Feb. 5: Nibiru Chain, a developer-focused Layer-1 chain, has raised $12 million funding from Kraken Ventures, ArkStream, NGC, Master Ventures, Tribe Capital and Banter Capital to accelerate its ecosystem growth, according to the team: “Nibiru optimizes for developers with a built-in dev toolkit, easy-to-use APIs, language SDKs, and a native oracle. It offers 40,000 TPS, 1.4s block times, and robust security, thanks in part to the CosmWasm smart contracts. Its built-in DeFi super applications, along with native oracle and data-indexing functionalities, significantly reduce the technical selection difficulties for DeFi projects.”
Radix Launches Ecosystem Fund for Developers Worth More Than $1M
Feb. 5: Radix has launched a 25 million XRD Ecosystem Fund to accelerate the growth of its builders’ community, according to the team: “Currently worth over US$1 million, the fund will support new activities, rewards and grants to developers and entrepreneurs in the ecosystem. These include developer incentives of up to $1,500 in XRD, milestone rewards as well as Booster grants for co-marketing and partnership opportunities. The fund will also be funneled towards Radix’s upcoming Scrypto challenges and the second cohort of the Radix Grants Program.”
Web Registry GoDaddy, Ethereum Name Service Connect Domain Names With Crypto Wallets
Feb. 5: Ethereum Name Service (ENS), a domain name protocol that runs atop of Ethereum, reached an agreement with GoDaddy to allow users to link internet domains to their ENS addresses for free. “Beyonce owns Beyonce.xyz, and now she can set up a wallet just by going into the GoDaddy page and entering your address,” Nick Johnson, the founder of ENS, told CoinDesk as an example. “Now Beyonce.xyz is her wallet identifier for all intents and purposes.”
Crypto Payments App Oobit Raises $25M in Series A Funding Round Led by Tether
Feb. 5: Mobile payments app Oobit raised $25 million in a Series A funding round, the company said Monday. The round was led by the investment arm of Tether, CMCC Global’s Titan Fund, 468 Capital and Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko. Consumers can use the Oobit app to pay for purchases using crypto, while merchants receive fiat currency. The tap-and-pay feature helps make crypto payments more accessible, as users can pay at any point of sale that accepts Visa (V) or MasterCard (MA) using funds from their Oobit wallet.
Kodiak Finance, Berachain-Based DEX Project, Raises $2M
Feb. 2: Kodiak Finance, aiming to becoming the “community-native DEX of Berachain,” announced the close of a $2 million seed financing round. According to the team: “The funding will further enable us to increase the pace at which we scale Kodiak and allow us to continue delivering amazing trading products native to Berachain.”
Protocol Village is a regular feature of The Protocol, our weekly newsletter exploring the tech behind crypto, one block at a time. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Wednesday. Project teams can submit updates here. For previous versions of Protocol Village, please go here. Also please check out our weekly The Protocol podcast.
Staking Service Luganodes Adds Support for Bitcoin L2 Stacks
Feb. 1: Luganodes, provider of an institutional-grade staking service, is “bringing its muscle” to Stacks, a Bitcoin layer-2 network, according to the team: “This means institutions can now easily earn native BTC rewards while supporting the network and enjoying faster, cheaper transactions with complete Bitcoin security. Luganodes will also be a Signer on the upcoming Nakamoto upgrade, solidifying its commitment to the Stacks ecosystem.” According to a blog post, Luganodes “ranks among the top validators on Polygon, Polkadot, Sui and Tron.”
Pyth Deploys ‘Pyth Entropy,’ for On-Chain Random Number Generation
Feb. 1: Pyth, a blockchain oracle project, announced the future deployment of Pyth Entropy, “aimed at enhancing on-chain random number generation across various Web3 verticals such as prediction markets and GameFi,” according to the team: “The announcement marks a significant milestone as Pyth Entropy is primed to launch on a blockchain on mainnet for the first time, ushering in a new era for decentralized applications. Additionally, Pyth has unveiled the mainnet deployment of Pyth Price Feeds on LightLink, an Ethereum layer-2 blockchain. This now enables dApps and enterprises to offer users instant, gasless transactions. Starting today, smart contract developers in the LightLink ecosystem can permissionlessly access over 400 real-time price feeds across major asset classes to power their DeFi applications.”
Cube.Exchange Raises $12M From Investors Including 6th Man, Asymmetric
Feb. 1: Cube.Exchange, a soon-to-launch digital asset trading platform, has raised $12 million as part of a Series A fundraise, according to the team: “Investors in the round, led by 6th Man Ventures, include Asymmetric, ParaFi Digital, Foundation Capital, Susquehanna Private Equity Investments, LLLP, GSR Markets, Everstake Capital, Big Brain Holdings, Third Kind Venture Capital, Arche Fund, WW Ventures and prominent angels. Proceeds will be used to expand engineering, customer service, operations, legal and compliance, business development; and to obtain licenses.” This raise came as a result of inbound interest, according to the company, and comes on top of a $9 million seed round announced in October.
Sanctor Capital Raises $10M for Early Stage Web3 Fund
Feb. 1: Sanctor Capital raised $10 million for its early stage Web3 investment fund, according to the team: “It is also announcing a partnership with Press Start to launch a pre-accelerator program called The Multiplayer Fellowship. Together, Sanctor and Press Start aim to fund 100 teams over the next 18 months. Half of the graduates of Press Start’s previous fellowship programs have gone on to raise or join top accelerators such as Alliance DAO, a16z Crypto Startup School & SPEEDRUN, Binance Labs and Y Combinator.”
Upshot Unveils Allora, a Network for ‘Self-Improving Decentralized AI’
Feb. 1: Upshot unveiled Allora, a new “trustless, self-improving decentralized AI network,” according to the team. “Allora is designed to empower applications with smarter, more secure AI through a self-improving network of machine learning models. Upshot is backed by industry investors including Polychain, Framework, Blockchain Capital, and CoinFund.”
Prediction Market Zeitgeist Launches DLMSR-Based AMM
Feb. 1: Zeitgeist, a prediction market dApp, launched its DLMSR (Dynamic Logarithmic Market Scoring Rule) based automated market maker (AMM), according to the team, “marking a significant advancement in the blockchain prediction market with a dynamic liquidity model previously unseen in the industry. The DLMSR model represents a first-of-its-kind application in blockchain technology, enhancing the flexibility of market creation and liquidity provision while drastically improving operational dynamics by reducing slippage and thereby transforming trading efficiency and profitability, especially in larger trades.”
WOOFi, Cross-Chain DEX, Launches on Mantle Network
Feb. 1: WOOFi, a cross-chain DEX based in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, has launched on Mantle Network, the Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution, according to the team: “This positions WOOFi as one of the first protocols to support LayerZero-powered cross-chain swaps into Mantle from eight top chains, including Arbitrum, Optimism, and Avalanche. Mantle’s MAU hit 370k in Jan 2024 post-LSP launch. VP of Ecosystem Ben Yorke notes the expected rise is fueled by easier mETH access, with WOOFi pivotal for its hyper-efficient cross-chain swaps, comprising 3.7% of LayerZero transactions.”
