The Oracle

Crypto/Web3 deal coverage and analysis
for builders and investors
who are cautiously optimistic about
the future of the Internet

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Bonfire
Seed
|
$6.2M
Company Description

A no-code solution that allows creators to build custom-branded sites for their NFT projects

Deal Commentary

This market is crowded because it has low barriers to entry from a technical standpoint. @bonfire_tweets is notable for securing Odesza & Bankless as customers and can leverage these wins to more deeply understand creator needs.

Featured Investors
NEA
Variant Fund
Palm Tree Crew
Collab + Currency
Not Boring Capital
Consumer & Creator
Flappy Moonbird
Series A
|
$6M
Company Description

A crypto-native adaptation of Flappy Birds with play-and-earn economics

Deal Commentary

Although the play-and-earn model is subject to intense critique, it serves as a natural progression to the free-to-play model. In order to achieve a breakthrough, @flappymoonbird needs to articulate what makes its playbook for building web3 games special.

Featured Investors
LinkVC
Consumer & Creator
Dapps.co
Pre-seed
|
Undisclosed
Company Description

A decentralized dApp store

Deal Commentary

An app store can overcome the cold start problem by:

  • Onboarding consumers en masse with a compelling UX
  • Scaling developer adoption with compelling tooling

Dapps may want to further refine its product strategy given its current offering does not fit the description above.

Featured Investors
Anshul Dhir
Ajeet Khurana
Keyur Shah
Gopi Kanappan
Vikas Singh
Consumer & Creator
Developer & Enterprise
ML Tech
Strategic
|
$1.9M
Company Description

A curated marketplace for crypto quant trading strategies

Deal Commentary

@MLTech can expose institutional investors to a wider selection of trading strategies and democratize access to institutional capital for non-traditional talent if it exercises proper due diligence in vetting quant strategies that are accessible via its marketplace.

Featured Investors
Hyperithm
Nascent
Kouraje Management
Assure
Belvedere Strategic Capital
Consumer & Creator
Company Description

A protocol that automates liquidity management for: (1) LPs on Uniswap V3 and (2) protocols that are bootstrapping liquidity on Uniswap V3

Deal Commentary

DeFi is branded as a “for the people” movement yet it imposes a high friction UX. This has inspired a new wave of startups like @ArrakisFinance to abstract away the technical and financial complexities of using DeFi protocols and strengthen user adoption.

Featured Investors
Accel
Uniswap Labs Ventures
Robot Ventures
Polygon Funds
Consumer & Creator
Developer & Enterprise
Pine Protocol
Strategic
|
$3M
Company Description

A NFT lending protocol

Deal Commentary

@PineProtocol is hoping to differentiate by offering segregated lending pools. Although this lender-friendly architecture may be great at attracting capital to the protocol, it is difficult to leverage as a technical moat because it is easy to clone.

Featured Investors
Shima Capital
The LAO
Spartan Group
Amber Group
Sparkle Ventures
Consumer & Creator
Company Description

A cold wallet for Bitcoin

Deal Commentary

@FOUNDATIONdvcs is competing against a formidable incumbent that has already sold 5M+ cold wallets and secures more than 20% of the world's crypto assets. With that being said, the TAM will be big enough for multiple winners if cold custody achieves mass adoption.

Featured Investors
Polychain Capital
Greenfield Capital
Warburg Serres
Third Prime
Unpopular Ventures
Consumer & Creator
Revel
Seed
|
$7.8M
Company Description

A collectibles platform that manufactures value for social content using mechanics, which reinforce herd mentality among users

Deal Commentary

@RevelXyz is following in the steps of crypto projects that won big by using token incentives to grow network effects. It is unclear whether @RevelXyz has plans to expand the scope of the product beyond gamified finance and push the crypto industry forward with a grander vision.

Featured Investors
Dragonfly Capital
Union Square Ventures
Sfermion
6th Man Ventures
WAGMI Ventures
Consumer & Creator
Frontrunner
Seed
|
$4.75M
Company Description

A decentralized sports betting market

Deal Commentary

The intersection of sports and web3 holds great potential because it brings together two communities with a healthy appetite for speculation. However, sports betting dApps have yet to articulate the inflection point(s) that will drive consumers way from licensed platforms.

Featured Investors
SIG
Soma Capital
WAGMI Ventures
Toy Ventures
LedgerPrime
Consumer & Creator
Amber Group
Series C
|
$300M
Company Description

Refocusing its efforts on its institutional offerings, which are comprised of: prime brokerage services, OTC trading, and crypto SaaS

Deal Commentary

The fallout from BlockFi, FTX, etc. poses an existential threat to centralized crypto institutions. Moving forward, it is in the best interest of orgs like @ambergroup_io to champion a new standard for transparency, regardless of how much exposure they had to BlockFi, FTX, etc.

Featured Investors
Fenbushi Capital
Sequoia Capital
Temasek
Coinbase Ventures
Developer & Enterprise
Aztec
Series B
|
$100M
Company Description

A zero-knowledge rollup that is secured by the PLONK proving mechanism

Deal Commentary

Infrastructure for privacy-preserving transactions is needed for a wide array of use cases. @aztecnetwork is notable for:

  • Materializing a spectrum of programmatic privacy policies
  • Having the technical hooks in place to scale developer adoption (see Aztec Connect and Noir)
Featured Investors
a16z
Variant Fund
Hashkey Capital
Fenbushi Capital
King River Capital
Network Infrastructure
Utorg
Seed
|
$5M
Company Description

An API to integrate crypto on-ramps

Deal Commentary

@utorgcom is operating in a crowded market filled with functionally equivalent offerings. Although it is difficult to achieve product-led differentiation in this market, @utorgcom may want to articulate its unfair advantage in other aspects of the business (e.g. GTM plan).

Featured Investors
Dragonfly Capital
Hypra Fund
TA Ventures
Developer & Enterprise
Evertas
Series A
|
$14M
Company Description

Provides cryptoasset insurance to institutions

Deal Commentary

@EvertasRisk is operating with 1st mover advantages and strong momentum (e.g. coverholder for Lloyd's) in a highly under-penetrated market. To take more market share, it may want to provide proof-of-quality for its underwriting process by releasing a standalone security product.

