3 billion valuation, led by Temasek, with participation from Sequoia China, Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and Tiger Global Management. (Source Link)

4. Crypto Media Decrypt Completes $10 Million Financing with Participation from Hashkey Capital and Others

On May 4, well-known crypto media Decrypt completed a $10 million financing round with participation from 22 institutions, companies, and angel investors, including Canvas Ventures, Hack.vc, Hashkey Capital, IOSG, SKH Group, Orange DAO, ConsenSys, Mask.io, and Protocol Labs, achieving a post-financing valuation of $50 million. At the same time, the media has spun out from ConsenSys Mesh.

It is reported that the funds will be used to hire excellent journalists, strengthen video and live events, invest in Decrypt Studios' production department, and further develop the decentralized media project PubDAO. Currently, Decrypt has 25 full-time employees and an average of 5 million readers per month. (Source Link)

5. Luna Foundation Guard Purchases 37,863 BTC Worth Approximately $1.5 Billion

On May 4, Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) announced the purchase of 37,863 Bitcoins (approximately $1.5 billion) through over-the-counter trading with institutional digital asset trading firms Genesis and Three Arrows Capital, calculating an average price of approximately $39,616. Currently, the institution's Bitcoin holdings amount to 80,394, ranking seventh among Bitcoin whale addresses. (Source Link)

6. Cryptocurrency Hedge Fund Pangea Fund Completes $85 Million Financing with Participation from Bain Capital and Others

On May 5, it was reported that cryptocurrency hedge fund Pangea Fund completed $85 million in financing, with participation from Bain Capital, ParaFi, Alameda Research, and angel investors including USV co-founder Brad Burnham, Apollo Global Management co-founder Josh Harris, and Multicoin Capital partner Kyle Samani.

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 a "long-only" strategy. (Source Link)

7. South Korea's Shinhan Financial Group Establishes Approximately $250 Million Digital Strategic Investment Fund to Invest in Blockchain, Metaverse, and Other Companies

On May 5, South Korea's Shinhan Financial Group announced the establishment of a digital strategic investment (SI) fund worth 300 billion won (approximately $240 million) called "Wonshinhan Connect New Technology Investment Association No.2" to accelerate the group's digital transformation and ecosystem expansion, with Shinhan Capital responsible for managing the fund.

Shinhan Financial plans to strengthen investments in promising digital technology companies in AI (artificial intelligence), blockchain, digital assets, Web 3.0, metaverse, and more through this fund. Shinhan Financial Group established a strategic investment fund worth 300 billion won last April. (Source Link)