Jan. 22: Aave DAO has approved the deployment of Aave v3 on Neon EVM mainnet, an important move for the future of DeFi within the Solana ecosystem, a recent verdict captured on the Snapshot page showed. Marina Guryeva, founder and CEO of Neon Foundation, said, “We are excited that the Aave DAO has voted for the deployment of v3 on Neon EVM. The future of DeFi is multichain, and Aave v3 on Neon EVM is a pioneering step towards a unified, frictionless finance ecosystem. Aave v3 unlocks Solana’s blazing speed for DeFi, streamlining supplying and borrowing with sub-second block times and near-zero fees.” (AAVE) (SOL)

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Jan. 22: Ruby Protocol, which describes itself as an “intent-centric account and access layer for Web3,” is building the “Ruby-TON MiniApp” on the TON Blockchain and LayerZero, to simplify integrations and user-centric dApp creation, according to the team: “The Ruby-TON MiniApp simplifies the dApp development process, enabling developers to concentrate on building engaging and user-friendly experiences. By integrating with Telegram, they can tap into a vast social network, enhancing the reach of their apps. Developers can leverage the Ruby-MiniApp Kit to build dApps supporting direct Web3 wallet management via Telegram accounts. The platform offers a payment API, allowing dApps to facilitate smooth asset transactions.”

Jan. 22: Orderly Network, a provider of decentralized-exchange infrastructure focused on NEAR Protocol, has partnered with the Optimism Collective to build Orderly’s critical Settlement Layer, powering Orderly’s vision of a single, unified order book for crypto across multiple chains without the risks of bridging or wrapped assets, according to the team: “Concurrently, the launch of an Orderly vault on Optimism opens up new cross-chain DeFi opportunities and faster transactions for Optimism users. Orderly’s shared liquidity model ensures that dApps have ready-to-use liquidity, not confined to a single blockchain network.”

Jan. 22: Subsquid, a decentralized query engine that offers developers permissionless access to on-chain data from more than 100 chains, announced details of a fundraise on CoinList. The team released the following metrics:

Jan. 22: Paper Ventures has launched as a new blockchain venture capital fund with support from leading industry figures. According to the team: “An initial $25M fund has been created to be used for investment in early stage web3 and blockchain projects. Founders Danish Chaudhry, Oliver Blakey and Ivailo Jordanov have vast experience of Web3 investment from a venture capital perspective. With Paper Ventures, they have elected to cap their fund at $25M with a view to focusing on early stage projects where they believe they can have the most impact.”

Jan. 22: Core Chain, a layer-1 blockchain that brings decentralized applications to Bitcoin, announced the launch of the Core Africa Innovation Fund, a $5 million initiative dedicated to providing resources and networks to support local Web3 builders and projects across the African continent. According to the team: “The initiative adds to Core Chain’s series of strategic ecosystem expansion efforts, including the recent $200M Ecosystem Fund launched in collaboration with Bitget and MEXC.” The application form is here.

Jan. 22: AvengerDAO, the community that protects users from exploits, scams and malicious actors on BNB Chain, has released its 2023 Security Report, in collaboration with Hashdit, CertiK, Ancilia and Salus Security. According to the team, key takeaways include:

Jan. 19: Zeeve, an enterprise-grade automation platform for managing blockchain infrastructure, announced the integration of one-click access validator node infrastructure, full nodes and RPC APIs, for Provenance Blockchain. “Financial services require plug and play infrastructure,” said Joshua Maddox, head of developer ecosystem at Provenance Blockchain Foundation. “Zeeve’s integration with Provenance Blockchain makes it faster and more cost-effective for financial institutions and financial service providers to spin-up and operate a node on the Provenance Blockchain network.”

Jan. 18: Root Protocol, a digital identity service aiming to unify access to Web3 platforms, has raised $10 million across two seed rounds. The funding rounds, which gave Root a $100 million valuation, were led by Animoca Brands and included contributions from a slew of other notable investors, including Signum Capital, Ankr Network, CMS Holdings and angel investors Tekin Salimi and Meltem Demirors.