Featured Investors
Polychain Capital
Bloccelerate VC
Hashkey Capital
Morgan Creek Digital
Matrixport
Developer & Enterprise
Company Description

A stablecoin that is fully collateralized by Euros

Deal Commentary

@EUROemoney is operating in a market that:

  • Is highly consolidated with strong incumbents like Circle and Tether
  • Is a negligible fraction of the total market for stablecoins

@EUROemoney may want to articulate the inflection points and macro tailwinds that will drive its growth.

Featured Investors
maki.vc
Consumer & Creator
Shibuya
Seed
|
$6.9M
Company Description

A decentralized streaming platform featuring fan-owned productions

Deal Commentary

Crypto is popularly applied to democratize access to alternative investments, such as media. With that being said, it is imperative for projects to further educate consumers on the risk/return profile associated with these opportunities in order to maintain high retention rates.

Featured Investors
a16z
Variant Fund
Kevin Durant
Stani Kulechov
Linda Xie
Consumer & Creator
Earn Alliance
Seed
|
$4.75M
Company Description

Building: (1) a directory of web3 games/guilds, (2) a news site for web3 gaming, (3) a universal gamer profile comprised of on-chain credentials, (4) a web3 gaming studio, (5) an OS for guilds, and (6) a gaming NFT marketplace

Deal Commentary

@EarnAlliance's expansive footprint can either:

  • Work in its favor: as a vehicle for risk diversification or an instrument to achieve capital-efficient growth
  • Work to its disadvantage: by spreading resources too thin
Featured Investors
CoinFund
Fabric Ventures
Animoca Brands
Blockchain Coinvestors
Stake Capital
Consumer & Creator
Helix
Strategic
|
$4.1M
Company Description

A platform that allows users to earn rewards in return for acting as support representatives for DAOs

Deal Commentary

@HelixInc_hq may want to articulate why its business cannot be cannibalized by general purpose bounty platforms. Additionally, it is worth noting that @HelixInc_hq may be subject to heavy misuse if it allows users to act as support reps in a truly permissionless manner.

Featured Investors
The investors were not disclosed!
Developer & Enterprise
Consumer & Creator
360 Mining
Seed
|
$2.25M
Company Description

A Bitcoin miner

Deal Commentary

@360MiningInc is one of the few Bitcoin miners to achieve vertical integration. In doing so, it can monetize natural gas across uncorrelated commodity markets and reduce counter-party dependencies.

Featured Investors
Luxor Technology
BT Growth Capital
Network Infrastructure
Argus
Seed
|
$2.8M
Company Description

A code of ethics compliance platform for crypto professionals

Deal Commentary

Authorities have already charged professionals at Coinbase/OpenSea with insider trading, which is why there is a clear need for a compliance platform. @ArgusCompliance has yet to disclose how it can identify non-compliant employees who do not disclose (all) their wallet addresses.

Featured Investors
Y Combinator
CRV
Developer & Enterprise
APWine
Seed Extension
|
$2.6M
Company Description

An AMM for tokenized yield derivatives

Deal Commentary

@APWineFinance allows users to speculate on the evolution of the yield generated by protocols. Although there are functionally equivalent protocols in the market, it is worth noting that they (collectively) have <$100M in TVL so the barriers to entry are relatively low.

Featured Investors
Spartan Group
Greenfield One
Delphi Digital
Alliance DAO
Rarestone Capital
Consumer & Creator
Kiln
Series A
|
$17M
Company Description

Provides enterprise-grade delegated staking services

Deal Commentary

Although it is operating in a heavily saturated market comprised of exchanges, prime brokerages, etc., @Kiln_finance has managed to achieve strong execution momentum with:

  • 2.1% share of all ETH staked
  • Zero incidents of penalties/slashing
Featured Investors
GSR Ventures
Kraken Ventures
Alven
BlueYard Capital
SV Angel
Developer & Enterprise
nftperp
Seed
|
$1.7M
Company Description

An AMM for perpetual futures contracts for NFTs

Deal Commentary

@nftperp essentially allows users to speculate on the floor prices of NFT projects. Given the NFT community's propensity to speculate on anything and everything, @nftperp has a fair shot at quickly finding product-market fit.

Featured Investors
OP Crypto
Maven 11 Capital
DCV Capital
Cogitent Ventures
Dialectic
Consumer & Creator
OAK Network
Strategic
|
Undisclosed
Company Description

A Substrate-based L1 blockchain that provides event-driven transaction automation

Deal Commentary

@oak_network provides a no-code platform to automate a wide variety of on-chain workflows such as:

  • Setting up recurring payments or
  • Placing stop-loss orders.

While Chainlink provides equivalent functionality for EVM-compatible networks, @oak_network is focused on Polkadot.

Featured Investors
EMURGO Ventures
Consumer & Creator
Developer & Enterprise
Orbiter Finance
Seed
|
Undisclosed
Company Description

A decentralized cross-rollup bridge

Deal Commentary

@Orbiter_Finance uses slashing to provide security guarantees to users. It will be interesting to see how this security model scales for cases in which transaction relayers are incentivized to misbehave (e.g. when the value of their slashable stake drops dramatically).

Featured Investors
Tiger Global
Matrixport
Lemniscap
Mirana Ventures
Redpoint Ventures
Network Infrastructure
Catapult
Seed
|
$5M
Company Description

An operating system for DAOs

Deal Commentary

As DAOs mature, their needs become increasingly apparent and new market entrants like @getCatapult have the opportunity to capitalize with products that support a comprehensive set of must-have features. With that being said, the market incumbents ship with high velocity.

Featured Investors
Blockchain Capital
Orange DAO
Reverie
Eden Block
Stani Kulechov
Developer & Enterprise
Mirage
Pre-seed
|
$1.4M
Company Description

@thismirage raised $1.4M from Cozomo de' Medici, Palm Tree Crew, among others for a platform that allows creators to create and distribute geotagged AR NFTs

Deal Commentary

We are used to prescribing value to 3D assets, which is why AR NFTs hold tremendous promise. With that being said, it is worth noting that existing VC-backed AR NFT/blockchain gaming studios have yet to achieve a breakthrough.

