Weekly Highlights | Bitcoin halving is expected on April 28 next year; Starknet releases latest roadmap

Organizer: Biscuit, ChainCatcher

Important News

1. Bitcoin halving is expected on April 28, 2024, with less than 365 days remaining

According to the countdown page on OKLink by OKCoin, the current block height indicates that there are less than 365 days remaining until the Bitcoin halving, which is expected to occur on April 28, 2024. At that time, the block reward will decrease from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. (Source link)

2. Starknet releases roadmap, focusing on decentralization in 2024

According to official news, Starknet has published an article outlining its goals and roadmap for 2023. The roadmap indicates that Starknet will primarily focus on enhancing network performance and user experience in 2023, including improving network efficiency, reducing transaction costs, and implementing a fee market. Additionally, Starknet plans to focus on achieving decentralization in operations and decision-making in 2024. (Source link)

3. Cancun upgrade confirms inclusion of proposals EIP-4844, 6780, 6475, 1153 for discussion

According to Christine Kim's summary of the 160th Ethereum Core Developer Meeting (ACDE), in addition to the main proposal EIP-4844 (which reduces L2 fees), developers agreed to include the following EIPs in the upgrade:

• EIP-6780 (modifies the SELFDESTRUCT opcode functionality, primarily to prepare for future applications of Verkle trees)
• EIP-6475 (introduces a new simple serialization type for optional values to provide better readability and compact serialization)
• EIP-1153 (introduces transient storage opcodes)

Additionally, some EIPs have not yet been formally accepted for the upgrade (EIP-6913, 6493, 4788, 2537, 5656), and some have been determined not to be considered for this upgrade (Big EOF and EVMMAX).

It is reported that the meeting mainly discussed which code modifications need to be included in the next Cancun upgrade. The agenda for the next meeting will focus on the progress of EIP-4844.

Previously, Ethereum core developers indicated plans to modify the consensus layer of the blockchain in preparation for the next Cancun upgrade (Cancun-Deneb), which is expected to take place later this year. (Source link)

4. Tiger Global apologizes to LPs: its $12.7 billion venture fund records a 20% loss

The Information reports that Tiger Global Management recently informed LPs that its $12.7 billion venture fund recorded a 20% loss as of the end of last year.

Tiger Global stated, "We underestimated the impact of rising inflation and overestimated the sustainability of business growth brought by the pandemic in our portfolio." Additionally, Tiger Global is working with banks to liquidate its shares in other venture capital funds.

According to the crypto data platform RootData, in 2022, Tiger Global made about 40 investments in Web3, with projects that had single financing amounts exceeding $100 million including FTX, Gnosis Safe, FalconX, StarkWare, NEAR Protocol, Helium, LayerZero, FanCraze, Yuga Labs, Aptos, Amber Group, Polygon, Aleo, Blockdaemon. (Source link)

5. Visa to launch crypto products for public blockchain networks and stablecoin payments

Cuy Sheffield, Visa's cryptocurrency head, announced on Twitter a new cryptocurrency-related project being developed by the company. Sheffield pointed out that Visa's upcoming crypto products aim to promote public blockchain networks and stablecoin payments.

According to a previous job posting released by Visa, the company's crypto department is building next-generation products to facilitate digital commerce in everyday life. (Source link)

6. 0xScope: Voyager has sold over 124.5 million VGX since February, cashing out $51 million

According to monitoring by 0xScope, Voyager has sold 124.5 million VGX since February at an average price of $0.41, totaling $51 million.

Previously, Binance US announced the termination of its acquisition of Voyager, causing the price of VGX tokens to drop by 24%. (Source link)

7. Taobao invests 100 million yuan to establish Taotian Ltd., focusing on blockchain and AI technology services

According to Tianyancha, Taotian Ltd. was established on April 23, with Zhu Jian as the legal representative and a registered capital of 100 million yuan. Its business scope includes technical services, digital technology services, blockchain technology-related software and services, AI public service platform technical consulting services, technology intermediary services, industrial internet data services, cloud-based business outsourcing services, data processing services, etc. Shareholder information shows that the company is wholly owned by Taobao (China) Software Co., Ltd. (Source link)

8. Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission's Liang Fengyi: Hong Kong will release cryptocurrency trading platform licensing guidelines in May

According to ChainCatcher, market news indicates that Liang Fengyi, CEO of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, stated that Hong Kong will release cryptocurrency trading platform licensing guidelines in May. (Jinshi Data)

9. CyberConnect to publicly offer on CoinList on May 18, with 2.4% of tokens for early user rewards

Web3 social graph protocol CyberConnect announced the launch of its token CYBER, which will be publicly sold on CoinList on May 18, 2023. CYBER will become the native token in its ecosystem, allowing holders to vote on proposals, mint payments for CyberProfile, and pay gas fees in CyberWallet.

The total supply of CYBER is 100 million tokens, with 3% allocated for this public sale, and an additional 12% allocated to the community reward pool, of which 20% (2.4% of total supply) will be provided to early adopters and the community. The remaining 80% of the community reward pool will be reserved for contributors in future events.

