Display: CGV Research Author: Cynic Nowadays, Ethereum occupies half of the infrastructure of the blockchain industry, but its dominant position in the mainnet is being challenged by many latecomers. One of the industry consensuses is that multiple chains will coexist in the future, and cross-chain or even full-chain will be the most critical link in the multi-chain ecology. However, cross-chain bridges connecting various blockchain networks are plagued with security issues, and the cross-chain ecosystem seems to be in jeopardy. The emergence of ZK Bridge (a cross-chain bridge using zero-knowledge proof) will effectively solve various defects of the current cross-chain solutions and realize the interconnection of all chains. Heimdallr guards Rainbow Bridge Image source: Klugh, Maria Tales from the Far North (Chicago, IL: A. Flanagan Company, 1909) In Nordic mythology, Heimdall is a mysterious and important god who guards Bifröst, the Rainbow Bridge connecting Asgard to Midgard. If we compare the Rainbow Bridge connecting Asgard and Midgard to the cross-chain bridge, can zero-knowledge proof shoulder the responsibility of guarding cross-chain security and serve a role like the invincible Heimdallr on the Rainbow Bridge? This report presents the comprehensive analysis of the ZK Bridge by the Investment & Research Team of CGV Research, and strives to explore the development potential of zero-knowledge proof in solving cross-chain security issues and removing high-performance bottlenecks. TL; DR — What is ZK Bridge? ZK Bridge is a cross-chain bridge using zero-knowledge proof, with zero-trust, license-free, scalable, and efficient features. — Why do we need ZK Bridge? The current centralization and trust assumption of cross-chain bridges lead to poor security, frequent vulnerabilities, and serious losses; while cross-chain bridges that emphasize security are low in efficiency and high in cost. ZK Bridge can simultaneously maintain security, decentralization, and efficiency. — How to implement ZK Bridge? A light node solution based on ZK-SNARK — Related project introduction: Succinct Labs, zkIBC by Electron Labs, zkBridge by BerkleyRDI. What is a cross-chain bridge? Cross-chain bridge is a technological solution that allows for the transmission of value and information between different blockchain networks. By using a series of crypto and protocol techniques, the cross-chain bridge has realized the safe, verifiable, and trust-free transfer of assets and data, thus promoting interoperability between blockchain networks. Generally speaking, we divide cross-chain bridges into direct asset cross-chain bridges and universal message cross-chain bridges. Why has cross-chain bridge become a target of criticism? As a centralized pool of huge funds, the cross-chain bridge is naturally attractive to hackers — the benefits brought by successful attacks are huge. Besides, security assumptions may differ between chains, the code of assets across chains is more complex and code audits cannot identify all vulnerabilities, thus providing opportunities for hackers who are driven by huge incentives. The specific attack schemes are divided into the following types: Centralized attacks: Some cross-chain bridges rely on centralized relays or validators to transmit and validate transactions. This kind of design may lead to a single point of failure, and attackers can destroy the entire cross-chain system by attacking these centralized components. Economic incentive attacks: Cross-chain bridges usually require setting appropriate economic incentives to ensure the honest acts of validators and relays. However, it is not easy to design appropriate incentive mechanisms, and insufficient or imbalanced incentive designs may cause malicious behaviors or collusive attacks. Double-spend attack: In some cases, attackers may attempt to spend the same asset on the source and target chains, resulting in double spending of the asset. It is necessary to design effective preventive measures for cross-chain bridges to prevent double-spend attacks. Replay attack: Attackers may attempt to replay transactions on the target chain that has already taken place on the source chain to obtain improper benefits. It is necessary to implement transaction validation and anti-replay mechanisms for cross-chain bridges to prevent such attacks. Off-chain coordination attacks: Some implementations of cross-chain bridges rely on off-chain coordination, such as state channels or side chains. Attackers may disrupt the normal operation of cross-chain bridges by disrupting or attacking off-chain coordination. Inter-chain consensus attack: As the cross-chain bridges involve multiple blockchain networks, different networks may adopt different consensus algorithms. Attackers may exploit the weaknesses of inter-chain consensus to launch attacks, such as implementing a 51% attack on a single chain to affect the correctness of cross-chain bridges. Overview of current mainstream cross-chain bridge solutions There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs. — — Thomas Sowell Thomas Sowell (a representative of the Chicago School of Economics) The core cross-chain issue is how to verify the reliability of messages from another chain. Different solutions have been proposed to address this issue, including different levels of trust assumptions. Trust graph of cross-chain bridges Comparison of technical parameters of current mainstream cross-chain solutions The combination of light nodes and relays is the earliest cross-chain solution, represented by BTC Relay, which aims to use Ethereum services by paying Bitcoin. However, due to a large amount of on-chain computing and storage, it is expensive to run on-chain light clients. Moreover, due to the heterogeneity of consensus algorithms and signature algorithms between different chains, the cross-chain solution is not scalable. Therefore, it is necessary to implement the light client and relay for each pair of two specific chains. So far, only IBC on the Cosmos application chain has achieved large-scale on-chain light clients. The success lies in the extremely high-level standardization of Cosmos application chain, and each application chain needs to run the Tendermint consensus and comply with IBC standards. In a multi-chain world with various consensus mechanisms, signature schemes, and virtual machines, it is difficult to verify on-chain light clients. Current mainstream cross-chain projects shift the verification process off-chain to avoid the high cost of on-chain light nodes, causing different levels of trust assumptions and potential fraud risks. The Investment & Research Team of CGV Reserach introduces some of the key solutions according to the level of trust, from high to low. Cross-chain solution 1: Multiple signatures without pledges Typical projects include Multichain, Wormhole, and Ronin Bridge. These all require the implementation of multi-signature and MPC, which require entity verification of transactions and verification (i.e., signature) of their validity. After passing the threshold (often 2/3), the transaction is considered to be validated. In this solution, each entity needs to run the entire node for verification. There is no cost for lies without pledges, but reputational damage caused by dishonesty may lead to greater potential costs. Hence, the verification of nodes is often associated with fixed off-chain identities to increase the cost of doing evil. Multichain’s message verification is guaranteed by the SMPC network, which consists of 24 nodes. Messages signed by more than 2/3 of nodes are considered to pass verification, and SMPC nodes do not need to pledge and are relatively fixed. AnyCall’s security is based on the trust assumptions of SMPC nodes. The trust layer of Wormhole is constructed using the PoA mechanism, with a set of trusted Guardians responsible for verifying inter-chain messages. Guardians are specific entities endorsed by capital and reputation. Currently, Wormhole has 19 Guardians, including well-known large companies such as FTX, Everstake, and Chorus One. Cross-chain solution 2: Oracle and relayer A typical project is LayerZero, which ensures cross-chain security by separating the delivery of messages and proof of message from verifying the delivery transaction of relayer. The core design idea of LayerZero is the separation of oracle and relayer. In LayerZero, relayer is responsible for delivering messages and proof of message, while oracle is responsible for obtaining block headers from the source chain as needed according to the block where the messages are located, and then the terminal on the target chain verifies the transactions delivered by relayer according to the block headers obtained by oracle. As long as the two do not collude, cross-chain security can be guaranteed. It is worth noting that although Layerzero calls its technical solution as Ultra Light Node, the solution is fundamentally different from light client. LayerZero verifies the proof of transaction provided by relayer through the block header provided by oracle. The verification occurs at the end of the target chain and is the native validation. However, the verification of the block header is completed by a third-party oracle network as an external validator, and the verification process occurs off the chain. Cross-chain solution 3: Multiple signatures with pledges On the basis of MPC, a layer of proof of equity has been added. Typical projects include Celer, Axellar, deBridge, Hyperlane, and Thorchain. If evil is committed, the validator’s pledge will be significantly reduced, effectively increasing the validator’s cost of deception in economic terms. A problem that PoS Bridge faces is the imbalance of validators. To alleviate this problem, Axellar adopts the quadratic voting scheme, where the signature weight will be proportional to the square root of the $AXS pledged by the validator; while Hyperlane adopts the “verifiable fraud proof” scheme, where the validators’ joint wrongdoing will be immediately detected and Slash will be executed; pNetwork and Bool Network directly require all nodes to pledge the same number of tokens. Cross-chain solution 4: Optimistic validation The knowledge of game theory is used to increase the risk of users’ evil through the game scenarios between users. Typical projects include Nomad and Synapse. The basic logic of optimistic verification is to set up a group of challengers and a challenge window period based on external verification to challenge incorrect verifications. The validator needs to pledge, and when the behavior is inappropriate, the challenger will challenge and provide proof of fraud. If the challenge is successful, the validator’s pledge will become the challenger’s reward. Nomad has a challenge window period of 30 minutes. In terms of optimistic verification, it requires that at least one challenger is honest and there are economic incentives to challenge. Compared to external verification, this is a smaller trust assumption, under which attackers cannot guarantee the success of attacks, no matter how much economic cost they pay. All traditional cross-chain solutions are mentioned above, but the development of ZKP has brought new solutions to address the dilemma of the safety and efficiency of cross-chain bridges. What is ZK Bridge? ZK Bridge is a cross-chain bridge that employs the zero-knowledge proof, without introducing trust assumptions. It adapts to multiple isomorphic/heterogeneous chains, generates zero-knowledge proof off the chain, and is only responsible for verification on the chain, thus greatly reducing the cost of computing and storage on the chain. It has zero-trust, license-free, scalable, and efficient features. Let’s first provide a basic overview of the principles of light clients. Light clients, also known as light nodes, are often presented in the form of light smart contracts on the chain. The basic principle of the light client is to deploy the light node contract of the source chain on the target chain to verify messages from the source chain. If we want to achieve bidirectional cross-chain, we need to deploy the light node contract of the other chain on both chains. Compared to full nodes, light nodes do not store sequences of complete blocks and only store sequences of block heads. Despite its small size, the block header contains a cryptographic summary of the complete data in the block. When a light node needs to know whether a transaction is included in the chain, it can perform simplified payment verification (SPV) on the transaction through the block header of the block where the transaction is located and the Merkle path of the transaction. In the following figure, the collection of green squares is the Merkle path of blue squares. To maintain the light nodes of the source chain deployed on the target chain, it is necessary for the off-chain agent to continuously synchronize block heads of the source chain with the target chain. The light node contract has no trust assumption for the off-chain agent, which is responsible for synchronizing block heads. Given that the light node performs validation on its synchronized block headers, the off-chain agent cannot deceive the light node. The logic of the light node’s validation of block head is no different from that of the full node and mining node. It is divided into two parts, namely effectiveness validation and finality validation. The Investment & Research Team of CGV Research argues that for the PoW chain, verification of effectiveness mainly refers to verifying the proof-of-work of the block, and the verification of finality is to check whether effective blocks are appended behind the block header (in BTC chains, an append of 6 blocks is generally considered to confirm the finality of a block, while in Ether, an append of 25 blocks is generally considered to confirm the finality of a block). For PoS chains, verification of effectiveness refers to verifying whether a block has been generated by randomly selected blockers, while verification of finality refers to whether the block has been signed by validators with voting weights of more than 2/3. There is no need to perform the verification of the effectiveness of the light nodes of PoS, but it is necessary to verify their finality. Because in the PoS chain, the final block must be valid, while in the PoW chain, it may not be valid. The implementation of ZK Bridge follows almost the same process as the light node and relay solution, with slight changes. In ZK Bridge, the relay off the chain is still required to monitor the source chain and forward the block information of the source chain to the target chain. It not only forwards the block header, but also the proof of validity generated using the ZK-SNARK algorithm. On the target chain, light nodes do not directly verify the effectiveness of transactions based on block headers, but rather verify them on the chain based on proof of validity, thus lowering the computational burden. The implementation roadmap of ZK Bridge Why is ZK Bridge expected to end the cross-chain war? Among the cross-chain bridges that have been deployed and put into use, many of them have suffered serious security attacks, with a huge amount of money stolen, causing large-scale panic at the time. Today, people still hold a skeptical attitude toward the safety of major cross-chain bridges. There is an increasing need for a secure, zero-trust, decentralized cross-chain bridge to lay a solid foundation for a full-chain ecology. Statistics of funds lost and funds returned of some cross-chain protocols in 2022-Image source: DeField（https://defiyield.info/ ) The Investment & Research Team of CGV Research deems that ZK Bridge has brought new solutions to address the dilemma of safety and efficiency of cross-chain bridges. Specifically, by generating a zero-knowledge proof for the block header off the chain, the correctness of the source chain’s block header is verified by the proof generated by the ZK-SNARK algorithm. In this way, no external trust assumptions are added, and the only thing we trust is mathematics. Moreover, the verification process of zero-knowledge proof on the chain significantly lowers the computing and storage costs compared with the original light node verification. Introduction to some projects of ZK Bridge Succinct by Succinct Labs Gnosis Chain Omnibridge is a cross-chain bridge between Ethereum and Gnosis, using the mainstream solution of MPC. Team members of Gnosis want to explore cross-chain designs that do not rely on centralized entities, and Succinct Labs and Gnosis collaborate