Featured Investors
Cozomo de Medici
Delphi Digital
Palm Tree Crew
Consumer & Creator
Tropee
Seed
|
$5.2M
Company Description

A no-code platform that allows NFT creators to manage post-mint experiences

Deal Commentary

Many NFT creators strive to provide a wide array of exclusive perks to collectors post-mint such as AMAs, merch, event tickets, etc. @tropee_nft:

  • Streamlines the discovery of these perks for collectors
  • Supports an industry-leading number of post-mint experiences for creators
Featured Investors
Tioga Capital
Sebastien Borget
Lorens Huculak
Thibault Launay
Grégoire le Jeune
Consumer & Creator
Carv
Seed
|
$4M
Company Description

A gamer ID that allows gamers to port their on-chain credentials from one game to another in a privacy-preserving manner

Deal Commentary

Although portable identity standards are crucial to materialize the Metaverse, it is worth noting that these standards will struggle to gain traction until the blockchain games that are compatible with these standards grow in popularity.

Featured Investors
Temasek
IVC
YGG SEA
UpHonest Capital
Lyrik Ventures
Consumer & Creator
Fenix Games
Strategic
|
$150M
Company Description

Funding, acquiring, and publishing blockchain games

Deal Commentary

@playfenixgames is operating at an interesting intersection b/c:

  • On one hand, we are witnessing the incremental disintermediation of traditional publishers through DAOs
  • On the other hand, there is an opportunity to capitalize on 1st mover advantages before a web2 giant does
Featured Investors
Cypher Capital
Phoenix Group
Consumer & Creator
Across Protocol
Strategic
|
$10M
Company Description

A trusted bridge that relies on a decentralized network of relayers and an optimistic oracle

Deal Commentary

An optimistic oracle strengthens bridge security because it only requires 1 honest relayer. @AcrossProtocol further optimizes the UX by bridging assets instantly and in a capital efficient manner. Regardless, trustless bridges may supersede trusted counterparts altogether.

Featured Investors
Placeholder VC
Blockchain Capital
Hack VC
Network Infrastructure
Consumer & Creator
Blockstars
Strategic
|
$5M
Company Description

A music label management sim with a play-and-earn model

Deal Commentary

@blockstarsgame is applying crypto-economics to a gaming genre:- with a tremendous amount of whitespace - that can offer players experiences, which are more reflective of reality, by making use of cryptocurrencies

Featured Investors
Makers Fund
Solana Ventures
Merit Circle
Citizen X Crypto Ventures
Play Ventures
Consumer & Creator
Yakoa
Seed
|
$4.8M
Company Description

An AI-powered NFT fraud detection tool

Deal Commentary

@Yakoa_ is competing against a handful of direct competitors, one of which has already won the business of OpenSea and another that provides coverage for both web2 and web3 IP. @Yakoa_ has yet to disclose its differentiating factor(s).

Featured Investors
Volt Capital
Collab + Currency
BH Digital
Alliance DAO
Uniswap Labs Ventures
Developer & Enterprise
Matter Labs
Series C
|
$200M
Company Description

A L2 zk-rollup

Deal Commentary

To scale Ethereum, ZK-EVMs have to make tradeoffs between Ethereum/EVM equivalence and performance/prover time. While there isn't any consensus on what the sweet spot is, it is worth noting that @the_matter_labs has onboarded some of the most popular projects to its ecosystem.

Featured Investors
Dragonfly Capital
Blockchain Capital
a16z
Variant Fund
Lightspeed VP
Network Infrastructure
Arkon Energy
Strategic
|
$28M
Company Description

Provides miner hosting services

Deal Commentary

Arkon Energy creates a win-win for both crypto and the environment by building data centers for crypto mining in locations that have an abundance of renewable energy, which is physically constrained from being exported.

Featured Investors
Shima Capital
Kestrel 0x1
Blue Sky Capital
Network Infrastructure
Anode Labs
Seed
|
$4.2M
Company Description

A decentralized network of batteries that help balance the power grid

Deal Commentary

Residential battery ownership rates are increasing as grid reliability declines, battery costs decline, and solar energy becomes increasingly popular. @React_Energy is tapping into this growing market of battery owners by using cryptoeconomic incentives.

Featured Investors
Lerer Hippeau
Lattice Capital
DCG
VaynerFund
Allegory Labs
Consumer & Creator
Job Protocol
Pre-seed
|
$1.5M
Company Description

A protocol that allows companies to hire for open roles using referral bounties

Deal Commentary

@JobProtocol vets bounty submissions on behalf of companies to provide the white glove service that they are used to. Compared to web2 alternatives like Pallet, @JobProtocol hopes to differentiate with a crypto-centric ethos and a more inclusive ecosystem of headhunters.

Featured Investors
Tioga Capital
Portal Ventures
Syndicate One
Developer & Enterprise
Consumer & Creator
Dhiway
Pre-seed
|
$1M
Company Description

A L1 blockchain that allows enterprises to exchange data and manage documentation by issuing, verifying, and share SSI credentials

Deal Commentary

@dhiwaynetworks may want to better articulate its vision given it faces stiff competition from (1) verticalized solutions that provide 'whole products' and (2) cross-enterprise collaboration solutions that use highly advanced data access management tech (e.g. TEEs)

Featured Investors
Cornerstone Venture Partners
SUNiCON Ventures
Developer & Enterprise
Network Infrastructure
Ramp
Series B
|
$70M
Company Description

A SDK that provides crypto on/off-ramps

Deal Commentary

For @RampNetwork, transaction volumes in 2022 (YTD) have increased by ~240% compared to the same period in 2021. In any case, the company needs to be wary of an increasingly saturated market comprised of node infrastructure providers, banks, exchanges, brokerages, and more.