Jan. 18: COTI Protocol is strategically shifting from a directed acyclic graph (DAG) to an Ethereum Layer 2, powered by Garbling Circuits technology. According to the team: “This advancement enables faster, lighter and more secure privacy solutions, facilitating applications like wallets, decentralized exchanges, AI training and governance. To fortify its commitment, the COTI Foundation allocates $25 million from its ecosystem fund to propel privacy-focused initiatives. Soda Labs, specializing in cryptographic multi-party computation (MPC), is the first recipient of this funding.”

Jan. 18: Ethereum staking platform Kiln has closed a $17 million funding round, the company said in a press release. The round was led by 1kx, with participation from IOSG, Crypto.com, Wintermute Ventures, KXVC and LBank. It also included additional contributions from existing investors, the Paris-based firm said. The new round was an extension of Kiln’s $17.6 million Series A announced in November 2022.

Jan. 18: The Sui Foundation, the organization behind layer-1 blockchain Sui that boasts a $2 billion valuation, has teamed up with Stork, an off-chain data feed oracle. The collaboration aims to enhance speed and access to unique index and mark prices for traders and builders. Stork will offer real-time pricing data to app developers, decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and lending protocols building on Sui’s blockchain. (SUI)

Jan. 18: Bitcoin, which suffered last year from congestion as the oldest blockchain got bogged down with experiments in NFTs and tokens, could see growth of auxiliary layer-2 networks to address the network’s inherent limitations, according to a new report. Existing solutions like Lightning Network could see growth, but new projects are also in the works, according to the “Bitcoin Layers” report Thursday by the Singapore-based blockchain asset-management Spartan Group and Kyle Ellicott, who recently served as a partner at the Bitcoin Frontier Fund.

Jan. 18: Matter Labs and iCandy, a game developer in Southeast Asia, announced a strategic collaboration that will see the joint commitment and allocation of resources to the development of a dedicated zkSync gaming and AI-focused hyperchain, to be called zkCandy. According to the team: “The hyperchain will have gaming and AI-specific tools, decentralized gaming infrastructure, developer resources, and a game development ecosystem. ZkCandy Limited will be set up with both companies jointly investing resources to build the ecosystem around the hyperchain.”

Jan. 18: Safary, describing itself as the “Web3 alternative to Google Analytics,” has closed a $2.4 million USD pre-seed round, led by Lemniscap, with participation from Arca, SevenX, Big Brain Holdings, Saison Capital, Diaspora Ventures and 20 angel investors, according to the team. “The funding will accelerate the development of Safary’s marketing attribution platform, enabling Web3 teams to analyze their marketing CAC, channel ROI and customer LTV. Safary’s free solution allows projects to unlock powerful Web3 analytics by adding one line of code to their website. Safary tracks wallets, shows Web3 conversions, and links to on-chain actions.”

Jan. 18: Minima, a layer-1 blockchain designed to be “totally decentralized,” has “turned off all 24 centralized servers – 16 network relay nodes and 8 archive nodes. The network now runs entirely off the 25,000 to 50,000 nodes kept active solely by its user base,” according to the team. The milestone is being referred to as “Decentraday.” Hugo Feiler, co-founder and CEO of Minima, said: “It is the only Layer 1 blockchain protocol in which every node constructs and validates the chain with no centralized infrastructure required.”

Jan. 18: Mantle EcoFund, a $200M ecosystem fund, has deployed $10M, funding six Mantle DeFi projects: Merchant Moe, INIT Capital, Butter.xyz, Renzo and MUFEX, according to the team: “Under MIP-26, up to $60M USDx (stable coins), 30K ETH, and $120M $MNT will support EcoFund dApps. These six projects will integrate $mETH (the 5th LSD by TVL) and $mUSD, boosting Mantle ecosystem’s status as a yield powerhouse with a best-in-class native yield offering. According to MIP-24, Mirana Ventures will make a $30M capital call for new Mantle projects soon.”