on this, with Gnosis DAO providing R&D grants. The verification process of Ethereum mainly includes the verification of Merkle proof of block headers; Merkle proof of validators in the sync committee; and the correct rotation of the BLS signatures of the sync committee. The core idea is to use zk-SNARK (Groth16) to generate a proof of validity with constant size, which can be efficiently verified on Gnosis on the chain. Illustration of Succinct cross-chain solution- Image source: Succinct’s official website（ https://www.succinct.xyz/ ) Succinct Labs’ cross-chain solution is capable of transmitting any message between any two Ethereum-compatible PoS chains. Currently, a cross-chain demo has been implemented between Ethereum and Gnosis, and a bridge deposit contract has been deployed on Ethereum to allow users to deposit. The bridge deposit passes a message to the ambient message bridge (AMB), which stores the message in the contract. The operator is responsible for obtaining proof from the sync committee, generating SNARK proof for valid BLS signature verification, and submitting updates to the light clients of Gnosis Chain. On Gnosis Chain, the Ethereum block where the deposit transaction is located is confirmed (usually 2 epochs, about 12 minutes). After the light client is updated to a height higher than or equal to that block, the relayer will automatically submit an executeMessage transaction to Gnosis AMB. The executeMessage transaction contains Merkle storage proof for the updated slot of the light client. During executeMessage, AMB uses the light client to obtain the Ethereum state root of the requested_slot and verify the Merkle storage proof to show that the message has been sent on the other side of AMB. Then, AMB uses the calldata specified in the message to receive the smart contract. Given the maturity of the tech stack and the overhead of on-chain verification, the team chose to use the most mature Circom and the cheapest Groth16 proof system for on-chain verification to generate ZK-SNARKs instead of using the newer and faster PLONK, KZG, or FRI. It is worth noting that although the project has been tested on the testnet, its usability is poor. According to the test by the author, the number of Successs tokens on the Goerli testnet has been reduced after passing through bridges, but the Gnosis network has not received tokens, and the dashboard on the website has no bridge records. It is also important to note that the cross-chain becomes unidirectional. In other words, it can only go from Goerli to Gnosis, not the other way around. zkBridge by BerkleyRDI zkBridge proves the correctness of the block headers of remote blockchains through ZK-SNARKs, therefore it does not introduce any external trust assumptions. In fact, zkBridge is secure as long as the connected blockchains and basic light client protocols are safe, and there is at least one honest node in the block header relay network. Of course, it is worth noting that although one honest node can guarantee security, too many dishonest nodes will significantly reduce the availability of the cross-chain bridge, and the light client will frequently reject the proof and fail to obtain real information. Illustration of zkBridge cross-chain solution-Image source: https://rdi.berkeley.edu/zkp/zkBridge/zkBridge.html Specifically, zkBridge mainly consists of the block header relay network and updater contract. In the block head relay network, the relay retrieves the block head from the sender blockchain C1, generates a block head validity proof, and sends the block head and proof to the updater contract set on the receiver blockchain C2. For the updater contract, once the relevant proof is verified, the corresponding block header of C1 will be stored. Additionally, the updater contract maintains a light client state. Once a new block header is added, the contract updates the light client state just like other light clients on C1, and updates C1’s current main chain. The updater contract also exposes a feature to the application, through which the application on C2 can obtain block headers of a given height on C1. After obtaining the information regarding block header, the application can perform more validations (such as specific transactions) and build its applications. To make the underlying zk-SNARK system compatible with on-chain usage, it is necessary to quickly generate proof and reduce the cost of on-chain proof verification. The main innovations of zkBridge include: DeVirgo: It adopts the distributed method to generate ZK-SNARK without trust assumptions. Besides, it significantly increases the time for generating ZK-SNARK off the chain by splitting the computational work and allocating it to more devices. Recursive proof: To reduce on-chain costs, zkBridge uses recursive proof to compress the volume of ZK-SNARK to around 131 bytes through two iterations. The first step is to generate the deVirgo proof, and the second step is to use the Groth16 proof generator for compression. The Groth16 validator generates and executes a proof of integrity for the deVirgo circuit. Batch processing: zkBridge implements an update contract for block headers, which takes block height as input and returns the corresponding block header. But zkBridge does not call the update contract when the new block is generated. The prover can first collect N block headers to generate a single proof. The N value can be set. The larger the N value is, the longer the user waits, but the lower the system operating cost. At present, zkBridge has implemented an instance of Cosmos Client on Ethereum using Solidity. According to testing, it can generate a ZK-SNARK of Cosmos Zone block header within 2 minutes. Then, on the Ethereum side, the verification cost is a constant of 230k gas per hour. By comparison, if ZK-SNARK is not used, the cost will be 64 million gas. It should be noted that relay network computing will suffer from the same communication complexity as MPC, which will seriously affect the time for proof. The communication complexity of the GKR multi-layer sum-check protocol is O (N log2 (number of signatures), where N machines are in the relay network. Even if there are 32 machines in the relay network with 32 signatures, it may cause numerous communicating sequential processes in the network, which damages the performance of distributed computing. zkIBC by Electron Labs Specifically, zkIBC hopes to simulate the trustless communication protocol — Inter Blockchain Communication Protocol (IBC) used in Cosmos, and expand its use to Ethereum. ZkIBC uses ZK-SNARKs to verify the light client state, quickly prove transactions on Ethereum, and keep up with the block generation time of the Tendermint. The main difficulty is that the Tendermint light client used in the Cosmos SDK runs on the Ed25519 curve, which is not supported by Ethereum. Besides, it is expensive and inefficient to verify Ed25519 signatures on Ethereum’s BN254 curve. The project roadmap is divided into five stages: research — implementation of ed25519 signature scheme — testnet — implementation of recursive Snark to reduce redundancy — mainnet. On February 2, 2023, the Positron testnet was officially launched to the public, supporting the cross-chain communication between Near and Ethereum. The current testnet requires approximately 20–30 minutes to achieve finality, including Goerli network finality (15–20 minutes), ZK Proof generation (5–8 minutes), and Near chain casting (10–20 seconds). The project claims to be completely open source, tested, smooth to use across chains, well-designed UI/UX, and supports bidirectional cross-chain. Reflections At a certain stage of development, blockchain technology usually evolves into a philosophy of trade-offs. The public chain suffers from the trilemma in terms of security, scalability, and decentralization; the cross-chain communication faces the dilemma of security and efficiency: the pursuit of efficiency leads to the introduction of third-party trust assumptions, resulting in security damage; while the pursuit of security by using the completely light node and relay causes high on-chain overhead. But, from the point of view of system design, even the unpledged MPC with the highest degree of trust can ensure the security of cross-chain bridges in most cases. The reason why many cross-chain bridges were stolen is due to the pursuit of transparency and open source code. The hidden vulnerabilities in complex code provide hackers with opportunities to exploit them. CGV Research holds that with the continuous progress of technology, the usability of ZK solution gradually increases, ZK Rollup is expected to be put into large-scale use in the second half of 2023, and ZK Bridge is also in the ascendant. We hope that the maturity of ZK Bridge can break the dilemma of security and efficiency faced by cross-chains, to realize the interconnection of all chains. References: 1. zkBridge: Trustless Cross-chain Bridges Made Practical（https://rdi.berkeley.edu/zkp/zkBridge/zkBridge.html） 2. Bridging the Multichain Universe with Zero Knowledge Proofs（https://medium.com/@ingonyama/bridging-the-multichain-universe-with-zero-knowledge-proofs-6157464fbc86） 3. Exploring ZK Bridges（https://zkvalidator.com/exploring-zk-bridges/） 4. Overall Comparison Between Multiple Blockchains（https://dune.com/springzhang/cross-blockchain-comparison-overview） Disclaimer: The information and materials presented herein are from public sources and the Company makes no warranty as to their accuracy or completeness. Any descriptions or projections of future conditions are forward-looking statements, any recommendations and opinions are for reference only and do not constitute investment advice or implication to anyone. The strategies that the Company may adopt may be the same, opposite, or unrelated to those that readers speculate based on this report. About Cryptogram Venture (CGV): Cryptogram Venture (CGV) is a Japan-based, fully compliant crypto industry research and investment institution. With a business orientation of “research-driven investment,” it has participated in early investments in FTX, Republic, CasperLabs, AlchemyPay, The Graph, Bitkeep, Pocket, and Powerpool, as well as the Japanese government-regulated yen stablecoin JPYW. At the same time, CGV FoF is an LP for funds such as Huobi Venture, Rocktree Capital, and Kirin Fund. It has established Web3 hackathons and industry summits as brand events under its umbrella. From July to October 2022, it initiated Japan’s first Web3 Hackathon (TWSH), which received joint support from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Keio University, SONY, SoftBank, and other institutions and experts. CGV has branches in Singapore, Canada, and Hong Kong.

From last week’s investment and financing data (13 projects in total), the main investment directions include Web3 infrastructure (6), Game (4), DeFi (2), NFT (1), and Metaverse (1). Among them, Web3 infrastructure projects are favored by crypto-investors, with investments from well-known companies such as PayPal Ventures, Galaxy Digital, Coinbase, Uniswap, etc.; game projects are also in the spotlight, such as Azra Games and Kratos, both of which have received investments from well-known VCs. Finance, which addresses impairment losses in liquidity provision and offers diversification and yield; the NFT project NeoSwap AI and the Metaverse project Worldwide Webb, which have also received investments, respectively. CGV summarizes a week of significant investment and funding information in the crypto market, from February 20, 2023, to February 26, 2023, in the global crypto market. [Infrastructure] 1. Chaos Labs | Seed round financing of $20 million | Led by Galaxy Digital On February 21, Chaos Labs, a blockchain security agency, announced the closing of a $20 million seed round led by PayPal Ventures and Galaxy Digital, with participation from Coinbase, Uniswap, Lightspeed, Bessemer, and angel investors including Balaji Srinivasan and Naval Ravikant, among other angel investors. 2. Intu | Pre-Seed round financing of $2 million | Participated by Fantom Foundation, etc. On February 21, Intu, the Web3 decentralized account management protocol, announced the closing of a $2 million Pre-Seed round with participation from CoinFund, Metaweb Ventures, Fantom Foundation and others. 3. iBLOXX | Financing of $5 million | Led by PrimeXM On February 23rd, iBLOXX, a Web3 incubator and market maker, announced the closing of a $5 million funding round led by PrimeXM, which will be used to expand the company’s game development division, iBLOXX Studios, bringing the post-investment valuation of its game division to $30 million. 4. Chain Reaction | Financing of $70 million | Led by Morgan Creek Digital On February 23rd, Chain Reaction, an Israeli blockchain chip startup, closed a $70 million funding round led by Morgan Creek Digital. 5. OneKey | A+ round financing of $85 million | Led by IOSG Ventures On February 23, OneKey, a hardware wallet company, announced the closing of its Series A+ funding round at a valuation of $85 million, led by IOSG Ventures. [Game] 6. Azra Games | Seed round financing of $10 million | Led by a16z On February 21, Azra Games, a gaming company, announced closing an additional $10 million seed round led by a16z through its $600 million gaming fund, GAMES FUND ONE, with participation from NFX, Coinbase Ventures, Play Ventures, and Franklin Templeton. 7. Kratos | Seed round financing of $20 million | Led by Accel On February 23rd, Kratos, an Indian Web3 game company, closed a $20 million seed round led by Accel, with participation from Prosus Ventures, Courtside Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, and Nazara Technologies, at a valuation of $150 million. And Nazara Technologies. [DeFi] 8. Affine | Financing of $5.1 million | Led by Jump Crypto On February 23rd, Affine Protocol, a DeFi yield protocol, closed $5.1 million in funding led by Jump Crypto and Hack VC, with participation from Circle Ventures and Coinbase Ventures. 9. Tsunami.Finance | Pre-seed round financing of $1.3 million | Led by Big Brain Holdings On Feb. 24, Aptos ecosystem derivative protocol Tsunami. Finance completed a $1.3 million Pre-seed round of financing, led by Big Brain Holdings and Mirana, with participation from Zeta Markets, Hedge Labs, Pontem, Brilliance Ventures, BuilderVC, Marin Digital Ventures, Soju, Switchboardxyz, Coral DeFi, RNR Capital, Aptos Monkeys, and Time Research. 10. Huma Finance | Seed round financing of $8.3 million | Participated by Race Capital, etc. On February 24, Huma Finance, a DeFi project, announced the closing of an $8.3 million seed round with participation from Race Capital, Distributed Global, ParaFi, Circle Ventures and Folius Ventures, and launch partners including Circle, Request Network and Superfluid. [NFT] 11. NeoSwap AI | Financing of $2 million | Led by DACM and AngelHub On February 25, NeoSwap AI, an NFT trading platform, closed a $2 million Pre-Seed round of funding at a valuation of $15 million, led by DACM and AngelHub, with participation from Gossamer Capital, Cavalry Asset Management, Stacks Ventures, Dhuna Ventures, and several angel investors. [Metaverse] 12. Worldwide Webb | A round financing of $10 million | Invested by Pantera Capital On Feb. 23, pixelated metaverse Worldwide Webb completed a $10 million A round of financing, with Pantera Capital as its only investor. The funds will be used to enhance Worldwide Webb’s influence, expand its team, and integrate other chains besides Ethereum. [Web3 Applications] 13. Towns | A round financing of $25.5 million | Led by a16z On February 23, Towns, a Web3 social app, closed a $25.5 million funding round led by a16z with participation from Benchmark, Framework Ventures and others. towns takes the town square idea and combines community, NFT, and gaming. About Cryptogram Venture (CGV): CGVCGV FoFCryptogram Venture (CGV) is a Japan-based research and investment institution engaged in crypto. With the business philosophy of “research-driven investment,” it has participated in early investments in FTX, Republic, CasperLabs, AlchemyPay, Graph, Bitkeep, Pocket, and Powerpool, as well as the Japanese government-regulated yen stablecoin JPYW, etc. Meanwhile, CGV FoF is the limited partner of Huobi venture, Rocktree capital, Kirin fund, etc. From July to October 2022, it launched the first TWSH in Japan, which was jointly supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Keio University, SONY, SoftBank, and other institutions and experts. Currently, CGV has branches in Singapore, Canada, and Hongkong.