Featured Investors
Mubadala Capital
Korelya Capital
Balderton Capital
Cogito Capital
Developer & Enterprise
TRM Labs
Series B
|
$70M
Company Description

A crypto forensics platform that provides transaction monitoring and entity attribution services

Deal Commentary

Unfortunately, the crypto industry is filled with highly talented fraudsters and illicit actors. By filling its cap table with target customers, @trmlabs is effectively creating high switching costs.

Featured Investors
Goldman Sachs
BH Digital
CMT Digital
Bessemer VP
Thomas Bravo
Developer & Enterprise
Foredefi
Seed
|
$18M
Company Description

Institutional wallets that are secured by multi-party computation (MPC)

Deal Commentary

Incumbent wallets already offer fine-grained, configurable policy engines to institutions that wish to securely access DeFi. In the hopes of overcoming late mover disadvantages, @FordefiWallet has built out an industry-leading feature set that extends beyond policy management.

Featured Investors
Lightspeed VP
Electric Capital
Jump Crypto
Pantera Capital
Defiance Capital
Developer & Enterprise
Sepana
Series A
|
$10M
Company Description

A search engine for web3

Deal Commentary

A web3 search engine can offer an unparalleled experience to consumers because it can access granular information pertaining to apps, users, etc. (which is inaccessible in web2) from blockchains. @sepana_io has achieved strong execution momentum by onboarding top-tier projects.

Featured Investors
Collab + Currency
Lattice Capital
Zee Prime Capital
Collider Ventures
Protocol Labs
Consumer & Creator
Token Flow
Series A
|
$12M
Company Description

An API to query on-chain data

Deal Commentary

Although it is operating in a crowded market comprised of node infrastructure providers and standalone data querying tools, @InsightsFlow is hoping to differentiate by providing more data than is available from full archival nodes.

Featured Investors
Electric Capital
Delta Blockchain Fund
UDHC
Developer & Enterprise
TRACE
Seed
|
$3M
Company Description

An AR game with a drive-to-earn rewards model

Deal Commentary

Offering token rewards for daily habits can serve as a powerful user acquisition strategy. With that being, @trace_top and other startups that use this strategy may want to expand the utility of their tokens beyond gamified finance in order to retain users.


Featured Investors
The investors were not disclosed!
Consumer & Creator
Fluidity
Seed
|
$1.3M
Company Description

A protocol that has designed a lottery to grow adoption for its native tokens

Deal Commentary

Although @fluiditymoney is making clever use of tokenomics to bootstrap network effects, it has yet to offer a compelling mission statement that outlines the protocol's significance beyond fun and (risky) games.

Featured Investors
Multicoin Capital
Lemniscap
Circle Ventures
Solana Ventures
NGC Ventures
Consumer & Creator
Eversify
Pre-seed
|
$1.2M
Company Description

A token analytics platform with an in-built wallet tracker, trading terminal, and NFT marketplace aggregator

Deal Commentary

@EversifyLabs hopes to disrupt the markets for business intelligence and exchange/NFT aggregation in tandem by consolidating an industry-leading feature set in a single platform and giving prosumers more bang for their buck.

Featured Investors
The investors were not disclosed!
Consumer & Creator
Partior
Series A
|
Undisclosed
Company Description

A cross-border settlement network that is built on a private blockchain

Deal Commentary

@PartiorOfficial is structured as a joint venture between JP Morgan, DBS, and Temasek. CeFi/CeDeFi startups with institutional-grade offerings are at tremendous risk of being left out of the value chain as traditional financial services providers become increasingly tech savvy.

Featured Investors
Standard Chartered
JP Morgan
DBS Bank
Temasek
Network Infrastructure
Developer & Enterprise
NiftyApes
Seed
|
$4.2M
Company Description

A NFT lending protocol that provides auction-based auto-refinancing to borrowers at the best possible terms

Deal Commentary

NFT lending protocols that rely on pseudoscientific NFT valuation models to set the terms for borrowing/lending are unsustainable. By transferring control over terms to lenders, @NiftyApes allows loans collateralized by speculative assets to be underwritten by further speculation.

Featured Investors
Variant Fund
Robot Ventures
The LAO
Coinbase Ventures
Polygon Funds
Consumer & Creator
Mozart
Pre-seed
|
$3M
Company Description

APIs that allow game developers to integrate NFTs in their games

Deal Commentary

Since it is competing with market players that have functionally comparable offerings, more venture capital, and first mover advantages, @mozart_xyz may want to better articulate its differentiation.

Featured Investors
Arcanum Capital
AG Build
Fancy Studios
MaterialV
SaxeCap
Developer & Enterprise
Courtyard
Seed
|
$7M
Company Description

Building a marketplace for tokenized collectibles

Deal Commentary

@Courtyard_NFT has high potential because:

  • The collector community is unlikely to stigmatize crypto since it embraces speculation
  • It has the hooks in place to execute: collectors can earn extra income, access DeFi, and streamline trading operations through @Courtyard_NFT
Featured Investors
NEA
Y Combinator
OpenSea Ventures
VaynerFund
Cherry Ventures
Consumer & Creator
Spice Finance
Pre-seed
|
$1.7M
Company Description

Optimizing lenders' APYs by deploying algorithmic lending strategies across various NFT lending pools

Deal Commentary

Although @spice_finance hopes to offer a useful automation, the technical feasibility of this project is questionable given the ideal algorithm must be capable of timing the NFT market and discovering the 'fair market price' for each NFT.

Featured Investors
Shima Capital
Big Brain Holdings
Delta Blockchain Fund
ProtoFund
Hypotenuse Labs
Consumer & Creator
Klink Finance
Pre-seed
|
$0.5M
Company Description

A 'no-loss' prize draw

Deal Commentary

@klinkfinance pools users' deposits to generate yield and fund its lottery system. Unfortunately, @klinkfinance cannot guarantee that users won't lose their initial deposits due to systematic risks in the market and its operating model (e.g. price volatility, vulnerable to hacks)

Featured Investors
UOB Venture Management
Signum Capital
Blockchain Founders Fund
StartupGym
TechMeetsTrader
Consumer & Creator
Carapace Finance
Pre-seed
|
$2.5M
Company Description

A protocol that enables under-collateralized borrowing by creating a market for default risk premiums

Deal Commentary

Regardless of how robust crypto-native credit scoring protocols become, default risks will persist (e.g. due to crypto price volatility). @carapacefinance offers an innovative solution that can turn this "bug" into an opportunity for risk-savvy investors.

