PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD

- BTC ($41,091): +8% / -13%
- ETH ($2,835):  +12% / -24%
- XRP ($0.80): +5% / -5%
- UNI ($9.19): +11% / -47% 
- Crypto Market Cap ($1.8T): +9% / -17%
- BTC Dominance: 42%
- ETH Dominance: 18% 

STABLECOIN MARKET CAP CHANGE: WTD/YTD

- Tether ($81B): +1% / +3%
- USDC ($53B): +1% / +25%

NFT 3M TRADING VOLUMES

THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO

[NOTE:  This week includes some conflicts that I feel I need to disclose. To level set, I started this newsletter back in 2017 for myself and my team as a way to keep up with the happenings in crypto. For a long time I knew every subscriber personally but as this newsletter has grown organically to a few thousand subscribers, I realize that not everyone knows me or what I do. SO, to that end, I am a board member of the Ape Foundation, co-founder of Sixth Wall, and investor at Sound Ventures. All are included in this week's announcements]

- $APE launched this week, as the utility and governance token adopted by the Ape Foundation. The DAO's primary purpose is to "steward the growth and development of the APE ecosystem in a fair and inclusive way". Holders of Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFTs were able to claim $APE and will be able to participate in governance of the foundation. There are currently 5 active DAO proposals that $APE holders can vote on. The foundation appointed 5 board members to provide oversite in the first 6 months, after which the foundation and DAO participants will vote in a board. Link. Twitter Spaces with the DAO board. 

- Yuga Labs, the creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection, dropped a teaser trailer for a new project called Otherside. Followers believe Otherside may be a land-based metaverse per a leaked presentation earlier this week. Link. 

- Sixth Wall and animation studio Toonstar are releasing The Gimmicks next week, a new animated web series on Solana. The show has created a 10k NFT collection that it is giving its users for free. NFT holders get early access to watch the episodes and will use their NFTs to vote on storyline and character arcs after every episode. New episodes will be released every other week. Link. 

- Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed Instagram was working on bringing NFTs to its platform in the coming months. Link. Link. 

- Ethereum wallet MetaMask has over 30 million monthly active users, a 42% increase in the last four months. It is also forming a DAO and intends to launch a token, though further details on either have not been released. Link. 

- ConsenSys, the company behind MetaMask and Infura, raised a $450 million Series D round at a $7 billion valuation led by ParaFi Capital, Microsoft, Softbank, and Sound Ventures. Link. 

- Crypto analytics company Nansen released six new indices for tracking the NFT market, segmenting the market into the "NFT 500" (akin to the S&P 500), the "Blue Chip-10" index (the 10 biggest notable and classic NFT collection by market cap), the "Social-100" (includes pfp NFTs), and others around "Art", "Social", and "Metaverse". The data shows that NFTs are +90.9% YTD when denominated in ETH, and 36% when denominated in USD. This is despite a strong pullback in the broader crypto markets and ETH -24% YTD. Historical data shows that NFTs have a negative correlation with crypto assets (when denominated in crypto), and positive correlation when denominated in USD. Link. Link. 

- Coinbase Wallet now supports Solana (SOL) and Solana-based SPL tokens. Solana NFTs are not yet supported within the wallet. Link. 

- DeFi protocol Aave had its V3 upgrade, which will introduce updates like L2 scaling solutions, gas optimizations, higher borrowing power, risk management tools and new crypto wallet integrations. Aave is the largest protocol by total value locked with $19.4 billion of assets (7% of the market). Link. Aave TVL. 

- Interoperability protocol LayerZero launched its cross-chain DeFi protocol Stargate this week. Stargate will compete with existing multi chain bridge projects like Hop Protocol and Synapse. Blog Post. Link. 

- Magic Eden, the top Solana NFT marketplace, raised a $27 million Series A led by Paradigm. Magic Eden has generated $461 million of trading volume over the past 30 days, compared to $12 million for the next-highest Solana marketplace, Solanart.  Link. 

- There is currently $9.5 billion of assets held in 216 DAO treasuries; 86% of assets are held by DAOs built on ethereum, and the remainder on Solana. 28% of DAOs hold >$10 million in assets and almost 7% hold >$100 million. Link. 

- MoonPay's CEO Ivan Soto-Wright plans to donate his personal $1 million NFT collection to various charitable causes. Link. 

- Ex-Meta employees working on the Diem blockchain have left the company and raised $200 million from a16z, Tiger, and Multicoin at a $1 billion valuation to build a more scalable L1 blockchain. They plan to use parts of the tech built in-house at Meta, and will launch Aptos in Q3 2022. Blog Post. Link. 

- GameStop is launching an NFT marketplace by the end of Q2 2022. Link. 

- The Sandbox announced partnerships with HSBC, Europe's second-largest bank, and Paris Hilton. Animoca Brands will help HSBC develop esports and gaming experiences for its brand partners. Paris Hilton performed a DJ set at SXSW that was streamed in Sandbox's virtual world. Link. 

- Gauntlet, a financial-risk modeling platform for crypto lending, raised a $23.8 million Series B at a $1 billion valuation led by Ribbit Capital. Gaunlet runs algorithms using data from crypto exchanges to help DeFi companies optimize lending and collateral levels. Two of the largest DeFi protocols -- Aave and Compound -- pay $5 million a year for the service. Link.  

- NFT marketplace Rarible now supports NFT assets minted on Polygon. Rarible already supports Ethereum, Tezos, and Flow NFTs. Link. 

- Universal Music Group (UMG) purchased a Bored Ape NFT to serve as the manager of the fictional Bored Ape band, Kingship. Link. NFT. 

- Ethereum scaling solution Optimism raised $150 million Series B at a $1.65 billion valuation, led by Paradigm and Andreessen Horowitz. Optimism has saved its users over $1b in gas fees to date. Blog Post. Link. 

- Samsung and Qualcomm invested in FreedomFi, which makes firmware and hardware to power Helium's token-powered 5G network. FreedomFi's tech allows individual node operators to earn HNT tokens for providing internet service to nearby devices. Link. 

- Coinbooks raised $3.2 million to build accounting software for DAOs. Link. 

- New Jersey legislation is considering banning public officials from accepting NFTs or other virtual currency as gifts in connection to their roles. Link.