2022 is a highly unusual year for the crypto industry. With the collapse of Luna/UST as the starting point, prominent institutional participants such as 3AC and FTX have taken a heavy toll one after another and coupled with the severe macro-financial environment “deleveraging” impact. The crypto industry has suffered a long cold winter. However, many investment institutions are still unswervingly optimistic about the application prospects of crypto and Web3. With a long-term vision, they actively carry out business layouts “countercyclically.” As a research and investment institution in the crypto and Web3 industry with compliance qualifications approved by Japan, Cryptogram Venture (CGV) has always adhered to the research-driven investment” business orientation. Since its inception, CGV has taken advantage of its location and business hub in Japan to explore and help more innovative crypto projects across the world by actively participating in extensive research in the primary crypto market, organizing the first Web3 hackathon in Japan (web3hackathon.io), and delivering high-quality industry research reports (cgv.fund/blog). Since 2020, we have witnessed the rise of DeFi, the emergence of NFTs, the popularity of GameFi, the nationwide pursuit of Metaverse, the implementation of Layer 2, the madness of the new public chain, etc. These narratives in different fields facilitate the national quest for encryption. According to Steve Chiu, founder of CGV, “It is crucial for crypto practitioners to discover and anticipate the new narrative of the future to make response and layout in advance.” It is precisely based on the professional trend research and accurate cycle prediction of the encryption industry that CGV has successfully participated in the early stages of projects such as Republic, CasperLabs, AlchemyPay, The Graph, Bitkeep, Pocket, and Powerpool, as well as the yen stable currency JPYW under the supervision of the Japanese government. Invest and get rich investment returns. In 2022, CGV invested in dozens of crypto projects and made extensive layouts in critical fields such as Metaverse, games, and NFT. Typical projects include: Metaverse field l SkyArk Chronicles: a multi-Metaverse inspired by Japanese anime. It develops the story around the fantasy world created by Satoshi Nakamoto. It has monsters and heroes in fantasy and urban areas to immerse players in the fantasy game world, such as Legends Arise, House of Heroes, and Re: SkyArkVerse. l SecondLive: it builds a center for Metaverse residents, where more than 1 million users gather to express their views, give full play to their creativity, build a parallel universe in their dreams, and establish a Web3 open Metaverse that serves 1 billion people with the content generated by UGC and AI. l HALO: it cooperates with 3D artist communities to realize the value exchange with the natural world through the original economic system and brand effect. In HALO, characters are static images and avatars of ourselves in the virtual world, connecting the virtual world with the real one. Game field l Avalon: an MMORPG Metaverse game involving P2E (play to earn) economic model and content creation tools. l PIAS: an agriculture-based simulation game with the theme of the human renaissance. It integrates digital and physical elements and can exchange the in-game items (NFT) obtained by players through the game for crops in the real world. l Bedlam: an electronic sports game center, a platform for creating and hosting personal game identities (performance statistics and content) for Web3 games. Users can participate in leagues or tournaments and follow their favorite teams. l Orbler: a tower defense game driven by P2E (play-to-earn) model that requires clever thinking and planning to achieve victory. Players become Orblers, defend personal areas, and fight with enemies using orbs. l Mechaverse War: a mecha game from Japan. It is committed to building the world’s first real-time strategic mecha game platform. The cultural background of modern Japanese mecha anime and ancient samurai armor inspires the project. NFT field l UneMeta: a leading NFT incubation platform, trading market, and social space. It is committed to creating a safer, more convenient, and better NFT participant experience for NFT players, with numerous high-quality IP resources, mature NFT operation mode, and solid technology and community infrastructure. l BBC Protocol: a computing power service platform integrating Bitcoin computing power distribution and Bitcoin multiple financial derivatives. It aims to build the next computing power Metaverse with NFTs. It cooperates with many large Bitcoin mining pools, mining machine manufacturers, mining plants, and power suppliers worldwide to provide users with systematic BTC mining and financial derivatives value-added services. l Multiverse Play: a decentralized NFT post-investment management platform that connects users and assets of Web3, including players, NFT holders, guilds, and developers. Additionally, it provides them with intelligent matching, task scheduling, asset management, and high liquidity. Infrastructure field l Celestia: the first modular blockchain network with pluggable consensus and data availability layer. It enables anyone to quickly deploy a decentralized blockchain without the expense of bootstrapping a new consensus network. “After the shakeout in 2022, the future crypto digital asset market will gradually undergo the transition from ‘wild growth’ without the need for permits to ‘rational prosperity’ with regulatory compliance”, said Steve Chiu. In 2023, CGV will constantly explore popular Web3 fields such as Blockchain Infrastructure, Metaverse, NFT, DAO, SocialFi, GameFi, and DeFi. Additionally, CGV will pay constant attention to innovative trends such as wallet infrastructure, innovative stablecoins, Web3 mobile products, zero-knowledge proof, soulbound tokens, and fully on-chain games to help more outstanding projects have a smooth start and achieve sustainable growth and development. Cryptogram Venture (CGV) is a Japan-based research and investment institution engaged in the crypto industry. With the business philosophy of “research-driven investment,” it has participated in early investments in Republic, CasperLabs, AlchemyPay, the Graph, Bitkeep, Pocket, and Powerpool, as well as the Japanese government-regulated yen stablecoin JPYW, etc. Meanwhile, CGV FoF is the limited partner of Huobi venture, Rocktree capital, Kirin fund, etc. From July to October 2022, it launched the first Tokyo Web3 Summer Hackathon (TWSH) in Japan, jointly supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Keio University, SONY, SoftBank, and other institutions and experts. CGV has branches in Singapore, Canada, and the Chinese mainland. Website: https://www.cgv.fund/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/CGVFOF Project contact: Yurinatyou@cgv.fund

Shigeru, CGV Research Nowadays, Web3 is no longer an armchair theory or an Internet buzzword. It is perceived by many people as the technological revolution that subverts the Internet. However, looking around the world, few Web3 applications have a host of users. Probably the only renowned Web3 application with the most users is Bitcoin. — Jack Dorsey, a former Web3 advocate and Twitter founder who converted the first tweet into NFT, claimed that “You don’t own web3. The VCs and their LPs (limited partners) do. It will never escape their incentives.”; — Moxie Marlinspike, founder of Signal, an encryption communication application, discovered that Web3 may be a false proposition, after developing two DApps; — PandaDAO, which raised 1900ETH, started the dissolution process less than one year after its founding, just because “the core work of the community is to vote, and there is no time to do other things”… Currently, it is fair to say that the world of Web2 is definitely better than that of Web1. Many people wonder if the world of Web3 is better than that of Web2. It makes no sense without users. The natural selection of users determines the prosperity of the Web3 world or not. In the Web2 world, Facebook has more than 3 billion global users, YouTube and WhatsApp have more than 2 billion users, and WeChat and Tik Tok have more than 1 billion users. According to the data of TripleA, a cryptocurrency payment company, there were more than 320 million users of cryptocurrency and Web3 worldwide in 2022, which was about 4.2% of the global population. If we compare the current user volume of Web3 with that of the Internet, we can find that the current development stage of Web3 is roughly equivalent to the Internet in the late 1990s. Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) predicted that Web3 might have 1 billion users in a short time. So, what are the areas in which applications will attract billion of Web3 users? Stay away from “pseudo-Web3 applications” dressed in Web3 Discard the false and retain the true. Not all so-called Web3 applications are authentic. In the field of GameFi, there are many “pseudo-Web3 applications”. Literally speaking, GameFi, consists of two parts, namely game, and finance. In a nutshell, it means that game players earn cryptocurrency by playing games. Famous GameFi games such as Axis Infinity, DeFi Kingdoms, etc., fail to impress 3 billion game players around the world, and gradually move towards a death spiral with the recession of the encryption market. Taking Axie Infinity as an example, since 2021, by allowing players to “Play-to-Earn”, it has been advocating that “blockchain games can promote a fairer global economy and provide people around the world with more opportunities”, which has been favored by the market. However, 14 months later, most people stopped playing the game. They generally felt angry, and anxious. Some even lost thousands of dollars. A healthy GameFi project has a well-established ecological mechanism of internal and external circulation, such as obtaining external benefits through commercial cooperation. As for the GameFi projects that rely on the Ponzi model for user growth, the income earned by early users comes from the principal invested by late users. If the income of the project cannot keep up with the growth rate of the debt, the collapse is only a matter of time. Similar problems exist in the field of NFT, which is dominated by avatars and profile pictures (PFP). In the past, PFP was almost synonymous with NFT. When mentioning NFT, you may think of the boring ape head that costs several million dollars a piece. However, without functional support, effective incentives, and healthy circulation of the creator economy, the vast majority of PFP projects have little value, and they only seek the recognition of a group of users to support their value. Compared with the market peak at the beginning of 2022, the overall transaction volume of the NFT market has dropped by more than 90%, the mainstream PFP projects have dropped by 60–70%, and other projects are even more miserable. The same is true of the once-popular Metaverse projects. Compared to Roblox’s 202M monthly active users, Minecraft’s 141M monthly active users, Sandbox and Decentraland only have 200k and 56k monthly active users, respectively. It seems that Decentraland and Sandbox are overvalued. It can be said that in addition to the above fields, there are a large number of “pseudo-Web3 applications” in DeFi, DID, DAO, Sociafi, and other fields. They may be the products of the capital bubble or the historical heritage of the technological growth cycle, which cover up the true value of Web3 applications. It’s time for us to seek the value essence of Web3 From the perspective of the first principles, let’s explore the essence of Web3 to gain insight into its next development direction. Web3 is generally regarded as the industry form closest to “value Internet”. In fact, Web3 is not a simple upgrade based on Web1 and Web2. Its core is to build a new network with decentralization, value co-creation, and distribution according to the contribution, thus giving users real data autonomy. So, how should we define “Web3 application”? Based on the views of the industry, CGV Research team reckons that the Web3 application is based on blockchain technology, takes Token as a tool or medium, and addresses users’ actual needs as the starting point to support users’ interactive operations, thus realizing the creation, distribution, and circulation of value. Obviously, the Web3 application is not a panacea for all issues, nor is it suitable for any scenario. If you develop a Web3 application to cater to the trend of Web3, it will be in vain. What are Web3 applications suitable for and not suitable for? This is a question that should be on the minds of anyone investing in Web3. I quite agree with Alex Xu of Mint Ventures that the underlying value of Web3 lies in its unlicensed and global nature, providing a free market with unprecedented scale and boundaries. The open source of code and the verifiability of data offer a lower cost of trust in this unprecedented and prosperous free market. Therefore, “liberty” and “trust” are the core advantages and essential values of Web3. In terms of Liberty, it includes the free combination and migration of assets, agreements, identities, product matrices, intellectual property, and other fields; with respect to trust, based on the tamper-proof, transparent and open characteristics of blockchain technology, Web3 has established a new trust relationship different from the traditional trust that relies on justice, violent authority, customs, and culture. If a Web3 application suitable for a business scenario is not well designed in terms of “Liberty” and “trust” and has no business planning, it will encounter major challenges in future operations. For example, projects that transfer real assets on the chain (such as synthetic assets, STO, etc.) do not get rid of the original credit system (based on the law, government’s asset identification), so it does work well in Web3 field; as for crypto native Web3 assets, their business flows can all be operated on the chain, which has the dual advantages of Liberty and trust. In addition to