Featured Investors
NFX
Tribe Capital
GSR Ventures
LedgerPrime
Titan Capital
Consumer & Creator
MetaJuice
Strategic
|
Undisclosed
Company Description

Integrating its cryptocurrency and NFT marketplace into 3rd party gaming platforms

Deal Commentary

Although @themetajuice is making progress in building network effects by integrating with IMVU and WithMe, it is worth noting that game developers can alternatively leverage no/low-code solutions to build NFT marketplaces and mint tokens (with better economics).

Featured Investors
Jump Crypto
BITKRAFT Ventures
Mirana Ventures
Animoca Brands
DWeb3 Capital
Consumer & Creator
Developer & Enterprise
Notebook Labs
Seed
|
$3.3M
Company Description

An optimistic rollup that powers a privacy-preserving, SSI-compliant identity protocol, which can aggregate on/off-chain credentials

Deal Commentary

While most identity protocols have a one dimensional focus on data access management, @NotebookLabs additionally integrates proof of humanity to ensure users  only have 1 identity. It is worth noting that privacy-preserving identities may conflict with law enforcement regulations

Featured Investors
Bain Capital Crypto
Y Combinator
Abstract Ventures
NFX
Soma Capital
Consumer & Creator
Origami
Seed
|
$6.2M
Company Description

An operating system for DAOs

Deal Commentary

While most DAO operating systems are exclusively software products, @jointheorigami provides more comprehensive support to DAOs in the form of compliance frameworks, governance playbooks, and partnership opportunities.

Featured Investors
Bloomberg Beta
Protocol Labs
VC3 DAO
Orange DAO
Balaji Srinivasan
Developer & Enterprise
Martian
Pre-seed
|
$3M
Company Description

A non-custodial wallet built on Aptos

Deal Commentary

Now that the Aptos mainnet has launched, developers will race to build critical support infrastructure like wallets in the hopes of capitalizing as first movers. It remains to be seen whether Aptos will fund @martian_wallet's direct competitors or not.

Featured Investors
Race Capital
FTX Ventures
Temasek
Jump Crypto
Aptos
Consumer & Creator
Kollider
Seed
|
$2.35M
Company Description

A centralized exchange powered by the Lightning Network and a browser-based Lightning wallet

Deal Commentary

Investment/dev activity in the Lightning ecosystem is projected to increase now that efforts to abstract access to the infrastructure are underway. There may be a race to build the most popular CEX in the ecosystem (as opposed to a DEX) given the strong retail appetite for BTC.

Featured Investors
Lemniscap
Polychain Capital
Alameda Research
Castle Island Ventures
Pfeffer Capital
Consumer & Creator
Paragraph
Pre-seed
|
$1.7M
Company Description

A white-label platform that allows creators to build token-gated newsletters

Deal Commentary

Token-gated newsletters can notably grant upside potential and tiered privileges (e.g. read only, read/comment, etc.) to subscribers. @paragraph_xyz is the first to comprehensively capture these benefits with an industry-leading feature set.

Featured Investors
Lemniscap
FTX Ventures
Binance Labs
GCR
Seed Club Ventures
Consumer & Creator
ChainSafe
Series A
|
$18.75M
Company Description

Provides (1) a crypto game development SDK ,(2) IPFS and Filecoin gateways, and (3) technical, security, and crypto-economics consulting

Deal Commentary

The market for crypto-economics consulting has substantial whitespace, especially since a playbook for designing an economy has not yet been developed. @ChainSafeth can leverage its consulting arm as a wedge to grow adoption for its remaining products (which are commoditized).

Featured Investors
Sfermion
DFG
NGC Ventures
Fenbushi Capital
Hashkey Capital
Developer & Enterprise
Arcade2Earn
Seed
|
$3.2M
Company Description

A gaming guild that allows retail token holders to take a cut of proceeds generates by its scholars

Deal Commentary

@arcade2earn is further democratizing access to crypto gaming for retail investors by: (1) making it possible for them to participate in the upside from crypto gaming without owning an in-game asset and (2) streamlining the investment execution process for them (e.g. diligence)

Featured Investors
Shima Capital
Rainmaker Games
Big Brain Holdings
LD Capital
GSR Ventures
Consumer & Creator
Celestia
Series B
|
$55M
Company Description

A modular consensus and data availability layer

Deal Commentary

@CelestiaOrg pioneered modular blockchain architectures and offers 3 key value drivers to developers/apps: 1) flexibility to self-define virtual execution environments, 2) apps can be updated w/o main chain hard forks, and 3) apps get sovereign execution space while inheriting security

Featured Investors
Polychain Capital
Bain Capital Crypto
Placeholder VC
Jump Crypto
NFX
Network Infrastructure
Helius
Seed
|
$3.1M
Company Description

Provides Solana endpoints and enhanced APIs for data querying

Deal Commentary

At the moment, it is unclear how @heliuslabs plans to differentiate in this mature market with well-funded incumbents. Compared to blockchain-agnostic alternatives, @heliuslabs may be able to provide more comprehensive/responsive data coverage for the Solana ecosystem.

Featured Investors
Chapter One
Reciprocal Ventures
Anagram Crypto
Big Brain Holdings
Matrixport
Developer & Enterprise
Spindl
Seed
|
$7M
Company Description

A decentralized attribution protocol

Deal Commentary

The majority of crypto-native adtech startups are focused on revolutionary biz models that empower consumers. In contrast, @SpindlXyz has an evolutionary biz model that helps facilitate direct relationships between publishers & advertisers and erodes the power of OS providers.