It is reported that CyberConnect is a decentralized social network that enables developers to create social applications, allowing users to own their digital identities, content, connections, and monetization channels. As of April 2023, the CyberConnect protocol has 870,000 CyberProfiles and 300,000 monthly active users, with over 7.3 million transactions. (Source link)

Important Financing/Venture Capital News

1. Thetanuts Finance completes $17 million financing, led by Polychain Capital

Multi-chain structured product protocol Thetanuts Finance has completed $17 million in financing, led by Polychain Capital, Hyperchain Capital, and Magnus Capital. The new funds will help the company establish new partnerships with public chains and Layer 2 networks, liquidity providers, blockchain foundations, market makers, and trading platforms. (Source link)

2. Ethereum interoperability protocol Omni Network announces completion of $18 million financing

Ethereum interoperability protocol Omni Network has announced the completion of $18 million in financing, with participation from Pantera Capital, Two Sigma Ventures, Jump Crypto, Hashed, The Spartan Group, and others.

According to data platform Rootdata, Omni serves as the interoperability layer for Ethereum, providing core infrastructure support for all modular applications on Ethereum. Omni states that its core technology partners include the Ethereum restaking protocol EigenLayer, as well as Ethereum Layer 2 scaling networks Arbitrum, Polygon, StarkWare, Scroll, and Linea. (Source link)

3. TinyTap completes $8.5 million financing, with participation from Sequoia China

User-generated content (UGC) education technology company TinyTap has completed $8.5 million in financing, with participation from Sequoia China, Shima Capital, Polygon, Liberty City Ventures, Kingsway Capital, and GameFi Ventures.

ChainCatcher previously reported that Animoca Brands announced in June 2022 the acquisition of 80.45% of the issued capital of the educational content platform TinyTap for $38.875 million in cash and stock. At that time, Animoca Brands held 84.13% of TinyTap's shares. (Source link)

4. Institutional credit infrastructure provider Credora completes $6 million financing, with participation from S&P Global and Coinbase Ventures

According to CoinDesk, institutional credit infrastructure provider Credora raised $6 million in a strategic financing round, with investors including S&P Global and Coinbase Ventures. Other participants in this round of financing include Spartan, Amber Group, CMT Digital, Hashkey, GSR, KuCoin Ventures, liquidity provider Paradigm.co, Pirata Capital, Breed VC, and WAGMI Ventures.

Founded in 2019, Credora provides loan infrastructure and credit rating systems tailored for the private credit market. The company states that its privacy-preserving technology enables lenders to make informed real-time decisions without disclosing borrower information. According to the company, Credora has facilitated over $1 billion in loans to date. (Source link)

5. Chain game Flappy Moonbird completes $2 million financing at a $60 million valuation, led by FBG Capital

AI casual social game Flappy Moonbird announced the completion of $2 million in Pre-B financing at a $60 million valuation, led by FBG Capital. This round of financing will be used for the development of Flappy Moonbird's third AI bird millionaire game.

According to RootData, Flappy Moonbird completed $6 million in Series A financing at the end of December 2022, led by LinkVC. The angel round financing came from personal investments by early holders of Moonbirds NFT. (Source link)

6. Cross-chain liquidity protocol Catalyst completes $4.2 million financing, led by Spartan Group

Cross-chain liquidity protocol Catalyst, aimed at modular blockchains, has completed $4.2 million in seed financing, led by Spartan Group, with participation from Foresight Ventures, Robot Ventures, Maven11, Alchemy Ventures, HashKey Capital, Circle Ventures, Superscrypt, and angel investors Calvin Liu, Aditi Sriram, and David Phelps. In the coming months, Catalyst will focus on releasing its white paper and testnet, and plans to expand into the Ethereum ecosystem. (Source link)

7. Crypto wallet Giddy completes $6.9 million financing, with participation from Pelion Venture Partners

Crypto wallet Giddy announced the completion of $6.9 million in a new round of financing, with participation from Pelion Venture Partners, Peak Capital Partners, Clarke Capital, and others, including a strategic investment from Fortnite co-founder Geremy Mustard. Pelion led Giddy's $8 million financing in 2022, and to date, the company's total financing has exceeded $15 million.

Giddy stated that the proceeds from the new capital will be used to advance its strategy to popularize crypto technology among the public through its "recoverable self-custody smart wallet technology." (Source link)

8. Web3 data-driven influencer network Aki Protocol completes seed round financing, led by Emoote and Mask Network

Web3 data-driven influencer network Aki Protocol today announced the completion of seed round financing at a $40 million valuation, led by Akatsuki Web3 fund Emoote and Mask Network, with participation from Maezawa Web3 Fund, Incuba Alpha, Meteorite Labs, CatcherVC, Alchemy Pay, Futurism Labs, Oxbull, and angel investors including founders of prominent projects such as CyberConnect, SynFutures, DODO, and Hooga Gaming. (Source link)

9. NFTGo completes $4 million bridge financing, with participation from Qiming Venture Partners

NFT data and order aggregation platform NFTGo has completed $4 million in bridge financing, with additional investments from Qiming Venture Partners and Hash Global. New investors include 500 Global and Skyland Ventures, as well as personal investments from Fosun Group co-founder Liang Xinjun and a former Binance executive. With this financing, NFTGo has raised over $10 million in total.

It is reported that NFTGo, established in 2021, is a one-stop NFT data analysis platform that provides users with NFT solutions such as NFT data analysis, trading aggregators, and asset management services. NFTGo recently launched data API and aggregator API solutions. (Source link)