giving full play to Web3’s advantages of “Liberty” and “trust”, the ability to have basic business logic ensures the sustainable operation of Web3 projects. Looking back at StepN, a phenomenal Web3 application in 2022, although its attempts to solve various issues related to product growth, IPO fundraising and corporate governance with a set of X-to-earn economic models deserve some credit, it encountered a tremendous recession in the later stage. The biggest issue of StepN is similar to that of GameFi mentioned above, that is, the project’s business model is not sound and does not create much extra-ecological value. It turns forward debt (NFT sales revenue) into cash proceeds, weakening the value creation ability of the project. Therefore, the CGV Research team argues that the success of Web3 applications lies in the digital elements of “Liberty” and “trust”, and the verifiability of business logic, which are indispensable. In this regard, the team proposes the “Unicorn Growth Index” of Web3 applications: Six types of Web3 projects that have the potential to grow into “unicorns” 1.Mobile crypto digital wallet Liberty index: ☆☆☆☆ Trust index: ☆☆☆☆ Business model verifiable index: ☆☆☆☆☆ Web3 Unicorn growth index: ☆☆☆☆☆ The crypto digital wallet has two attributes, namely asset account, and identity symbol. The first step for users to access the Web3 world is to create a crypto digital wallet. Whether it is to create an account in a centralized exchange, register a decentralized wallet or purchase a hardware wallet, users need a wallet to access Web3. In 2009, Bitcoin enabled the existing asymmetric key pair technology to be used to write to the public database, thus creating the first “crypto wallet”; In 2016, MetaMask was officially launched, which opened the door to dApps. It is unlike previous wallets and platforms that focused on interacting with crypto assets such as Bitcoin. Number of global wallet users from November 2011 to July 11, 2022 (Unit: million) Data source: https://www.statista.com With the development of crypto assets, wallets have undergone changes in different stages: from single-asset wallets and single-chain wallets to multi-chain multi-asset wallets, from single transfer and collection to blockchain ecological aggregation service platform, which generates mobile wallets, public-chain ecological wallets, transaction platform wallets, asset custody wallets, hardware wallets, identity wallets, and other sub-tracks. In addition to the traditional business model of attracting users and developing the fund deposit function, crypto wallets provide value-added services (wealth management products, PoS mining, trading, asset aggregation, market information, etc.), as well as advertising and other ways to increase revenues. We are optimistic about the development of mobile crypto wallets and have the opportunity to become the data flow and distribution platform of Web3 applications, which will ultimately promote the paradigm shift of the entire Web3 track from “wealth creation effect” to “daily application”. Mobile crypto digital wallets worth attention include: Metamask: (@MetaMask) 30+ million monthly active users. Lightweight Ethereum open-source wallet is also a kind of APP wallet; It has the function of testing Ethereum smart contract and supporting the most complete Dapp; it can be compatible with hardware wallets such as Ledger and Trezor. TrustWallet: (@TrustWallet) an unmanaged mobile multi-chain crypto wallet that has more than 58 million users and supports more than 8 million tokens and various gateways to thousands of Web3 dApps. BitKeep: (@BitKeepOS) 8 million users worldwide, the largest Web3 multi-chain wallet in the Asian market, adopts various security mechanisms such as hot and cold separation, offline signature, and supports 80+ mainnets, one-click cross-chain transactions, and other functions. 2. “Play-and-Earn” game Liberty index: ☆☆☆☆ Trust index: ☆☆☆☆☆ Business model verifiable index: ☆☆☆☆☆ Web3 Unicorn growth index: ☆☆☆☆☆ Just like the importance of games to the Internet economy, crypto games have been regarded as the optimum driving force for the growth of users of the Web3 ecosystem. Although crypto games have a huge potential market, it is not interesting for most players. Currently, GameFi or P2E (Play-to-Earn) is the most common crypto game. Their biggest advantage is to offer players the opportunity to earn money. But the simple incentive to make money through play is not necessarily a sustainable model. If the cycle is extended to half a year or longer, you will find no successful practice project. To play Web3 games, we still have to respect the game attributes and pay attention to the fun, which is the real value. As the market fever wanes and user interest shifts, Web3 games have a new trend of Play-and-Earn. On the one hand, Web3 games draw on the Free-to-Earn model of traditional games, so that everyone can participate for free and some players can make money; On the other hand, Web3 games create complete on-chain games and autonomous worlds. The core logic of games is on the chain, and they will adopt the open architecture, autonomous existence, and combination in the future. Unfortunately, the typical representative of the “Play and Earn” game has not yet appeared. Who will be the next Axis Infinity and StepN needs to be tested by history. While games are still exploring how to strike a balance between the entertainment experience and the financial incentives, the capital is betting on the market. In May 2022, a16z launched a $600 million fund dedicated to investing in Web3 gaming startups, mainly in three areas: game studios, consumer applications that support the player community (take Discord for example), and game infrastructure providers. Superficially, the three fields are scattered, they only have one goal, to create real Web3 games. It is worth noting that the next generation of “Play-and-Earn” games, projects related to Web3 game industry, may be created by them: TreatureDAO: (@Treasure_DAO) a decentralized game platform and distribution platform that meets the needs of independent developers through perfect infrastructure and ecology, and forms an economy by accumulating players’ activity content. Currently, it is the №1 game and NFT ecosystem on Arbitrum, with more than 100,000 players. SkyArk Studio: (@SkyarkS) an AAA blockchain game studio, which launched on-chain and asset-only series of games such as SkyArk Chronicles, as well as the exclusively developed NFT game engine. The engine allows NFT to be interoperable, editable, and evolvable, and helps players use NFTs in different games with different gameplays. Bedlam: an electronic sports game center, a platform for creating and hosting personal game identities (performance statistics and content) for Web3 games. Users can participate in leagues or tournaments and follow their favorite teams. 3.Phydigital application Liberty index: ☆☆☆ Trust index: ☆☆☆☆ Business model verifiable index: ☆☆☆☆ Web3 Unicorn growth index: ☆☆☆☆ In terms of crypto native and Web2 brands in fashion and entertainment, Web3 offers opportunities to bring digital and real-world objects and experiences to their audiences. The new popular pairing of the physical world and the digital world has coined a new term “phydigital”. “Phydigital” (“Physical” plus “Digital”) integrates physical environment or physical objects and digital or online technology-driven experience. It was first proposed by Momentum, an Australian marketing agency, in 2013. We reckon that, in a broader sense, physical projects with digital performance and digital projects that affect the physical environment or physical objects can be taken as phydigital applications. They represent a broad category of Web3, enabling blockchain developers to figure out new approaches that combine the physical and digital worlds. In 2022, Tiffany, a luxury jewelry company, launched “NFTiffs” to the holders of CryptoPunks, with a physical version of the diamond pendant. 250 NFTiffs sold out within 20 minutes after their debut and created $12.5 million of revenue for the company. The creation of this “phygital” project is an innovative business attempt by luxury goods to Web3. In December 2021, NIKE announced the acquisition of RTFKT, a virtual fashion brand, and regarded it as the fourth largest independent brand in addition to Nike, Jordan, and Converse. It can be seen that Nike has raised NFT construction to the level of brand strategy. RTFKT is building a physical shoe, which employs Nike’s electronic shoelace Adapt technology. Consumers can exchange corresponding physical shoes after purchasing virtual ones. NBA Top Shot is a blockchain collection game jointly created by NBA, NBPA, and Dapper Labs. It aims to turn the highlight moments of NBA games into tradable digital game cards. In other words, the paper card exchange that fans used to need to do offline can take place anywhere, anytime online. In addition to the above FMCG and luxury goods, the physical card business of the financial category is trying to connect with Web3. Visa and Mastercard jointly develop cryptocurrency debit cards with different Web3 companies. For example, Blockchain.com will cooperate with Visa to launch a debit card, which is associated with the client’s crypto account. There are no fees for the transactions of this debit card and users can get 1% cryptocurrency cashback. By integrating the physical and the digital world, phydigital drops are no longer used to buy items for display, but to produce more things by combining various parts of the real world and the virtual world to create unique experiences. In the initial stage, phygital products integrate physical and virtual products. With the convenience of social sharing and DIY derived from virtual products, we can get a glimpse of the great potential generated by the combination of phygital and Web3. At present, the providers of phydigital application solutions that deserve attention include: RTFKT Studios: (@RTFKT) it adopts the latest game engine, NFT, blockchain certification, and augmented reality, and applies manufacturing expertise to create unique sneakers and digital artifacts. Dapper Labs:（@dapperlabs）it is the company behind the well-known projects CryptoKitties, NBA Top Shot, NFL All Day, UFC Strike, and Flow blockchain. It uses blockchain technology to develop NFT and new forms of digital engagement for fans around the world, paving the way for a more open and inclusive world that starts with games and entertainment. 4.Web3 growth stack application Liberty index: ☆☆☆ Trust index: ☆☆☆☆ Business model verifiable index: ☆☆☆☆☆ Web3 Unicorn growth index: ☆☆☆☆ Web2 embraces Web3, which will facilitate the breakthrough in Web3 and attract huge incremental users. According to statistics, 43 of the top 100 brands in the world, including Starbucks and others, are testing the alternative use cases of Web3 and NFTs. Major Brand Flagship NFT Collection Launches Source: Messari Shayon Sengupta of Multicoin Capital first proposed the concept of “Web3 Growth Stack”, that is, product managers and marketing personnel use Web3 technology to build tools to acquire, attract and retain clients. The great advantage of Web3 Growth Stack is the ability to tightly couple in-application events with on-chain payments. Web2 products cannot deliver value to users in real time, but Web3 products can and may even fundamentally expand the design space for growth tools and advertising models. Previously, Starbucks announced the launch of the Starbucks Odyssey, an NFT membership program. Consumers can participate in Odyssey series of travel activities, mainly including interactive games and fun challenges. After completion, consumers will receive a collectable Digital Journey Medal (NFT) as the reward. The Digital Journey Medal can be traded as NFTs, upgrading participate-to-ear to collect-to-earn and improving user stickiness and repurchase; Starbucks members have NFTs, which means that the data is uploaded on the chain. Other brands (cooperative or competitive brands) can perform various airdrops for these members, which has evolved into airdrop-to-ear. The more active the members are, the more NFTs they have, the more airdrops they will get, and the stickiness and repurchase of users will be improved. The essence behind the Starbucks NFT membership program is to follow the user-centered philosophy, where users take back data ownership and gain more value. Now, more commercial brands are paying close attention to how Starbucks develops and practices in the future; If it works, we will see the great enthusiasm of major brands for the release of the NFT reward points system. Starbucks has 27.4 million members, Nike has more than 300 million members, and Pizza Hut has more than 80 million members… These brands use the “Web3 Growth Stack” to transform Web3, which may be the fastest way to create Web3 applications with one billion users. “Web3 Growth Stack” applications that deserve special attention include: Blackbird: (@blackbird_xyz) a Web3 platform specially designed for the tourism and hotel catering industry. It is committed to establishing direct links between restaurants and guests through loyalty and membership services. It integrates loyalty and member-related products to provide rewards for dining frequency, consumption, etc. Layer Infinity: (@RensOriginal) a Web3 platform established by e-commerce brands. It helps traditional consumer brands easily migrate to Web3, and release NFTs compatible with the Metaverse, which can be bound with physical products. In addition to tracking the authenticity of products and exchanging physical objects, each NFT can be linked to various practical NFTs. 5.Web3 social application Liberty index: ☆☆☆ Trust index: ☆☆☆☆ Business model verifiable index: ☆☆☆☆☆ Web3 Unicorn growth index: ☆☆☆☆ The social platform has a large number of users, portraits, and behavior data, which contains the huge business value. The most valuable Internet products in the world of Web2 are best illustrated by the valuations of giants like Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, etc. According to Metcalfe’s law, the value of