Featured Investors
Dragonfly Capital
Multicoin Capital
Chapter One
Tribe Capital
Polygon Funds
Consumer & Creator
Developer & Enterprise
Uniswap
Series B
|
$165M
Company Description

One of the world's most popular decentralized exchanges

Deal Commentary

@Uniswap serves as a powerful testament to the importance of being a first mover in crypto. Despite a frenzy of experimentation and innovation in the market for decentralized exchanges, @Uniswap has retained its throne in the crypto community.

Featured Investors
Polychain Capital
a16z
Paradigm
Variant Fund
SV Angel
Consumer & Creator
YoloYolo
Seed
|
$3.5M
Company Description

A platform that facilitates partnerships between brands and NFT IP holders

Deal Commentary

Platforms like @YoloYolo_xyz have difficulty achieving venture scale because stakeholders benefit from signing up on as many functionally equivalent platforms as possible. In any case, @YoloYolo_xyz has the 1st mover advantage and is providing much needed functionality.

Featured Investors
ParaFi Capital
Morningstar Ventures
Mirana Ventures
Genblock Capital
Signum Capital
Consumer & Creator
Waterfall
Seed
|
$4M
Company Description

A protocol that fractionalizes NFTs and subsequently enables their price discovery by forcing fractional NFT owners to list a sale price

Deal Commentary

The NFT market is largely speculative as it is. @waterfall_mkt is simultaneously: (1) making the market more speculative by assigning value to fungible fractions of NFTs and (2) making the market less speculative by narrowing the range of sale prices set by sellers using game theory

Featured Investors
Electric Capital
Pantera Capital
Consumer & Creator
Otterspace
Seed
|
$3.7M
Company Description

A protocol to distribute non-transferable NFTs that can serve as markers for DAO governance and engagement

Deal Commentary

Although there are similar protocols in the market, @otterspace_xyz is: (1) positioned to support a market-leading feature set and (2) notable for getting buy-in from high profile DAOs, including Bankless and Radicle


Featured Investors
Inflection
Bessemer VP
Coinbase Ventures
Cherry Ventures
btov Partners
Developer & Enterprise
Sovryn
Strategic
|
$5.4M
Company Description

An AMM, decentralized borrowing/lending protocol, and Bitcoin-collateralized stablecoin built on RSK

Deal Commentary

There is a strong case to build Bitcoin-centric alternatives for popular dApps given Bitcoin still commands the majority share of the total value locked in crypto. Architecturally, @SovrynBTC and its users have to bear with the systemic risks of relying on bridges.

Featured Investors
General Catalyst
Collider Ventures
Balaji Srinivasan
Bering Waters Ventures
Bollinger Investment Group
Consumer & Creator
n.xyz
Series A
|
$40M
Company Description

APIs that allow developers to access indexed blockchain data

Deal Commentary

@_n_x_y_z_ is hoping to differentiate with industry-leading latency metrics in a crowded market. In order to compete with indexing services provided by RPC infrastructure providers, pure play blockchain indexers will need to provide significant upside in performance.

Featured Investors
Sequoia Capital
Paradigm
Variant Fund
Greylock Partners
Coinbase Ventures
Developer & Enterprise
Pillow
Series A
|
$18M
Company Description

A crypto savings account that generates returns by investing in protocols, which are curated by a dedicated research team

Deal Commentary

As a firm that develops in-house research technology, we can confirm that there are massively underrated tokens, esp. pick/shovel plays, capable of generating outsized returns. This intelligence is difficult for retail investors to obtain without a dedicated research team or tech

Featured Investors
Accel
Jump Crypto
Quona Capital
Elevation Capital
Consumer & Creator
Rye
Seed
|
$14M
Company Description

A decentralized network for dropshipping

Deal Commentary

@rye has a compelling execution strategy that delivers immediate value with APIs designed to abstract away complexities in the dropshipping model. It is worth noting that the ideal solution would be no-code given consumer-facing 'product pushers' online are generally creators.

Featured Investors
a16z
Solana Ventures
L Catterton
Electric Feel Ventures
Electric Ant
Consumer & Creator
Developer & Enterprise
FANtium
Pre-seed
|
$2M
Company Description

A NFT marketplace that allows fans to invest in athletes in exchange for a cut of their future earnings

Deal Commentary

@FANtiumOfficial will have to cope with the following paradox: athletes with a lot of fans probably don't need crowdfunding & athletes that need crowdfunding probably don't have many fans. In any case, the sports community has a propensity for betting with no regrets.

Featured Investors
Sebastien Borget
Lucas von Cranach
Dominic Thiem
Brian O’Hagan
Consumer & Creator
Scale3
Seed
|
$5.3M
Company Description

A dashboard to monitor and update nodes

Deal Commentary

@Scale3Labs will help further decentralization by reducing the technical complexity of managing nodes for web3 prosumers. In doing so, @Scale3Labs will create an entirely new market for node management software.

Featured Investors
Redpoint Ventures
Mysten Labs
Howard University
Consumer & Creator
Developer & Enterprise
SettleMint
Series A
|
$16M
Company Description

A low-code blockchain-as-a-service and smart contract development platform for enterprise use cases

Deal Commentary

Enterprise applications that require consortiums and cross-enterprise collaboration can benefit from spinning up permissioned blockchain networks. @SettleMintCom clearly has a compelling tech stack given it has secured the business of high profile customers like P&G and Carrefour

Featured Investors
Molten Ventures
Bloccelerate VC
Medici Ventures
Allusion
Fujitsu Ventures
Developer & Enterprise
Blowfish
Seed
|
$11.8M
Company Description

An API that allows wallet providers to scan transactions & messages and integrate a firewall to prevent the theft of users' funds

Deal Commentary

While wallet-level security infrastructure is a net-positive for the ecosystem and effective for common attack vectors (e.g. phishing), its performance has yet to be benchmarked against traditional security audits.