a social network is proportional to the square of the number of users. The more users, the greater the value of social platforms, and then the user growth curve explodes at a single point. Diagram of Metcalfe’s law Source: MicroFinTech: Expanding Financial Inclusion with Cost-Cutting Innovation Therefore, the pain point of innovation in social projects is that it is “easy to defend but difficult to attack”. Once a user network is established through a certain paradigm, it is impossible for the latecomers to surpass it. For the social platform in the Web3 era, the decentralized technology based on the blockchain makes the user’s creative content, social relationship data, identity, and reputation achieve decentralization and composability. People will have absolute control over their social data, thus forming a user-centered social network. However, the development of Web3 social applications is still at an infant stage. Web 3 products cannot support the billion-level daily user volume of Facebook, WeChat; Web 3.0 products have a higher threshold, but their product experience is poorer than Web2 products. Besides, most Web3 social products only meet the on-chain social and financial needs of crypto native users. Products that meet on-chain and off-chain social and financial needs may stand out in the future. After all, social is more than just online data interaction. It should be linked to video entertainment, games, music, fitness, and other aspects of our lives. CGV Research believes that the key characteristics of the next generation of Web3 social applications should include: 1) the cost acceptable to the user; 2) The product experience close to or better than Web 2, and lower threshold for use; 3) cost acceptable to the user data synchronization (both on-chain and off-chain can be integrated); 4) design continuous incentive mechanism through tokens or NFTs; 5) mature community vitality, high user activity, and stickiness. Overall, social applications are the most promising but the most difficult field for Web3 applications. How to expand infrastructure and implement a sustainable economic model is the current focus and pain point. For the Web3 social applications, we need to take a longer view. Web3 social applications worthy of attention include: Lens Protocol: (@LensProtocol) an open and composable Web3 social media protocol that allows anyone to create unmanaged social media materials and build new social media applications. Users are free to develop and own the content they create by owning the corresponding NFTs. Mask Network: (@realMaskNetwork) a portal that helps users transfer from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0. It integrates privacy and social networking, a cross-border payment network, decentralized file storage and sharing, decentralized finance, and governance (DAO). It allows users to encrypt their messages on social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook. Besides, it has the functions of sending and receiving cryptocurrency red packets, ITO, uploading, and saving decentralized files. Galxe: (@Galxe) a collaborative credential infrastructure that is designed to create user profiles based on the user’s blockchain behavior. Brands and projects can use these Web3 digital credentials for better promotion, such as gamifying their loyalty system, launching marketing campaigns, acquiring users, etc. 6. Creator economy application Liberty index: ☆☆☆☆☆ Trust index: ☆☆☆☆☆ Business model verifiable index: ☆☆☆☆ Web3 Unicorn growth index: ☆☆☆☆ For many people, the creator economy is a big concept. Its content includes texts, pictures, music, videos, and other forms, each with a different growth logic. From the perspective of the industry, CGV Research deems that the creator economy refers to the economic form in which independent content creators (such as bloggers, social media KOL, photographers, etc.) publish their original content through digital carriers such as texts, videos, audios, and other channels via platforms or communities, and gain profits. The creator economy has two key characteristics: first, creators can turn data flow into cash by acquiring fans and followers with unique contents; second, creators can build tools and infrastructure to create or manage content. According to the Influencer Marketing Hub, 50 million people worldwide participate in the creator economy. By the end of 2022, the market size of the global creator economy reached US$104.2 billion. However, the current creator economy system has serious income inequality, with a large portion of creators’ earnings being paid to third parties as service fees. On Spotify, each song played once by a paid account only generates a copyright fee of $0.004; only 0.33% of YouTube creators earn full-time income; and only the top 1% of authors on Amazon earn $1,000 in a month. In addition, problems such as the lack of content management rights and vicious competition are commonplace in the current creator economy system. Web3 is a new generation of Internet based on blockchain infrastructure, which has made the biggest difference between the creator economy and the previous ones. In addition to consumption and creation, users own and freely use the data content created by themselves. List of global creator economy startups Source: Speedinvest According to this logic, Web3 will bring three paradigm changes to the “creator economy”: 1) redistribute the value and rights of the platform to creators through independent mechanisms such as tokenization and smart contracts; 2) provide composable and trustable perspectives for people who want to start creating; 3) for the first time, users have the opportunity to gain rewards and own part of the Internet value. The application scenarios of Web3 creator economy projects include content creation, NFT issuance and trading, community building, fan motivation, and asset management. A complete value chain has been formed to help creators use content, NFT, and social tokens to closely connect with fans. Of course, it should be reminded that the starting point of the Web3 creator economy is not about grabbing data flow, but abandoning the competition for users’ attention and highlighting productivity. Only by providing better content, can higher revenue be achieved. Web3 creator economy applications worthy of attention: Mirror: (@viamirror) it combines content publishing with web3 technology, stores content in Arweave, and publishes it to fans by connecting wallets. Besides, all posts on Mirror are mintable, turning fans into collectors; Rally: (@rally_io) YouTube’s Web3 alternative. It is a platform for creators and their communities to build their independent digital economy. It prioritizes creators and allows them to promote interaction with the community around social tokens. Bill Gates once said: “most people overestimate what they can do in one or two years and underestimate what they can do in five or ten years.” Now it seems that the Web3 market with 1 billion users is still far away from us. But nothing is impossible, it is only a matter of time. As a Web3 practitioner, the only thing we can do is to provide better Web3 services to all corners of the world and all aspects of everyone’s life through the constant building, thus making this day come earlier. Note: This article is a CGV research paper and is for reference only. It does not constitute any investment proposal. About Cryptogram Venture (CGV): A Japan-based research and investment institution engaged in crypto. It has participated in early investments in Republic, CasperLabs, AlchemyPay Graph, Pocket, and Powerpool, as well as the Japanese government-regulated yen stablecoin JPYW, etc. CGV FoF is the limited partner of Huobi venture, Rocktree capital, Kirin fund, etc. Currently, CGV has branches in Singapore, Canada, and China. References: https://a16z.com/2020/12/07/social-strikes-back-fastest-growing-apps/ https://multicoin.capital/2023/01/11/the-web3-growth-stack/https://www.robinsloan.com/lab/notes-on-web3/ https://future.com/power-of-social-community/ https://medium.com/ixfi/SocialFi-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-affect-social-media-as-we-know-it-8c28c023a00d https://twitter.com/jolestar/status/1589830650659753986 https://coinyuppie.com/SocialFi-the-key-technology-changing-the-globalization-of-the-blockchain-industry/ https://medium.com/coinmonks/what-exactly-is-SocialFi-is-this-a-new-cryptocurrency-trend-1d2bf209dd99 https://blockcast.cc/news/an-overview-of-the-SocialFi-ecosystem-social-dao-and-governance-tools/

With the temporary recovery of the crypto market, Web3 funding and developers in all tracks are active. From last week’s statistics (10 projects in total), Web3 infrastructure projects (5) were the main direction of funding, while the number of funding for NFT (1), Metaverse (1), and Web3 application (3) projects started to pick up. CGV summarizes a week of noteworthy investment and funding information in the crypto market, as follows for January 23, 2023 to January 29, 2023 in the global crypto market. 【Infrastructure】 1. Tribes | Raised $3.3 million in pre-seed round｜Led by Kindred Ventures On January 23rd, Tribes, a Web3 social wallet, announced the closing of a $3.3 million pre-seed round led by Kindred Ventures, South Park Commons and Script Capita. Link to original article: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/01/23/web3-social-wallet-tribes-launches-with-33m-in-funding/ 2. QuickNode | Series B financing of $60 million｜Led by LLC On January 24, QuickNode, a blockchain development platform, announced the closing of a $60 million Series B funding round at a valuation of $800 million, led by 10T Holdings, LLC, with participation from Tiger Global, 776, Protocol Labs and QED. Link to original article: https://cointelegraph.com/press-releases/quicknode-raises-60m-series-b-round-to-further-fuel-blockchain-adoption 3. Asset Reality | Seed round funding of $4.91 million｜Led by Framework Ventures On January 25, Asset Reality, a digital asset recovery solution, announced the closing of a $4.91 million seed round led by Framework Ventures with participation from TechStars, SGH Capital and others. Link to original article: https://www.assetreality.com/post/asset-reality-raises-5m-in-recent-seed-funding 4. Ethos | Raised $4.2 million｜Mysten Labs participates On January 26th, Ethos closed a $4.2 million seed round led by Gumi Cryptos Capital and Boldstart Ventures, with participation from Tribe Capital, Matrix Port and AllianceDAO, as well as Sui network developer Mysten Labs. Link to original article: https://www.theblock.co/post/205795/sui-based-wallet-raises-4-2-million-led-by-gumi-cryptos-and-boldstart?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social 5. Tholos | Raised $1.5 million in pre-seed round｜Led by North Island Ventures On January 28th, Tholos, a money escrow platform, closed a $1.5 million Pre-seeded round led by North Island Ventures, Lattice Capital, Chainforest and Dispersion Capital, with participation from 369 Capital and others. Link to original article: https://mirror.xyz/tholos.eth/dwHnNWuOFLXJ6Bzju-OBE5h1GpLKtDmq49diOmGnsBM 【NFT】 6. EZswap | Pre-Seed round of funding of $1 million On January 26, EZswap, an NFT trading platform, announced that it closed a $1 million Pre-Seed round of funding in October 2022 at a $40 million Token valuation, and that the platform’s code has been audited by security firm Beosin and will go live at the end of January. Link to original article: https://twitter.com/EZ_swap/status/1618604379455750147 【Metaverse】 7. Emperia | Series A financing of $10 million｜Led by Base10 Partners On January 25, Emperia, a metaverse-as-a-service (MaaS) platform, announced the closing of a $10 million Series A round led by Base10 Partners, with participation from Sony Innovation Fund, Stanford Capital Partners, Daphi, Concept Ventures, Background Capital and others. Link to original article: https://wwd.com/business-news/technology/metaverse-emperia-retail-ecommerce-funding-1235496551/ 【Web3 Applications】 8. Bunzz | Seed round funding of $4.5 million｜gjmp and other participants On January 25, Bunzz, a Web3 decentralized application development platform, announced the closing of a $4.5 million seed round with participation from gjmp, DG Daiwa Ventures, Coincheck and Ceres. Link to original article: https://www.thebharatexpressnews.com/bunzz-raises-4-5m-to-expand-its-smart-contract-hub-for-dapp-development-tben/ 9. Spatial LABS | Raised $10 million in a seed round｜Led by Blockchain Capital On January 26th, Spatial LABS, a Polygon Chain-based Web3 wearable technology startup, announced the closing of a $10 million seed round led by Blockchain Capital with participation from Marcy Venture Partners, a venture capital firm co-founded by Jay-Z. Link to original article: https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/26/spatial-labs-a-web3-infrastructure-and-hardware-company-closes-10m-seed-round/ 10. StoryCo | Seed round financing of $6 million｜Led by Patron On January 26th, StoryCo, a Web3 content platform, announced the completion of a $6 million seed funding round led by Collab + Currency and Patron, with participation from Floodgate Ventures, Blockchange Ventures, Sfermion, Flamingo DAO, and others. Link to original article: https://www.businessinsider.com/pitch-deck-storyco-blockchain-immersive-storytelling-nft-raised-6-million-2023-1 About Cryptogram Venture (CGV): CGVCGV FoFCryptogram Venture (CGV) is a Japan-based research and investment institution engaged in crypto.With the business philosophy of “research-driven investment”, it has participated in early investments in FTX, Republic, CasperLabs, AlchemyPay, Graph, Bitkeep, Pocket, and Powerpool, as well as the Japanese government-regulated yen stablecoin JPYW, etc. Meanwhile, CGV FoF is the limited partner of Huobi venture, Rocktree capital, Kirin fund, etc.From July to October 2022, it launched the first TWSH in Japan, which was jointly supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Keio University, SONY, SoftBank, and other institutions and experts. Currently, CGV has branches in Singapore, Canada, and China. and China.

From last week’s statistics (11 projects in total), Web3 infrastructure projects (4) were the main direction of funding, while DeFi (3), NFT (1), Metaverse (1), and Game (1) projects also continued to have low funding numbers. CGV summarizes a week’s worth of noteworthy investment and funding information for the crypto market, as follows for January 16, 2023 to January 22, 2023 in the global crypto market. 【Infrastructure】 1. Cypher | Raised $4.3 million｜Led by Y Combinator On January 19, Cypher, a multi-chain Web3 wallet, announced the completion of a $4.3 million funding round led by Y Combinator with participation from OrangeDAO, Samsung Next and others. Link to original article: https://www.theblock.co/post/203711/y-combinator-multichain-wallet-cypher?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social 2. Nil Foundation | Raised $22 million｜Led by Polychain Capital On January 19, Nil Foundation, a developer of ZK technology, announced a $22 million funding round at a valuation of $220 million, led by Polychain Capital with participation from IOSG Ventures, Blockchain Capital, Starkware, and Mina Protocol. Link to original article: https://www.theblock.co/post/203411/zk-tech-developer-nil-foundation-raises-22-million-at-a-220-million-valuation?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social 3. Koinos Group | Raised $500,000｜Led by Blockchain Founders Fund On January 20th, Koinos Group, a developer of the public chain Koinos, closed a $500,000 seed round led by Blockchain Founders Fund with participation from Splinterlands. Link to original article: https://www.finsmes.com/2023/01/koinos-group-raises-500k-in-seed-funding.html 4. Jeff | Pre-A round of financing｜Joycity and others participated in the project On January 20, Jeff, a subsidiary of Korean payment company Danal’s Meta Universe, closed a Pre-A round of funding with participation from Singapore VC Xponential Ventures and gaming company Joycity for an undisclosed amount. Link to original article: https://www.coindeskkorea.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=82994 【DeFi】 5. Davos | Pre-seed round raises $500,000｜Polygon Ventures participates On January 18, DeFi startup Davos announced the closing of a $500,000 pre-seed round with participation from Polygon Ventures and Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal. Link to original article: https://yourstory.com/the-decrypting-story/defi-startup-davos-funding-sandeep-nailwal-polygon 6. Elixir | Seed round funding of $2.1 million｜FalconX and others participated in the project On January 17, Elixir, a DeFi protocol, closed a $2.1 million seed round with participation from FalconX, Commonwealth, OP Crypto, ChapterOne and others. Link to original article: https://www.theblock.co/post/202510/falconx-bitmex-founder-hayes-invest-in-market-maker-elixir-amid-dearth-of-providers 7. Diva | Seed round funding of $3.5 million｜Led by A&T Capital On January 17, Diva, a decentralized liquidity pledge protocol, closed a $3.5 million seed round led by A&T Capital with participation from Gnosis, Bankless, OKX Blockdream Ventures, Metaweb, DCV Capital, Alphemy Capital and others. Link to original article: https://www.theblock.co/post/202690/diva-closes-3-5-million-seed-round-for-distributed-liquid-staking-protocol 【Game】 8. Intella X | Raised $12 million｜Animoca Brands and others participated in the project On January 18, Intella X, a Web3 gaming platform, announced the completion of a $12 million funding round with participation from Polygon, Animoca Brands, Magic Eden, Planetarium, Big Brain Holdings, Crit Ventures, JoyCity, Pearl Abyss, XL Games, Wemix, and Global Coin Research. Link to original article: https://www.theblock.co/post/202995/polygon-backed-web3-gaming-platform-intella-x-raises-12-million-ahead-of-q1-launch 【NFT】 9. Candy Digital | Series A1 financing of $38.5 million｜Led by Galaxy Digital On January 20, Candy Digital, a sports NFT company, closed its Series A1 funding round earlier this year for $38,449,997 led by Galaxy Digital and ConsenSys Mesh, with participation from 10T Holdings and ConsenSys, among others. Candy Digital will use the funding to continue to expand its platform and build new partnerships with other brands and organizations. Link to original article: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/01/19/sports-nft-firm-candy-digital-raised-over-38m-amid-founder-strife/?utm_source=twitter&utm_content=editorial&utm_medium=social&utm_term=organic&utm_campaign=coindesk_main 【Web3 Applications】 10. Plai Labs | Seed funding round of $32 million｜Led by a16z On January 20, Web3 social platform Plai Labs closed a $32 million seed round of funding led by a16z, with no other investors disclosed at this time. Link to original article: https://www.coindesk.com/web3/2023/01/19/tech-veteran-backed-web3-social-platform-plai-labs-raises-32m-in-seed-round/?utm_campaign=coindesk_main&utm_medium=social&utm_term=organic&utm_content=editorial&utm_source=twitter 【Metaverse】 11. Createra | Series A financing of $10 million｜Led by a16z On January 16, Createra, a metaverse project, closed a $10 million Series A round of funding led by a16z, which is dedicated to building a metaverse platform centered on Generation Z. Link to original article: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/createra-raises-10-million-led-230731410.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudGhlYmxvY2tiZWF0cy5pbmZvLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAKEn5bDbcxeqxq-UrTHadhEJvv7wjTb3OEITxD4Tafj65RjRDCbsg1nfjoGrjW1DJ8STi3xgJmcLt-hKeLrWZuGMv51orSsOtFhZYRawUEVTW8AdCiqA6e6ftRxauHxyEQukR2g3y7_nzoCoO_I_CI5EUJHG-i2rOrlrTsl_4m42 About Cryptogram Venture (CGV): A Japan-based research and investment institution engaged in crypto. It has participated in early investments in Republic, CasperLabs, AlchemyPay Graph, Pocket, and Powerpool, as well as the Japanese government-regulated yen stablecoin JPYW, etc. CGV FoF is the limited partner of Huobi venture, Rocktree capital, Kirin fund, etc. Currently, CGV has branches in Singapore, Canada, and China.

The crypto market as a whole saw a decline this week, with both BTC and ETH down 6%. Looking at this week’s statistics (9 projects in total), the pitch market started to recover for NFT (2), Game (3), and DeFi (3) projects, while the number of pitches for Web3 infrastructure projects (1) slowed down.CGV, in conjunction with CTC, has compiled a week’s worth of noteworthy investment and funding information from the global crypto market for August 29 — September 4, 2022, as follows. 【Infrastructure】 1. Sei Labs | Seed round funding of $5 million｜Led by Multicoin Capital On August 31, crypto startup Sei Labs closed a $5 million seed round led by Multicoin Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, GSR, Flow Traders, Hudson River Trading, Delphi Digital, Tangent and others. Link to original article:https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-31/ex-goldman-banker-s-crypto-startup-backed-by-key-market-makers 【DeFi】 2. GammaX | Raised $4 million｜Led by StarkWare On August 29th, GammaX, a Singapore-based company building a new high-performance hybrid crypto derivatives exchange, closed a $4 million round of funding led by StarkWare and Dexterity Capital, with participation from Alphanonce, Cobo, Genesis Trading, Kyber, Ledger Prime, Matrixport, Profluent, Uncorrelated, and 01Node. Link to original article:https://decrypt.co/108460/gammax-raises-4m-launch-crypto-derivatives-exchange-ethereum-layer-2-solution 3. Clockwork | Raised $4 million｜Led by Multicoin Capital On August 30th, Clockwork, a decentralized automation network for Solana, closed a $4 million seed round led by Multicoin Capital and Asymmetric, with participation from Solana Ventures and El Cap Ventures. The funding round will be used to expand the team, build community and support integration with partner projects. Link to original article:https://www.theblock.co/post/165953/solana-automation-network-clockwork-raises-4-million?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social 4. GoGoPool | Raised $5 million｜Led by Framework Ventures On August 31,GoGoPool, a decentralized staking protocol on Avalanche, announced a $5 million funding round led by Framework Ventures and Coinfund, with participation from Avalaunch, Republic Capital and Flow Traders. Link to original article:https://www.theblock.co/post/166498/gogopool-raises-5-million-to-provide-decentralized-staking-on-avalanche?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social 【Game】 5. Limit Break | Raised $200 million｜Led by Paradigm On August 29th, Limit Break raised $200 million in two rounds of funding led by Josh Buckley, Paradigm and Standard Crypto, with participation from FTX, Coinbase, Positive Sum, Shervinator and Anthos Capital. Link to original article:https://twitter.com/limitbreak/status/1564240941690798081?s=21&t=8jZochTqhoCKzRvvu4iz-A 6. Xterio | Raised $40 million｜Led by FTX Ventures On August 30, Xterio, a web3 game developer and publisher, announced a $40 million funding round co-led by video game developer FunPlus, venture capital firm Makers Fund, FTX Ventures and blockchain gaming platform XPLA, with participation from Animoca Brands, HashKey, Foresight Ventures, Infinity Ventures Crypto and Matrix Partners. Foresight Ventures, Infinity Ventures Crypto and Matrix Partners. Link to original article:https://www.theblock.co/post/166447/web3-game-developer-xterio-raises-40-million-in-saft-sale 7. Internet Game | Seed round funding of $7 million｜ParaFi Capital and others participated On September 3, Internet Game, a project that has described itself as ‘HQ Trivia meets NFTs,’ announced the closing of a $7 million seed funding round with participation from ParaFi Capital, Dragonfly Capital, Dephi Digital, Uniswap Ventures, Collab+Currency and others. Link to original article:https://www.theblock.co/post/167390/bankrupt-hq-trivias-nft-reinvention-scores-7-million-seed-round 【NFT】 8. Tokenproof | Raised $5 million｜Led by Penny Jar On August 30, Tokenproof, a token-gating platform, announced a $5 million funding round led by Penny Jar with participation from Corazon Capital, 6th Man Ventures, Canonical Crypto and others. Link to original article:https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/08/30/nft-security-startup-tokenproof-raises-5m-to-keep-jpegs-safe-from-scammers/ 9. PROOF | Series A financing of $50 million｜Led by a16z On August 31, PROOF, the parent company of NFT project Moonbirds, announced the completion of a $50 million Series A funding round led by a16z with participation from Seven Seven Six, True Ventures, Collab+Currency, Flamingo DAO, SV Angel, Vayner Fund and others. Link to original article:https://docs.proof.xyz/future/press The first Tokyo Web3 Summer Hackathon, “TWSH”, was launched by Cryptogram Venture (CGV). TWSH welcomes the participation of traditional Internet developers and blockchain developers who are interested in Web3, developers, engineers, product managers and UI designers with innovative and creative abilities. Application for institutional cooperation (event support, project investment, media cooperation, etc.): Yurinatyou@cgv.fund Website for project registration: https://www.web3hackathon.io/ About Cryptogram Venture (CGV) Cryptogram Venture (CGV) is a Japan-based research and investment institution engaged in crypto. With the business philosophy of “research-driven investment”, it has participated in early investments in FTX, Republic, CasperLabs, AlchemyPay, Graph, Bitkeep, Pocket, and Powerpool, as well as the Japanese government-regulated yen stablecoin JPYW, etc. Meanwhile, CGV FoF is the limited partner of Huobi venture, Rocktree capital, Kirin fund, etc. Currently, CGV has branches in Singapore, Canada, and China.