Featured Investors
Paradigm
Dragonfly Capital
Uniswap Labs Ventures
Hypersphere Ventures
Naval Ravikant
Developer & Enterprise
Exponential
Seed
|
$14M
Company Description

Assigning risk scores to crypto protocols/assets and providing a custodial platform to invest in liquidity pools

Deal Commentary

@ExponentialDeFi is operating in substantial whitespace as one of the few market players to provide risk intelligence to retail crypto investors and focus on investment opportunities in individual liquidity pools as opposed to yield aggregation.

Featured Investors
Paradigm
Haun Ventures
FTX Ventures
Circle Ventures
Polygon Funds
Consumer & Creator
Lasso Labs
Seed
|
$4.2M
Company Description

Providing: (1) analytics on fungible and non-fungible tokens, (2) a tracker for DAO governance proposals and votes, and (3) a search engine for token holder benefits

Deal Commentary

In return for providing capital to projects, token holders are expected to keep up with the flood of information on Discord. @LassoLabs can dramatically improve the lives of token holders if its product functions as advertised.

Featured Investors
Electric Capital
Ethereal Ventures
OpenSea Ventures
Village Global
Page One Ventures
Consumer & Creator
Golden
Series B
|
$40M
Company Description

A decentralized knowledge graph that is powered by crypto-economics

Deal Commentary

Golden is rebuilding Wikipedia from scratch in a manner that financially empowers information contributors and growing an economy for crowdsourced research. As a tradeoff for being decentralized, @Golden will notably face challenges in providing quality assurances.

Featured Investors
a16z
Protocol Labs
OpenSea Ventures
DCVC
MVP Ventures
Consumer & Creator
Developer & Enterprise
Glass
Seed
|
$5M
Company Description

A marketplace for video NFTs

Deal Commentary

Despite the fact that video is king in today's market, there aren't many NFT marketplaces dedicated to video. Unlike web2 platforms for paywalled video content, @glassprotocol allows fans to partly reimburse and even profit from their video purchases by selling their NFTs.

Featured Investors
1kx
The Chernin Group
Consumer & Creator
Coral
Strategic
|
$20M
Company Description

A wallet that serves as a portal to a curated selection of dApps

Deal Commentary

@0xCoral is among the few wallet providers to envision wallets as dApp stores with curatorial authority comparable to Apple's app store/Google Play. With that being said, @0xCoral will need a robust GTM strategy to successfully execute in the mature and crowded market for wallets

Featured Investors
Jump Crypto
Multicoin Capital
Anagram Crypto
FTX Ventures
K5 Global
Consumer & Creator
Re
Seed
|
$14M
Company Description

A protocol that democratizes exposure to reinsurance

Deal Commentary

The global reinsurance market is worth hundreds of billions of dollars yet retail investors are unable to access it. In order to grow demand, @REprotocol will have to educate retail investors on how this opaque market works and the what the risk-return profile of the market is.

Featured Investors
Tribe Capital
Framework Ventures
Morgan Creek Digital
Stratos Technologies
Defy VC
Consumer & Creator
dAMM Finance
Strategic
|
$2M
Company Description

A decentralized borrowing/lending protocol that connects retail lenders with institutional borrowers

Deal Commentary

@dammfinance is differentiating from other money markets for institutional borrowers by supporting the tail end of crypto assets. This differentiating factor may be questionable if institutional borrowers do not care for the tail end of crypto assets in the first place.

Featured Investors
Prismatic Capital
Woo Network
LedgerPrime
Berachain
Fischer8
Consumer & Creator
Developer & Enterprise
Harpie
Seed
|
$4.5M
Company Description

A consumer-grade security solution that continuously monitors users' pending transactions and leverages frontrunning to prevent the theft of users' funds

Deal Commentary

In order for @harpieio to function properly, users need to manually maintain a list of trusted addresses. @harpieio is hoping that users won't mind this added work given it can protect against the most popular attack vectors in crypto, such as phishing and frontend attacks.

Featured Investors
Dragonfly Capital
Coinbase Ventures
OpenSea Ventures
Consumer & Creator
Tactic
Seed Extension
|
$11M
Company Description

Enterprise-grade crypto accounting software

Deal Commentary

@choose_tactic is in competition with a startup that has won the business of the U.S. government and the Big 4 accounting firms. @choose_tactic's key differentiator is its compatibility with traditional accounting software like Quickbooks.

Featured Investors
FTX Ventures
Founders Fund
Coinbase Ventures
Definition Capital
Lux Capital
Developer & Enterprise
Nibiru
Seed
|
$7.5M
Company Description

A Cosmos-SDK based blockchain dedicated to: (1) an on-chain perpetuals exchange, (2) an AMM, and (3) a partially collateralized, algorithmic stablecoin

Deal Commentary

While most crypto perpetual exchanges have off-chain components (usually orderbooks), @NibiruChain offers a completely on-chain solution. Investment activity in 'vertical chains' like @NibiruChain has been picking up since August '22.

Featured Investors
Tribe Capital
Republic Capital
Kraken Ventures
Network Infrastructure
Consumer & Creator
Kapital DAO
Seed
|
$7M
Company Description

An OS for guild management

Deal Commentary

While most guild management platforms are designed with guild managers and scholars in mind, @KapitalDAO notably accommodates game developers as well.

Featured Investors
Samsung Next
Wintermute
GSR Ventures
Yield Guild Games
Solana Foundation
Consumer & Creator
Skip Protocol
Seed
|
$6.5M
Company Description

Building Flashbots for the Cosmos ecosystem

Deal Commentary

@SkipProtocol creates a win-win for both:

  1. Traders: many Cosmos-based chains process transactions on a first-come, first-serve basis and @SkipProtocol allows traders to skip the line by tipping validators
  2. Validators: @SkipProtocol allows validators to earn extra income
Featured Investors
Jump Crypto
Robot Ventures
Galaxy Digital
Bain Capital Crypto
Consumer & Creator
Network Infrastructure
3Commas
Series B
|
$37M
Company Description

Developed an AI-powered trading terminal and yield aggregation vaults

Deal Commentary

Although the respective markets for terminals and vaults are crowded, it is worth noting that @3commas_io has strong development momentum given it is one of the few startups to provide product coverage in both market spaces.