With the US Dollar Index nearing a 20-year high and the 10-year US Treasury yield reaching 3%undefined capital flowed out of risky assets and the Crypto market followed the US equity market in a sharp correction. From this week's statistics (7 projects in total)undefined the number of crypto market primary market pitches slowed downundefined with Web3 Infrastructure (2)undefined NFT (1)undefined Game (2)undefined and Metaverse (2) projects all seeing a decrease in the number of pitches and funding. CGVundefined in conjunction with CTCundefined has put together a roundup of the notable pitches and funding information from the global crypto market for the week of 2022undefined as follows The following is a summary of the global crypto market's notable pitches from August 22 - August 28undefined 2022. 【Infrastructure】 1. Hidden Road Partners | Series A financing of $50 million｜FTX Ventures and others participated On August 22ndundefined Hidden Road Partners recently announced the closing of a $50 million Series A round of financing led by Castle Island Ventures with participation from FTX Venturesundefined Citadel Securitiesundefined Uncorrelated Venturesundefined Greycroftundefined XBTOundefined Humla Venturesundefined Wintermuteundefined SLN Capitalundefined Profluent Tradingundefined Coinbase Ventures and Corner Capital. Humla Venturesundefined Wintermuteundefined SLN Capitalundefined Profluent Tradingundefined Coinbase Venturesundefined and Corner Capital. Link to original article:https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-22/wall-street-crypto-giants-line-up-to-back-startup-prime-broker#xj4y7vzkg 2. Mural | Seed round funding of $5.6 million｜DCG and others participated On August 23rdundefined Muralundefined a crypto firm focused on decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) infrastructureundefined announced the closing of a $5.6 million seed round with participation from Mike Novogratz's Galaxy Venturesundefined Barry Silbert's Digital Currency Group (DCG)undefined Firstminute Capitalundefined 186 Ventures and others. Link to original article:https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/23/mural-raised-5-6m-to-help-brands-deploy-dao-treasury-funds/ 【Game】 3. Cricinshots | Seed Round Financing｜Led by Antler India On August 24undefined Web3 cricket game Cricinshots announced the completion of a seed funding round led by Antler India for an undisclosed amount. Link to original article:https://bwdisrupt.businessworld.in/article/Web3-Game-Cricinshots-Raises-Pre-Seed-Funding-Led-By-Antler-India/24-08-2022-443577/ 4. Animoca Brands Japan | Raised $45 million｜ MUFG and others participated On August 26undefined Animoca Brands Japan announced the closing of a $45 million financing round at a $500 million valuationundefined with participation from MUFG and Animoca Brandsundefined which will allow Animoca Brands Japan to use the new funding to continue to license popular intellectual propertyundefined develop internal capabilitiesundefined and facilitate the adoption of Web3 by multiple partners. Link to original article:https://www.animocabrands.com/animoca-brands-japan-raises-usd-45-million-from-mufg-and-animoca-brands-to-grow-web3-business 【Metaverse】 5. Ready Player Me | Series B financing of $56 million｜ Led by a16z On August 23rdundefined Ready Player Meundefined a metaverse identity platformundefined closed a $56 million funding round led by a16z with participation from Roblox co-founder David Baszuckiundefined Twitch co-founder Justin Kanundefined King Games co-founder Sebastian Knutsson and Riccardo Zacconiundefined sports and entertainment company Endeavourundefined Kevin Hart and Hartbeat Venturesundefined among others. Link to original article:https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/23/ready-player-me-a-platform-to-build-dynamic-cross-game-avatars-for-virtual-worlds-raises-56m-led-by-a16z/?tpcc=tcplustwitter 6. Com2uS | Raised $3 million｜SK Networks participates On August 23undefined Com2Verseundefined the metaverse subsidiary of game publisher Com2uSundefined announced the closing of a 4 billion won ($3 million) financing round with SK Networks participating to acquire outstanding shares. Link to original article:https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2022/08/23/business/tech/Korea-game-metaverse/20220823152254430.html 【NFT】 7. NFT Genius | Series A financing of $10.5 million｜ Led by Dapper Labs and others On August 25undefined NFT Genius closed a $10.5 million Series A round of funding at a $150 million valuationundefined led by Dapper Labsundefined Spartan Labsundefined Commonwealth Asset Management (CWAM) and Fundamental Labsundefined with participation from Spartanundefined One Football and Unibancoundefined among others. Link to original article:https://www.nftgators.com/nft-genius-raises-10-5m-series-a-funding-at-150m-valuation-exclusive/ About Cryptogram Venture (CGV) : Cryptogram Venture (CGV) is a Japan-based research and investment institution engaged in crypto. With the business philosophy of “research-driven investment”undefined it has participated in early investments in FTXundefined Republicundefined CasperLabsundefined AlchemyPayundefined Graphundefined Bitkeepundefined Pocketundefined and Powerpoolundefined as well as the Japanese government-regulated yen stablecoin JPYWundefined etc. Meanwhileundefined CGV FoF is the limited partner of Huobi ventureundefined Rocktree capitalundefined Kirin fundundefined etc. Currentlyundefined CGV has branches in Singaporeundefined Canadaundefined and China.

A few days ago, the first Tokyo Web3 Summer Hackathon, "TWSH", was launched by Cryptogram Venture (CGV). As of August 25, Tokyo time, nearly 100 projects have completed their registration. As the co-sponsors of this event, THE Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Keio University, SONY, SoftBank, Cointelegraph Japan (CTJ), and other institutions will "take root in Japan", innovate and practice Japan's unique "industry-government-university" cooperation mechanism, discover and support the best talents and teams in the Web3 field. Meanwhile, TWSH will "go global" and gather top partners who are facilitators of the global Web3 ecosystem. Currently, TWSH has received strong support from dozens of renowned institutions in the global blockchain industry, including Metis, MetaEstate, Avalanche, Alchemy Pay, Atom Capital, Binance, BAI Capital, Cryptomeria Capital, Consensus Lab, EVG , Gate.io, IOSG Ventures, IPFS infinite Japan, K24 Ventures, Kirin Fund, Matrixport, NGC Ventures, OKX, Tokyo Tower, Tokyo Esports Gate, Rocktree Capital, Samurai Guild Games, SevenX, Waterdrip Capital, Y+ capital, and members of Asia Blockchain Gaming Alliance (ABGA) such as Huobi Ventures, Polygon, Spark Digital Capital, Yield Guild Games (YGG), covering encryption and Web3 investment and research, public chain, trading platform, financial services, Metaverse ecological development, etc. They will bring together all resources for this event to make contributions to the hackathon. TWSH welcomes the participation of traditional Internet developers and blockchain developers who are interested in Web3, developers, engineers, product managers and UI designers with innovative and creative abilities. The details of the "TWSH" have been announced. Winners will have access to receive investment and startup guidance from top global VC institutions, win prizes with a total prize pool of $150,000, as well as the support of a million dollar incubation fund. Application for institutional cooperation (event support, project investment, media cooperation, etc.): Yurinatyou@cgv.fund Website for project registration: https://www.web3hackathon.io/ About the "TWSH" "Tokyo Web3 Summer Hackathon (TWSH)" is initiated by Cryptogram Venture (CGV), and supported by experts from institutions such as the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Keio University, Sony, Softbank, Asia Blockchain Gaming Alliance (ABGA), Cointelegraph Japan (CTJ). It will be "Japan-based and global-oriented", give full play to Japan's unique "industry-government-academia" cooperation and innovation mechanism to discover, support, and help outstanding talents and teams in the Web3 field and explore the application potential of the Web3 on a global scale, to help teams and projects start smoothly and achieve sustainable growth and development. About Cryptogram Venture (CGV) Cryptogram Venture (CGV) is a Japan-based research and investment institution engaged in crypto. With the business philosophy of "research-driven investment", it has participated in early investments in FTX, Republic, CasperLabs, AlchemyPay, Graph, Bitkeep, Pocket, and Powerpool, as well as the Japanese government-regulated yen stablecoin JPYW, SONY Tokyo Tower, Metaverse REDO, etc. Meanwhile, CGV FoF is the limited partner of Huobi venture, Rocktree capital, Kirin fund, etc. Currently, CGV has branches in Singapore, Canada, and China.

On August 5th, Japan's first Web3 Hackathon, the event details of "Tokyo Web3 Summer Hackathon (TWSH)", was officially announced. "Tokyo Web3 Summer Hackathon (TWSH)" is initiated by Cryptogram Venture (CGV) and supported by experts from institutions such as the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Keio University, Sony, Softbank, Asia Blockchain Gaming Alliance (ABGA), Cointelegraph Japan (CTJ). It will be "Japan-based and global-oriented", give full play to Japan's unique "industry-government-academia" cooperation and innovation mechanism to discover, support, and help outstanding talents and teams in the Web3 field and explore the application potential of the Web3 on a global scale, to help teams and projects start smoothly and achieve sustainable growth and development. Since the launch of the "TWSH", dozens of industry organizations such as IOSG, BAI capital, HashKey, Metis, Achemypay, etc. have joined as supporting organizations and judging committee members. Additionally, nearly 100 projects have been registered. According to the arrangement and setting of the organizing committee of "TWSH", the event details of this hackathon are as follows: 1.Schedule July 26 - August 26: Project registration; August 27 - September 16: Project pre-selection, excellent project roadshow, and NFT theme exhibition and other related activities September 17 - September 26: Organize centralized evaluation of projects and announce the results of the awards; End of September: Offline award ceremony in Japan. (Follow @CGVFof on Twitter for updates.) 2. Participants Traditional Internet developers and blockchain developers who are interested in Web3, developers, engineers, product managers, and UI designers with innovative and creative abilities. 3. Key fields "TWSH" welcomes projects from any public chain/ecological team to submit projects. The key fields of the competition include: Web3 protocol and infrastructure (L1/L2/cross-chain bridge, storage/identity/communication/auditing, etc.); Metaverse (virtual land, scenario development, platform construction, content production, virtual humans, etc.); NFTs (new standard protocols, issuance platforms, liquidity infrastructure, blue-chip assets, etc.); Games (innovative games, basic development layers, issuance platforms, guilds, etc.); DAOs (basic tools, asset management platforms, collection/self-service, guild governance), etc. 4. Resource support Bonus sponsorship. The winning projects will share a total prize pool of $150,00: 1 champion (20,000 USDT); 2 runners-up (10,000 USDT each); 6 second runners-up (5,000 USDT each), as well as several regional awards, category awards, and ecological sponsorship awards. Project investment and entrepreneurial guidance. Outstanding projects have the chance to receive a total of $1 million from the incubator funding, as well as start-up guidance from top global VC institutions. Connect developers with partner resources. The project can establish contacts with more BUIDLer and Web3 organizations, exchange with and learn from them, and explore more cooperation opportunities. Project exposure and brand awareness enhancement. The projects will gain more popularity through Japan's first Web3 Hackathon; the winning projects will have the opportunity to receive PR support and media interviews provided by CGV. 5. Scoring criteria Application for institutional cooperation (event support, project investment, media cooperation, etc.): Yurinatyou@cgv.fund Website for project registration: https://www.web3hackathon.io/ About Cryptogram Venture (CGV) Cryptogram Venture (CGV) is a Japan-based research and investment institution engaged in crypto. With the business philosophy of "research-driven investment", it has participated in early investments in FTX, Republic, CasperLabs, AlchemyPay, Graph, Bitkeep, Pocket, and Powerpool, as well as the Japanese government-regulated yen stablecoin JPYW, SONY Tokyo Tower, Metaverse REDO, etc. Meanwhile, CGV FoF is the limited partner of Huobi venture, Rocktree capital, Kirin fund, etc. Currently, CGV has branches in Singapore, Canada, and China.