Featured Investors
Alameda Research
Jump Crypto
Target Global
Dmitry Tokarev
Consumer & Creator
Block.Green
Seed
|
$3.7M
Company Description

A money market that offers sustainable Bitcoin miners Bitcoin-denominated loans collateralized by hashpower

Deal Commentary

In theory, @blockdotgreen hopes to offer Bitcoin miners a more stable alternative to USD-denominated, Bitcoin/ASIC-collateralized loans since the relationship between hashpower and Bitcoin earnings can be (1) expressed mathematically and (2) more deterministic.

Featured Investors
Founders Fund
dao5
Coinbase Ventures
Blizzard Fund
10X Founders
Network Infrastructure
Hume
Series A
|
$11.7M
Company Description

A NFT community that manages a music label comprised of virtual artists

Deal Commentary

Virtual music artists have been hoping to achieve mainstream popularity for nearly a decade. Although web3 can't thrust these artists into the limelight in and of itself, it can provide better economics (often at the expense of investors) and in-built distribution to them.

Featured Investors
The Chernin Group
Collab + Currency
Winklevoss Capital
The LAO
Flamingo DAO
Consumer & Creator
Antic
Seed
|
$7M
Company Description

An API to integrate IP co-ownership at checkout

Deal Commentary

Although much of the core technology that @Getantic uses under the hood is becoming increasingly commoditized (e.g. multi-sig custody), @Getantic notably uses customer-centric messaging and branding to offer a high quality top-of-funnel experience.

Featured Investors
Seven Seven Six
Sound Ventures
Pantera Capital
Shrug Capital
Dapper Labs
Developer & Enterprise
Immortal Game
Series A
|
$12M
Company Description

A game of chess featuring NFT-based chess pieces and a crypto-economy to support quests, tournaments, and coaching

Deal Commentary

@TheImmortalGame does not have to rely purely on tokenomics to attract community and build support for its utility token given it has already won buy-in from 50+ chess influencers.

Featured Investors
The Chernin Group
Spice Capital
Thirty Five Ventures
Greenfield One
Sparkle Ventures
Consumer & Creator
Ownera
Series A
|
$20M
Company Description

A unified API that allows financial service providers to settle on any DLT

Deal Commentary

While its true that @OwneraIO could abstract away the complexity of transacting on DLTs (not without increasing systemic risks), it is worth noting that prime brokerages & permissioned settlement networks have already been gaining mind share among institutions on this front.

Featured Investors
J.P. Morgan
Polymorphic Capital
Accomplice
Archax
Draper Goren Holm
Developer & Enterprise
Relics
Pre-seed
|
$1.1M
Company Description

Music NFTs with: (1) rarity measured by the popularity of the music and (2) integrated synchronization rights

Deal Commentary

Currently, music artists have trouble enforcing synchronization rights on gaming platforms and adapting monolithic NFT standards to their needs. @RELICSxyz is hoping to kill 2 birds with 1 stone through its primitive for music NFTs.

Featured Investors
Palm Tree Crew
LongHash Ventures
DAO Jones
Narcissus Ventures
Noise DAO
Consumer & Creator
Magna
Seed
|
$15M
Company Description

A token distribution platform that supports: (1) custom vesting schedules, (2) branded claim portals, (3) employee and investor dashboards, (4) tax withholding/compliance workflows, and (5) multi-sig custody

Deal Commentary

This market space is crowded and startups are primarily using one of two strategies to differentiate:

  1. Building out an industry-leading feature set (@MagnaTokens falls in this category)
  2. Building out a more comprehensive operating system (e.g. governance, bounties, etc.)
Featured Investors
Tiger Global
Shima Capital
Circle Ventures
Tusk Ventures
Solana Ventures
Developer & Enterprise
Thirdwave
Seed
|
$7M
Company Description

A customer intelligence platform that aggregates and distills on/off-chain data

Deal Commentary

Only a handful of market players are offering web3-inclusive customer intelligence platforms currently. It will be interesting to see how these platforms fare against infrastructural developments and personal preferences for privacy preservation.

Featured Investors
Framework Ventures
Animoca Brands
Play Ventures
Shima Capital
Hustle Fund
Developer & Enterprise
HELIX
Pre-seed
|
$3.5M
Company Description

A GTA-esque AAA game with cryptoeconomics

Deal Commentary

@HELIX_Metaverse will need to curb AAA gamers' reservations about crypto by showcasing how a crypto-economy makes open world games more immersive since it functions just like a real world economy. It is worth noting that AAA games cost tens of millions of dollars to develop.

Featured Investors
Samsung Next
GSR Ventures
3K VC
Alex Chung
Scott Belsky
Consumer & Creator
Sentiment
Seed
|
$2.4M
Company Description

A money market that maintains undercollateralized debt positions

Deal Commentary

In order to minimize counterparty risk, borrowers never maintain custody of loaned assets and must seek approval from a controller to deploy loaned assets. @sentimentxyz's architecture offers a fresh take on how to make DeFi more capital efficient without credit scores.

Featured Investors
Archetype
Castle Island Ventures
Matrixport
Shine Capital
Yunt Capital
Consumer & Creator
Arpeggi Labs
Seed
|
$5.1M
Company Description

An open-source music studio featuring a decentralized library of sound NFTs

Deal Commentary

@arpeggi_labs faces high barriers to adoption given the respective markets for digital audio workstations (DAWs) and beat marketplaces are mature and @arpeggi_labs's differentiation is unclear beyond its packaging of a DAW and a marketplace for beats in a single platform.

Featured Investors
a16z
1Confirmation
Palm Tree Crew
WndrCo
Audius
Consumer & Creator
Onmeta
Seed
|
$1.5M
Company Description

An API/widget to integrate crypto on/off-ramps

Deal Commentary

Although the market space is crowded, @onmetahq has slimmed down the competition by targeting the India market. In any case, @onmetahq may want to articulate its differentiating factors (e.g. fastest settlement in the market).

Featured Investors
Polygon Funds
Luno Expeditions
Skycatcher Fund
GSF Fund
Sandeep Nailwal
Developer & Enterprise

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