By: Vargason, CGV Research Fellow Introduction As we enter the Web3 world, let’s start by asking ourselves a question: Do we need a crypto wallet to trade and keep our crypto assets? The answer is yes. Crypto wallets are essential for users in terms of market transactions and asset custody. With the development of DeFi, GameFi, and NFT, the use of crypto wallets has become a must-have skill. As a digital asset circulation carrier and an essential medium for reaching users, the crypto wallet is no longer an independent product but the gateway to the Web3 ecosystem. In recent years, the number of tokens lost on centralized exchanges has increased. The CeFi platform, while generating significant revenues, is unable to protect users’ assets, making users prefer to protect their assets through crypto wallets. If you want to explore the Web3 world, the first thing you need to do is to understand and use crypto wallets. In this article, CGV introduces you the crypto wallet, its ecological development, and the role it plays in the Web3 world. 1. What is the crypto wallet? 1.1 The development path of the crypto wallet Initially, crypto wallets were only used for depositing crypto assets and occasional transfers. Crypto wallets were more of an option for users with numerous assets, and most of users preferred to deposit their assets on non-custodial centralized exchanges. Due to the frequent security incidents on centralized platforms and the threat to users’ crypto assets, users prefer to protect their assets through crypto wallets. With the development of DeFi and NFT, users have begun to use crypto wallets to interact with on-chain protocols. In addition to allowing users to interact with various protocols, crypto wallets have introduced exchange functions, greatly facilitating users’ participation in Web3. 1.2 Private keys are the “Achilles’ heel” of crypto wallets Common crypto wallets are divided into three categories, namely software wallets, hardware wallets, and paper wallets, which can also be classified as hot or cold wallets depending on their working mechanism. A crypto wallet is mainly composed of a wallet account, a public key account, and a blockchain network, among which the most important are public keys, private keys, and mnemonics. Crypto wallets do not deposit digital assets, they are just a tool that provide what’s needed to interact with the blockchain. These wallets can generate indispensable information to support transactions that send and receive cryptocurrencies via the blockchain. Such information contains one or more pairs of public and private keys, and the address essentially represents a specific “location” on the blockchain used to receive the cryptocurrency. Therefore, you can disclose the public key address to others to receive funds. However, you cannot reveal to anyone your private key, which allows you to access the cryptocurrency in your wallet, regardless of which wallet you use. The private key is the “Achilles’ heel” of a crypto wallet and is the most important part of your crypto wallet that you need to protect. 2. Why is wallet the gateway to the Web3 world? 2.1 The crypto wallet has a promising future How to understand the relationship between crypto wallets and Web3? First of all, we should realize that the layout of crypto wallets is the starting point for building a value network, a vital traffic entry for infrastructure in the blockchain era. It is also the first step to participating in digital asset transactions and related asset activities. Paypal reported a 40% increase in new crypto wallet users in revenue in Q4 2021 and predicted that crypto services would make more progress and double in 2022. This year’s frequent market manias have confirmed this. Recently, Robinhood officially announced the launch of a crypto wallet at the Bitcoin Conference 2022 in Miami, and Opera launched an Internet browser and a crypto wallet with built-in Web3 integration. Besides, Phantom won $109 million in equity, and WalletConnect completed the A round of $ 11 million, etc. As an important entry for Web3 projects, the market expectations of crypto wallets are very impressive. Wallet is the traffic entrance of DeFi and an indispensable part of the crypto ecosystem. Wallets such as Metamesk and Bitkeep are crypto wallets that stand out in the wave of DFI. For example, Solana attracted users with its public chain design but lacked an easy-to-use wallet software. After Solana released the Phantom wallet, it attracted investment from industry investors including A16Z and Coinbase, and gained a large market share. 2.2 The path to digital asset management platforms for crypto wallets With the increase in crypto applications and the expansion of the crypto market scale, crypto wallets will gradually become a management platform that includes a variety of digital assets, from the single function of depositing and protecting assets, to generate more service products, such as wallet wealth management products, manageable ID documents, one-stop aggregated asset management platforms for daily payment, memorial card, etc. In this way, users can further experience the advantages of decentralized wallets, which will become important product forms and presentation methods in Web3. CGV deems that the more elements derived from crypto wallets, the more favorable it is to promote the progress of Web3. It may be a container for assets on our chain, and a collection of identities when we act in the Web3 world. A large number of daily behaviours will be related to the blockchain wallet, and users can even browse Web3 directly using crypto wallets. Crypto wallets are crucial to driving the industry. As the number of users grows, so does the demand for wallets. Crypto wallets are evolving into daily digital wallets, investment/deposits centers, digital identities, Web3 social, chain Bridges, etc. 2.3 Crypto wallets provide a safe haven for the Web 3 world As wallets become more widely used, there are more incidents of malicious clusters targeting Web3-enabled wallets such as Metamask. Confiant, a security agency, has uncovered a cluster of malicious activities involving a distributed wallet that allows hackers to steal private seeds and access users’ funds through backflushed fake wallets. Crypto wallet, which provides high performance, high security, and low threshold asset management services and extended platform for global users and developers, will be the next focus. There is no clear answer as to which crypto wallet should be used. If you trade frequently, a web wallet allows you to quickly access your funds and conduct transactions with ease. Let’s take a look at several wallets that are frequently used by users in the current market: 3. Ecological analysis of crypto wallets To make it easier for you to understand crypto wallets, CGV analyses the current wallet market by the way it works, and divides crypto wallets into “hot wallets” and “cold wallets”. Hot wallets refer to wallets that are connected to the Internet in any way. On the contrary, cold wallets are completely disconnected from the Internet. They use physical media to store keys offline, which can effectively resist online attacks by hackers. Therefore, cold wallets are more secure in “depositing” tokens. 3.1 Hot wallet ecology 1）BitKeep BitKeep is a decentralized multi-chain digital asset wallet. The wallet team has a unique understanding of the crypto industry and wallets. They have integrated Wallet, Swap, NFTMarket, DeFi, and DApps to build the gateway to the Web3 ecosystem. Public data shows that BitKeep wallet has become one of the more popular crypto wallets in Asia in terms of user base, revenue size, and valuation ranking. CGV notes that the problem for new users entering the Web3 world is that the learning threshold is too high, especially when it comes to mainnet selection for wallets, asset trading, and other issues. To lower the threshold for users, BitKeep has introduced several distinctive features: Buy any asset with any digital asset. BitKeep realizes quick exchange on DEXs such as Uniswap, Sushiswap, PancakeSwap, etc., and one-click cross-chain exchange for any asset of Ethereum, BSC, HECO, Polygon, Avax, Fantom, OEC, TRX, Solana. Save gas fees. Users do not have to deposit the corresponding mainnet tokens in advance as gas fees when transferring or trading via the BitKeep wallet, and can directly use the existing tokens to exchange, which saves the extra costs incurred by two exchanges, and simplifies the steps of exchanging mainnet tokens. Buy NFTs easily. BitKeep NFT Market is an aggregated NFT market with cross-platform search capabilities, as well as support for receiving and transferring tokens and bulk transfers of tokens, allowing users to purchase NFTs using any token on the same chain. CGV notices that capital institutions also favor BitKeep. On May 18, 2022, BitKeep raised $15 million in financing, with a valuation of $100 million. KuCoin Ventures, A&T Capital, Matrixport, Bixin Capital, Peak Capital, YM Capital, and other first-tier institutions have participated in the investment. 2）MetaMesk MetaMask is an easy-to-use crypto wallet supporting iOS/Android and major browsers. It is the wallet most widely supported by various browser in the crypto economy and has become the standard for all decentralized applications (Dapps). For users, MetaMask is an “electronic bank account” that can manage crypto assets, and users can use it for online and offline consumption, transfers, mortgage loans and other operations. It is also a “passport” to the decentralized network under the Web3 concept, through which users can connect to most platforms in the blockchain field. In terms of security, it is different from the mode in which the keys are stored in the central server, which isolates the storage environment from the site environment. With respect to connectivity, the interface between Ethereum and various DeFi platforms is built. That is, it is possible to participate in construction without synchronizing complete nodes. MetaMask is undoubtedly the most likely to become the Google of the Web3 era with its initial business model, as well as its leading monthly active users and funding scale. 3）Gnosis Gnosis Safe is a smart contract wallet running on Ethereum that requires the minimum required amount of keys of the total number of keys that is needed to sign the transaction (M-of-N). For example, if your business has 3 key stakeholders, you can set your wallet to require approval from all of them before sending a transaction request, which ensures that no one can steal the funds. Over the past 4 years, the development of multi-signature wallet Gnosis Safe has become a critical infrastructure for Web3, protecting digital assets for DAOs, institutions, projects and individuals. Gnosis Safe users manage over $64 billion worth of assets on the Ethereum mainnet alone. 4）CoinbaseWallet CoinbaseWallet is a beginner-friendly secure wallet with low transaction fees and ease of use. With CoinbaseWallet, you can use it not just as a tool to access cryptocurrencies, but as a foothold to explore decentralized networks. With CoinbaseWallet, you can manage ETH and all your ECR-20 currencies. As it supports BTC, BCH and LTC, you can use it to receive airdrops and cryptocurrencies, buy and store cryptocurrencies, and trade with anyone anywhere with no fees. 3.2 Hard wallet ecology 1）Ledger Ledger is a hardware wallet with moderate ease of use and high security. Ledger, the maker of Bitcoin hardware wallets, is one of the technology leaders in digital currency security, providing consumers and businesses with trusted hardware. Ledger is a smartcard-based Bitcoin hardware wallet that offers the highest level of protection with technology-leading availability and manipulation. Ledger hardware wallet is a multi-functional wallet, a hardware device that securely stores private keys. When viewing the wallet and sending transaction requests, the hardware wallet needs to be used with a software wallet. It also supports the secure storage of Bitcoin, Ethereum and platform tokens, Zcash, etc. Its projects have offered open source resources on Github. 2）Trezor Trezor is a hardware wallet with moderate ease of use and high security. Trezor is a high-tech data encryption memory. This brand is recognized as the earliest and most discreet and secure crypto memory. It is a reliable brand that has been verified by global digital currency players, with excellent company records and rich software support. Trezor’s security model is based on the principle of zero trust, which assumes that any part of the security system can be successfully attacked. Summary There is no clear answer as to which crypto wallet should be used. CGV suggests that if you trade frequently, web wallet can allow you to quickly access funds and conduct transactions conveniently. If you hold a large number of cryptocurrencies for a long time and do not intend to sell them, then cold wallet is an ideal option. These wallets are not connected to the Internet and are more secure against online phishing attacks or scams. Therefore, before choosing the ideal wallet, you should first figure out the technology of the wallet. Practical protection tools should be considered when using cryptocurrency trading platforms. CGV deems that with the continuous prosperity of the Web3 ecosystem, it will be a huge opportunity for crypto wallets to integrate this ecosystem and enrich our assets. About Cryptogram Venture (CGV) : Cryptogram Venture (CGV) is a Japan-based research and investment institution engaged in crypto. With the business philosophy of “research-driven investment”, it has participated in early investments in FTX, Republic, CasperLabs, AlchemyPay, Graph, Bitkeep, Pocket, and Powerpool, as well as the Japanese government-regulated yen stablecoin JPYW, etc. Meanwhile, CGV FoF is the limited partner of Huobi venture, Rocktree capital, Kirin fund, etc. Currently, CGV has branches in Singapore, Canada, and China.

The crypto market is building even in a bear market, with the Web3 ecosystem maintaining around 5,000 active developers per week for the past three months, with Ether ranking first with 1,720. From this week’s statistics (8 projects in total), web3 infrastructure projects (4) continue to be favored by investors, while NFT (2), Game (1), and DeFi (1) projects have seen a slowdown in the number of pitches and funding. CGV, in conjunction with CTC, has put together a week’s worth of noteworthy pitches and funding information from the global crypto market, below, for August 1, 2022 -July 7 Global Crypto Market Pitching Information. 【Infrastructure】 1. Debt DAO | Seed round funding of $3.5 million｜Led by Dragonfly Capital On August 1st, Debt DAO, a crypto credit protocol, closed a $3.5 million seed round led by Dragonfly Capital with participation from GSR, Numeus, Fasanara Capital and others. Link to original article:https://www.theblock.co/post/160427/dragonfly-capital-leads-3-5-million-seed-round-for-debt-dao 2. Lifeform | Seed Round Financing｜Led by Binance Labs On August 3, Lifeform, a provider of decentralized visual digital identity (DID) solutions, announced the completion of a seed funding round led by Binance Labs. Link to original article:https://twitter.com/BinanceLabs/status/1554664874340278274?s=20&t=mikJu0V_deT_2QP51w69-g 3. Web3Port | Seed round funding of $1 million｜SNZ, HashKey and others participated On August 3, Web3 gas pedal Web3Port (formerly ICPort) closed a $1 million seed round at a $20 million valuation, with participation from SNZ Holding, HashKey, KuCoin Ventures, FBG, Spark Digital Capital, 7 O’Clock Capital, MH Ventures, Web 3.0 SEA Alliance, BetteversDAO, and others. Link to original article:https://medium.com/@Web3Port/icport-closes-seed-round-funding-at-20-million-valuation-and-is-officially-rebranded-to-web3port-4ecce60730fd 4. Coherent | Seed round funding of $4.5 million｜Coinbase Ventures and others participated On August 5, Coherent, a blockchain data startup founded by former Coinbase employee Carl Cortright, closed a $4.5 million seed round led by Kindred Ventures, Matchstick Ventures and Foundry Group, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Alchemy and Chapter One. Link to original article:https://www.theblock.co/post/161557/coherent-web3-data-startup-funding-former-coinbase-employee 【DeFi】 5. OrBit Markets | Raised $4.6 million in an angel round｜Led by Matrixport On August 1, OrBit Markets, an institutional liquidity provider in crypto options and structured products, recently announced the closing of a $4.6 million angel funding round led by Matrixport with participation from Brevan Howard Digital, New Form Capital, Maven 11 and Westridge Markets. Link to original article:https://us.acrofan.com/detail.php?number=701181 【Game】 6. Panzerdogs | Raised $3.35 million｜Solana Ventures and others participed On August 4, Panzerdogs, a “tank battle” themed PvP chain game, closed $3.35 million in funding from Solana Ventures, Magic Eden, COM2US, CRIT, Mysten Labs, Zeeprime Capital, Hustle Fund, SOLBigBrain, and Devmons GG, and individual investors such as Sebastien Borget, co-founder of The Sandbox. Link to original article:https://view.news.eu.nasdaq.com/view?id=bdfd77d8932fb747603d7c94d3fa7be23&lang=en 【NFT】 7. Capsid | Seed round funding of $3 million｜Distributed Global and others participed On August 1st, Capsid, the NFT derivatives marketplace, announced on social media that it had closed a $3 million seed funding round. The round was funded by Distributed Global, 32-Bit Ventures, SpringWind, Xoogler Ventures and Mask Network. Link to original article:https://twitter.com/Capsid_One/status/1554302018641993728?s=20&t=rTX-j3UDxTVuBZNsKpGaCQ 8. Halliday | Seed round financing of $6 million｜Led by a16z On August 5, Web3 startup Halliday closed a $6 million seed round led by a16z with participation from Hashed, A.Capital, SV Angel and others. Link to original article:https://twitter.com/TechCrunch/status/1555242667793072129?s=20&t=UFX0qymtEcpOsHwNVjMh6g About Cryptogram Venture (CGV) : Cryptogram Venture (CGV) is a Japan-based research and investment institution engaged in crypto. With the business philosophy of “research-driven investment”, it has participated in early investments in FTX, Republic, CasperLabs, AlchemyPay, Graph, Bitkeep, Pocket, and Powerpool, as well as the Japanese government-regulated yen stablecoin JPYW, etc. Meanwhile, CGV FoF is the limited partner of Huobi venture, Rocktree capital, Kirin fund, etc. Currently, CGV has branches in Singapore, Canada, and China.